[tranquility]

Hi everyone,

Don't know if you remember anything about me but I started GI at the beginning of the year. I'd stopped smoking last October and had managed to put on a stone (would have been more had I not been going to the gym!).

In the first month of the year I just about lost it again (no exercise).

Unfortunately my BF moved out at the end of Jan (my choice - I'd had enough), now I may be being naive but we are trying to work it out and have been visiting a therapist. Funnily enough since then I've not been too fussed about what I'm doing, I've pretty much been GI good for meals, but there's been a fair amount of wine involved, cheese and chocolate!

I really want to get back into loosing (have stayed the same weight for the last 2.5 months). I've put myself down for a 5k race for life in July so that will get me fitter but how do I motivate myself with the eating?

I was definitely getting a buzz out of being in control of that part of my life but I think with being unsure about where we are going I'm finding it hard to get back into.

Today apart from my run, which was obviously good, I've had half a bounty bar. Doesn't sound too bad but I want to stop doing it everyday

[Sarah Ann]

Hi again - well done! You've set out exactly what you want and need to do and here's some to help you on your way.

[PhatPhoenix]

I think sometimes when other things aren't going your way you can turn it round and make that fuel your get fit campaign, too.

Last year, I was asked by the police and the CPS to take my ex to court for harrassing me. I didn't think there was enough evidence but they persuaded me there was. We had to travel 200 miles and I ended up spending 5 and a half hours in the witness box. My ex was allowed to represent himself so I had the added ordeal of being asked questions by the harrasser. He was so incompetent that the case which should have taken 1 day had to run into a 2nd, to get all the evidence from other witnesses heard. As they couldn't do it the following day we were scheduled to return a month later. I have 5 kids and had had enough trouble finding someone who was capable of babysitting then just once, but we were told as we'd given our evidence we wouldn't have to go down again. The following month he won another adjournment as he pretended he'd decided to find a brief but hadn't had time to brief them. On the 18th July, at 195lb, I decided I was going to do something about my weight, once and for all. (Standing on my feet in the witness box for an entire day because I refused point blank to sit down, had been one of the last straws!) July 19th, we got the verdict. After all that, not guilty - he got off on a technicality, thanks to his lawyer. The police couldn't believe it. The CPS couldn't believe it. On July 19th I could have gone two ways - either carry on with my diet/exercise or throw in the towel, because I felt everything ahd crashed in around me. I'd been an excellent and credible witness, according to the police, so why had he got away with months and months of harrassment? I decided rather than cave in and use what had been one of the worst years of my life as an excuse to stay fat and unfit - I was going to get fit again. (The same man was trying to take my 2 youngest kids off me and that one, after even more stress and delay, was due to come to court in December - I had every excuse to give up on myself).

In fact, this most stressful year of my life proved a turning point. Within a day of starting, I had every excuse to give up but I refused to. I elt it fuel me. When I took up running, soon after, I kept going when I was exhausted thinking of him and how I couldn't let myself get unfit and ill, for my kids' sake. In the end I turned the anger around and used it to fuel my attempts to get strong again.

Just take the bad stuff and do the same - make it fuel your hard work!

I often wonder if those magistrates who let him off on a technicality read in the press that he was sent to prison for harrassment - of another woman - earlier this year. Maybe it gave them pause for thought. I don't care any more. I took that bad time in my life and right at the worst point, used it to my own advantage. In the custody/access case, I won hands down - everything I went in for. The strength and positivity I allowed myself, way back last summer when I could have just given up udner the stress of it all, made me confident enough to win later in the year, when it mattered more.

I'm sharing that with you so you can see that you can take the bad stuff and make it fuel everything positive you do for yourself. A race sounds like a great motivation!

Good luck!

[tranquility]

Blimey PP, now I'm depressed - he sounds like a nasty piece of work . Good for you, fighting and getting what you wanted, we all too easily let ourselves be walked over sometimes.

I'm going to invest in yet another book - the GI Jeans diet, I think it is a little clearer on what you can have, so I will find it easier to follow. I have so many different cook books now and some I don't believe are low GI although they say they are.

Unfortunately I did my lower back in running last week so no exercise for me for a week and another osteo appointment tomorrow. I think that is making me feel a bit low, so I'll try my Pilates DVD later (osteo told me I need to build up the ABS!), see if I get a bit of a buzz.

Thanks for the replies

[PhatPhoenix]

I've used GI Jeans, too - although by the time it came out I'd already lost most of the weight using RC's old books. If you like/have time for cooking, I'd recommend her cookbook, 'Eat Yourself Slim' - the recipes in there all work and are great. I also use recipes from her magazine, although I never got round to joining any RC club, but if I was doing all this again I think I would have tried her online club, as it looks good. I've also used some Gillian McKeith recipes, as I'mn a veggie and needed a bit of variety!

GI Jeans is not strictly GI, but it doesn't pretend to be. ope you have luck with it!