Probably, although perhaps not as strictly as while you are losing weight. At any rate, it won’t feel so foreign to you after you’ve lived this way for a while. It will seem as natural as breathing. And besides, it’s the best way to treat your body! Hunger causes stress—a kind of discomfort—that can be relieved. And the best and only reasonable way to relieve it is to eat! We have been trying to get around this for so long that it almost seems unnatural to us.
There will never be a good reason to go back to calorie counting or any other diet-type behavior. You may get off-track from time to time because of schedules, laziness or old under eating habits. You may get out of sync with your body, with your hunger and fullness signals, and you may get back on the feast or famine cycle. You may gain some weight but you’ll know exactly what to do, and that won’t be to go on a diet! You will go back to the basics and your body will get back to normal all over again, without excess hunger and without all the craziness of dieting.
WILL I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SO CAREFUL TO EAT ON TIME AND ONLY EAT GREAT FOOD Photo Gallery
Relentless Interferences
Many people wonder if recovery is still possible if things like schedules continue to interfere with eating good food on time. Perhaps they can’t stay off the feast or famine cycle because of these problems. When they get stuck and realize they are not practicing the basics of recovery, they are ofen surprised. They admit they eat late, they eat poor-quality food regularly, and they are not consistently active. It may be difficult to keep these things going in life, but recovery has to be a priority. The point is, you may improve your eating to a degree but if you are still sloppy in the other basic principles, you may never lose weight or keep it off.
Every individual must decide for herself how carefully she must adhere to this program in order to recover—to lose weight and enjoy a normal relationship with food. If after some months, there is no tolerance for lowered food intake, no change in appetite, cravings or energy level, then something is wrong. The “speeding it up” list is for you. Pay attention! There are situations in every person’s life that interfere with applying these principles perfectly. These are unavoidable. So when you are able to control your eating and activity, they must come first. It’s the consistency of your effort that will ensure your recovery.
Still Thinking a Diet Might Be the Answer?
Many people experience “delayed enlightenment.” It’s interesting to me that quite a few people who read one of my books on recovery put it down, thinking, “That’s interesting, but not for me, not now.” Then, two or six or 10 years later, years of unsuccessful dieting, they pick it up and read it, and do it. Then, they contact me saying they wish they’d started sooner. Invariably, they didn’t start sooner because they thought it would “take too long.”
