Here's our first step. During the first week we will serve ourselves our regular portion of food, then take one serving spoon off the plate. The reason for doing this little ritual is both psychological and physiological. We will notice how little difference there is between what we normally eat and what we're eating now, so we won't feel like we're being deprived of anything. One serving spoon is not a big amount, but it is less than we would normally eat.
But would our body notice? Of course it would, it's being given a slightly smaller amount than usual in order to slowly adapt to needing less. Starting our h.i.t life with one spoon less means that our stomach will be given ample time to gradually get used to it, get on with what it does best, and start shrinking. Because no dieting is involved, it will not go into shock of suddenly being deprived of the amount it's used to.
Now, psychologically, we won't be craving for anything because in reality, we won't be missing anything.
After two weeks, we will serve ourselves this new portion of food on the plate (this is the original amount minus one serving spoon) then take off another serving spoon. By now our stomachs are used to this new amount so we will shrink it a bit further. But only by a negligible amount, which won't matter that much to it.
Remember that it is important to move slowly with this as this is not all that we'll be doing, (see subsequent chapters for making the complete h.i.t) Do not take off more than one serving spoon at a time because we promised we won't diet. Why? Because we don't need anyone to tell us that dieting will cause us to fail and pile on more weight in the end.
Slow and steady is the key.
Even in the world of celebrity, the most prevalent and popular faces, those who have staying power like George Clooney, Shirley Bassey, and Tom Jones, are the ones who've started small and have built up secure solid foundations, before climbing higher, hence the staying power in a world where not many ideals are born to last.
Slow and steady is the definitely the key.
In the interim chapters, we'll look into what else we'd be doing in these first four weeks, but while we're talking about portions, allow me to say here that at the end of the fourth week, we'll take off yet another spoonful, then level off with this amount for about four more weeks, (we'll be putting more emphasis on our other h.i.t measures after week 4 anyway). So prepare for this.
At the end of four weeks we'll start to see a significant difference in our stomach requirements, and later we will talk about eating from a smaller plate but NOT NOW, if we do this now, we will ruin it, just like all the other times we've tried. Remember, this time, it's not a diet (we don't like diets). This time, it's the new way of life that will nail it for good.
While we eat this first new amount for the next four weeks, our stomachs will have shrunk quite considerably, but there are other things that we've got to get on with for this to work properly. Read on, as Kilos 3 and 4, whose activities run concurrently with this one, overflow with pride at the progress which has already been made - the sheer courage it took to make the change.
