A SIZE MATTERS PROGRAMME
MY NEW NORMAL
This is how I eat now.
Weight-loss injections may be helping you eat less, feel satisfied with smaller portions and experience food differently.
But while you're experiencing these changes, you may already be wondering what will happen when the injections stop.
MY NEW NORMAL is designed to help you use this time to develop new eating patterns, change established expectations and prepare your mind for what comes next.
DISCOVER MY NEW NORMAL ↓
THE QUESTION MANY PEOPLE ARE ASKING
“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I STOP?”
You've lost weight. You're eating less. Perhaps you're thinking about food less.
But somewhere in the back of your mind may be another thought:
What happens if I eventually stop the injections?
Will my appetite return?
Will I start eating more?
Will the old habits return?
Will I put the weight back on?
Weight regain after stopping weight-management medication can happen, so these concerns shouldn't simply be dismissed.
But rather than waiting until you stop to think about them, there's another way of looking at this period.
What if you start preparing now?
A DIFFERENT EXPECTATION
THIS IS HOW I EAT NOW
When you expect something to happen, you may begin preparing yourself for it — sometimes without even realising.
If you're convinced that stopping the injections means returning to your previous eating habits, you may already be imagining that future.
MY NEW NORMAL encourages you to explore a different possibility.
Rather than seeing the way you're eating today as something that exists only because of the medication, begin paying attention to the habits and responses you can consciously practise and develop.
I'm not simply eating differently for now.
I'm learning a different way to eat.
This isn't about pretending that appetite won't change. It's about developing skills and expectations that may help you respond to those changes.
While medication may be making it easier to eat smaller amounts, you have an opportunity to become more familiar with a different way of eating.
That might mean:
Smaller portions — becoming comfortable with different quantities of food.
Recognising satisfaction — paying greater attention to when you've had enough.
Eating with awareness — noticing when you're eating from hunger and when you're responding to habit.
Changing associations — exploring the connection between food, comfort, reward and routine.
Developing new responses — practising what you might do when familiar situations or urges appear.
The aim isn't simply to eat less today. It's to become more familiar with eating differently.
FOOD ISN’T ALWAYS ABOUT HUNGER
Sometimes we eat because we're hungry.
But food can also become connected with other experiences.
Comfort Reward
Boredom Stress
Celebration. Routine
Socialising Habit
These associations don't necessarily disappear because appetite has changed.
MY NEW NORMAL gives you an opportunity to explore those connections and develop different ways of responding where appropriate.
The aim isn't to make food unimportant. It's to put food back in its proper place.
DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU STOP
The time to prepare for life after the injections may be while you're still taking them.
If you wait until after stopping medication to think about your eating habits, you may be trying to make behavioural changes at the same time as you're adapting to changes in appetite.
Instead, we can begin working on those behaviours while eating less is already part of your experience.
The aim isn't to promise that your appetite won't change after medication stops.
It's to help you develop habits, awareness, strategies and confidence that you can draw upon if it does.
CHANGE THE EXPECTATION
What we expect to happen can influence the way we approach it. You may currently be thinking:
“When I stop, I'll start eating more and put the weight back on.”
Our work can help you move towards a different expectation:
“I've learned to eat differently.”
“I'm comfortable with smaller portions.”
“I know the difference between hunger and habit.”
“Food doesn't have to be my automatic response to stress, boredom or reward.”
“If old habits appear, I have ways of responding to them.”
The future doesn't have to be approached with fear. It can be approached with preparation.
FOOD ISN'T ALWAYS ABOUT HUNGER
We don't always eat simply because our bodies need food.
Food can become associated with:
Comfort · Reward · Boredom · Stress · Celebration · Routine · Socialising · Habit
Medication may reduce appetite, but that doesn't necessarily address every reason why someone eats.
This gives us an opportunity to look at those associations and begin changing the ones that are no longer helping you.