The 7-Day GL Diet: Glycaemic Loading for Easy Weight Loss

Other______

Why did things start to go wrong?

I got really stressed and gave in to comfort eating

My weight loss slowed down and I got fed up

The effort just got too much for me

I had a lapse and just couldn’t get back on track

Friends and family were trying to be helpful, but they were driving me mad going on about my diet

Other______

How did you feel when you realized you’d stopped dieting?

Relieved

Guilty

Angry and upset

It was inevitable

Hopeless

Other______

OK, now you’ve got your answers in front of you, let’s start to unravel them. Those answers are actually the most powerful tool you can use to help you break free from your diet trap. They are the roots of your diet behaviour and they open the door to breaking those behaviours and helping you start walking towards your own personal ‘diet freedom’. Remember the phrase we used earlier?

‘If you do what you always do, you’ll get what you always got!’

This is your chance to change this around to:

‘If you change what you always do, you can get what you always wanted.’

What Sort of GL Diet is Right for You?

The 7-day GL diet is designed to be very flexible. We’ve got plans for busy people who hate cooking, for vegetarians and for keen cooks. You just opt in and out of whichever plan suits you on each day; or if you know you’re pretty consistent in your approach to food then pick a plan and follow it to the letter. We’ve always known that there is no universal diet which will suit everybody, but the science behind GL tells us that the principles of the diet can suit everyone. So we’ve taken those principles and made them work for everyone in a flexible format. If a friend has recommended the GL diet, you may need to approach it in a different way to them.

Our GL diet doesn’t have a restrictive ‘start-up’ phase that leaves you feeling hungry, deprived and miserable. These plans have been designed to guarantee results. They are nutritionally balanced, so once you start you can just keep on going. We’ve also thought about eating on the run, and have given you comprehensive shopping and eating-out guides so you’ve got everything you need to make the GL choice a lifestyle in just seven days.

Planning for the 7-day GL Diet

Planning is vital. Think about the 4Ps:

Perfect

Planning

Produces

Permanent weight loss

You are about to change the way you eat, something you have done every single day of your life. If you just jump in without giving it a thought, isn’t it likely you are going to make a mistake or forget something? Of course it is – one of the biggest causes of diet failure is that people don’t plan enough.

By planning, we don’t mean it needs to be a military exercise, but there are some basic requirements. You need to know what you are going to eat, the ingredients you require, and what you are going to do about food when you are away from home. The layout of the eating plans, recipes, shopping guides and food lists makes food planning as easy as possible. However, like any other tool, these are only helpful if you use them properly.

This is how we suggest you plan for your first week:

Take a quiet half hour or so the week before you want to start.

Sit down with the book and look at the eating plans.

Consult your diary and see what the week looks like. Will you be eating at home every night? Can you take your lunch with you to work? What about snacks? Do you need to remind yourself to take snacks out with you so you don’t get caught out when you’re on the hoof?

Choose a selection of meals and snacks from the plans which will fit in with your schedule, then look at the recipes and see what you’ll need.

Write a list of everything you need – that’s your personal weekly shopping list done.

You’re off to the perfect start through perfect planning – easy!

After a week or two of doing this you’ll get quicker and quicker at it, and it will begin to feel like second nature. Having everything you need at home is one of the most effective ways of successfully beating those old triggers to graze on sugary, fattening, high-GL snacks.

Making the 7-day GL Diet Work for You

Avoiding Boredom and Hunger Pangs

There is absolutely no reason for you to get bored or hungry on the diet. There are over 80 recipes to choose from. If you find yourself getting into a rut, go back to the recipes and find some new ones to add to your repertoire. If you are hungry then have another look at the plans and make sure you are following the guidelines and eating something every four hours. Snacking is an essential part of the GL diet. It’s far better to pre-empt hunger than to wait until you are so hungry that you grab anything in sight! If you snack regularly and don’t allow yourself to get too ravenous you are far more likely to choose something healthy.

Getting More Help and Advice

If there are specific foods or elements of the diet you are confused about, reread the book and check through the food lists and the ‘Your Questions Answered’ chapter to help give you the clarity you need. If you can’t find the answers you are looking for in the book, do visit us online where you can get more help and support from us and from other Diet Freedom Fighters on the lively forums.

Eating Out

Don’t panic if you’ve got a night out coming up. If you are eating out then find out what type of restaurant you’ll be going to and use the eating-out guide to help you plan what you’ll order. If you are just going out for drinks, then eat a sensible low-GL meal before you go and set a limit on the number of drinks you’ll have during the evening.

Family Meals

Although you are following the GL diet to help you lose weight, there is no reason why the rest of the family can’t eat low GL as well. Try not to get into the routine of cooking different meals for yourself. There’s no need. You might want to give other members of the family a larger portion and not worry too much about how many potatoes or how much pasta you put on their plates.

Calling All Supporters

Before you start the diet, think about previous diets when you’ve been successful. Did you diet alone or with friends? A lot of people find it really helpful to ‘buddy up’ with someone, whereas others prefer to go it alone – there isn’t a right or a wrong approach but it’s well worth thinking about what will suit you best. Is there someone whom you think would be good to diet with? If you are going to diet with other people, choose carefully. There are diet saboteurs out there who can be really good at subconsciously spoiling your plan by encouraging you to take a shortcut here, or make a slip there. Make sure the person you choose is really committed and of a similar mindset to you.

Sometimes well-meaning friends and relatives just don’t support us in the best way. Nagging, bullying and humiliating are thoroughly unhelpful, and guaranteed to make you stick two fingers up at the world and abandon your diet. Decide if you want to tell people you are trying to lose weight. If you do, decide what they can best do to help you and ask them for what you need. If you don’t want them to eat biscuits in front of you, ask them not to. If you want them to ask how you are getting on once a week rather than every five minutes, or if you’d prefer them not to mention it at all, ask them. If you want them to query whether you should be eating certain foods, ask them to phrase the question in a way that doesn’t sound accusing or patronizing. Decide on the kind of support you want and will respond best to and ask for it! If you prefer your support to come from people less involved with your day-to-day life then you can log on to our website and get an abundance of really helpful support.