Who is Schmiet?

I’m not sure I should, in such a forum, admit that I’ve tried my fair share of fad diets. When I was a teenager I recall attempting (what I discovered later to be) the Israeli Army diet.  I think it involved two days of apples, two days of cheese etcetera.  I am pretty sure I got through a day of apples and gave up. I also recall having the occasional ‘liquid day’; as if not chewing on something for one day in isolation was going to help the kilograms fall off (not to mention, stay off).

I’d like to say the stupid diets disappeared as I matured, but sadly that hasn’t been the case. In fact, for me, the past 20+ years have been a constant stream of dieting / not dieting phases. I’ve tried Weight Watchers, counting calories, diet shakes, low and no carbohydrate diets. I even spent a month at a Biggest Loser-style fat camp a couple of years ago where I dropped 14kg. I’ve had my successes, but I’ve never kept the weight off.  And each time I’ve gained more than I originally lost.

Like so many who’ve tortured themselves with all sorts of diets and studied labels and calorie counter books I have to confess that I know what I SHOULD be doing. And, in reality it isn’t rocket science. I know that it’s all about calories (or energy) in vs calories out. And yet… I’ve continued to struggle.

As a result I’ve realized that my weight issues are more about my mindset; and over the years my binge-eating and over-eating behavior has been about almost anything over than the actual food I’m consuming.

About four months ago I started considering weight loss surgery. I felt like I’d tried everything. I just wanted to throw my hands in the air and have someone else ‘fix’ my problems.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying weight-loss surgery is an easy way out. I have a friend who’s been there and I know it’s no picnic. And, in all honesty, she still struggles with the emotional and mindset issues, but is now unable to numb them with large amounts of food.

I had the surgery referral from my doctor but was procrastinating when I came across a 12 week body transformation challenge, which incited much passion among its online participants. I won’t plug the program here as it would be inappropriate, but I decided that I would give this ‘trying to lose weight’ malarkey one more try before seeing the surgeon.

I wasn’t hopeful. Just days before I started I was still in the ‘I’ll binge-eat as much as possible before I start’ mindset. And I did. In fact, the night before the program ‘started’ I consumed one kilogram of hot chips (french fries). At the time I wondered how on earth I was going to ‘flick that switch’ once Monday morning came to suddenly become ‘healthy’. As a result I had little confidence in myself getting anywhere this time around.

But, 12 weeks later I was 19kg lighter. And… I’d started exercising again. Before commencing this program I’d basically stopped all exercise. I was getting shin splints when I walked and had even quit my regular pilates classes.

I didn’t diligently follow the diet or exercise plan on this program but have stuck to the recommended calorie limit and exercised six days a week as required.

Before starting I hired an exercise bike with the expectation that my shin splints would disappear once I’d dropped some kilograms, allowing me to then step up my exercise… and I’m thrilled to say that’s happened. Better still, a couple of months into the program I joined a gym and am now a regular gym class attendee.

I’ve been blogging for a few years. I have another blog, Debbish, which my friends and family know about and which I started prior to Diet Schmiet. Initially this blog remained off-limits to those in my everyday life, because I liked the honesty that came with the anonymity. Of course, my two lives (and blogs and Twitter accounts etc) are slowly leaking across into the other and I have accepted that people I know in the real world may indeed know how much I weigh (and what I a bitch I can be!)!!!

I am single and live alone, so suspect that – other than acting as my personal therapist – keeping this blog allows me to voice things that people might only tell their loved ones. Here I can confess my weaknesses and own my aspirations, and my words disappear into the non-judgmental virtual ether.

A new reader recently commented that she’d read my blog posts from start to finish and she noticed a HUGE change in my mindset over the past couple of years. It gave me great joy that: 1. someone was interested enough to actually do that (you may be thinking she had WAY too much time on her hands!); but also 2. that an objective stranger perceives I have changed that much.

I invite you to catch up with my exploits here as I’m only part-way through this weight loss journey. You’ll find I don’t sugarcoat my challenges or failures. I still need to get better at bragging about my successes, but I am getting there. Slowly.

To contact me email me at: info@dietschmiet.me

I’m also on Facebook, so come along and ‘like’ me! http://www.facebook.com/Schmiet

And I’m a big tweeter @Schmiet: https://twitter.com/#!/Schmiet