The Discipline Diet - Additional Advice and Guidance
PLEASE NOTE:
This is not my first rodeo!
My Head of House (HoH) and I have developed this programme with great care and attention to detail since around 2017. We have spent many hours analysing data, chewing the cud and having some very frank and forthright conversations about; morality, relationships, good domestic discipline, women’s bodies, men’s bodies, athlete’s bodies and so much more.
These posts are intended for light entertainment for a very specific demographic. If, however, you insist on trying these things at home - which we do *NOT* recommend - then we implore you to read the following posts first!
The Discipline Diet: https://jacquijames.substack.com/p/the-discipline-diet
The Discipline Diet - Additional Advice and Guidance: https://jacquijames.substack.com/p/the-discipline-diet-additional-advice
(Not for the fragile of mind!)
Additional Advice and Guidance
Before I take you through my typical The Discipline Diet week, there are some general principles to bear in mind.
Most of the things we think we know about diet and exercise are propaganda - they are communicated by somebody who is trying to sell us something.
Consequently, there is little ‘publicly available truth’ to be found on health, diet or exercise regimes.
Similarly, the odd independent ‘diet guru’ who got great results by, for example, eating only pine nuts and avocados (or whatever) found what worked FOR THEM.
Trying to extrapolate that for almost anyone else on the planet is either folly or something more sinister.
Everyone is different, we are not all equal.
My HoH almost never puts any weight on and he consumes an enormous amount of calories, he’s also over 8 years retired, so he isn’t exactly busting his you know what all day either!
I, on the other hand, put on weight even just looking at a cake!!
That said, with the exception of illness, injury or both, I am always in good, (and often great), shape - like spanking model fit (smirks) - thanks to The Discipline Diet!
Weight-loss isn’t fair; life isn’t fair.
If we truly want to be successful these are the facts we must just ‘get over’.
Your successful future of sustained weight loss hinges on just 3 things:
Agreeing with your disciplinarian on an absolute amount of weight you will lose each week and sticking to it
Keeping meticulous notes of everything you eat, drink and do
Arranging a weekly session with your disciplinarian; same day (and time) each week if that’s possible.
Agreeing on a weight-loss target
This will likely take some form of iteration as you are unlikely to guess right first time. However, here are some useful rules of thumb.
If you are overweight - using Body Max Index is perfectly fine here as it is only ballpark figures we are after - that is having a BMI of between 25 and 30, then you can set yourself a 1.0 kg (or more) weight-loss target per week.
The higher your BMI, the higher target you will be able to consistently clear.
You can calculate your BMI for free here: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm
Notes: Some East Asian countries use lower values to calculate obesity1
In my opinion, having studied targets, discipline and standards in; education, sport, the military and on a personal level, this is why the average East Asian person is lighter - and fitter - than the average westerner.
They have harsher standards, stricter standards and by the mere fact of having higher standards causes more people to attain those higher standards - ask any honest teacher, who is over the age of 40 years, about standards in education and why they have fallen, for more details!!!
Teachers; apply what you know about the demise of educational standards to the calculation of BMI’s!
I’m a 5ft 2”, formerly highly active sportswoman. I’ve never been obese in my life, but nor have I ever been skinny. My sports coaches would always have to get the weight run off of me during pre-season training and I never maintained weight whilst either ill or out of action (injured).
I would be described as a ‘thick set’ or ‘stocky’ pro athlete; think Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney or Paul Gascoigne (depending on your age!)
However, when I put my mind to not being caned (uh, I mean eating a grown-woman’s healthy diet), I can still easily lose 1.0 kg (2.2 lbs) per week.
So, if you’re taller than 5ft 2” and/or in the ‘overweight’ category for BMI (see below), you are easily capable of shifting more than 1.0 kg per week.
The exception would be someone who has a serious weight-lifting programme that is designed to build significant amounts of muscle.
If you are into building your body in the gym, or by means of serious bodyweight exercises at home, then you should look to target around 0.5 kg of weight loss per week.
I’m just starting a new strength course, but am for now sticking to my 1.0 kg per week weight-loss target and will report back on that to see how (if at all) it effects my weight-loss.
Exercise is not necessary for significant amounts of weight-loss, it is perfectly possible without. Though, exercise is of course good for muscles, tendons, ligaments joints, cardiovascular fitness and more.
No Arguing
Once you’ve agreed on a weight-loss target, you are going to have to ‘suck it up’ for a while. 1-4 weeks will give you a realistic amount of evidence as to whether your target is too high, or you just ain’t trying hard enough.
You’ll likely ‘wear a few’ while this gets figured out, but what you don’t want to be doing is arguing the toss on caning day!
If you didn’t hit your target, then you failed, nobody else.
Get “‘em down and get on with it”, you’ll be glad you did as in the next week or two, you will very likely fail better.
If you’ve given your all for three weeks on the bounce and not made it once, then very politely adjust your weight-loss target accordingly with your disciplinarian.
I would do this *after* the thrashing so that it doesn’t look like sour grapes, but that’s up to you. What you absolutely don’t want to do is to turn this into a begathon, whereby EVERY week, (or every other week) you have a huge pile of excuses as to why you didn’t make it.
Suck it up, put your big-girl pants on and resolve to fail better next time.
Those who stick with this process will not only prevail but learn a lot about the learning process and themselves too.
Write EVERYTHING down
I do mean everything. If you’ve gotten to adulthood and not figured out how to stay in great shape - or at least good shape - then the chances are you don’t know a damn thing about diet, weight-loss, behavioural psychology and/or exercise.
You don’t know what is and is not significant and nor does any ‘professional’ either.
The cold, hard truth is that we are all so very different that, for example, tomatoes can be weight-loss gold for some and weight-loss misery for others.
It’s different strokes for different folks!
Your food, drink and activity and/or exercise log over time will reveal the answers to the healthy body puzzle - YOUR healthy body puzzle.
No one else can solve this, no guru, doctor, PT, disciplinarian - no one.
It’s all on you and what you can be bothered to write in that diary/journal/notebook of yours. Prioritise it, fill it in multiple times per day and review it on spanking day or more frequently to spot trends.
Sharing this information with your disciplinarian - not your narrative version, I mean the actual lists of things you ate and drank - is a great way of keeping yourself honest.
If they are worth their salt, they will very likely be able to point out your blind spots and make valuable recommendations. You may even develop further sanctions for ridiculous bad habits that you require additional motivation to overcome.
However, that’s the advanced course, so we’ll leave that one there for now.
N.B. There will also be those of you who have a deep sense of personal responsibility and will want to keep your food/exercise log private and to figure out the puzzle for yourself, leaving the disciplinarian to simply do their thing. Nothing wrong with that, crack on!
“We measure that which we seek to change.”
~ Jeremy James
Weekly Discipline Session
This one’s easy for me as my disciplinarian lives in my house, it is also a difficult one for me… because my disciplinarian lives in my house!
We recommend a weekly reckoning because with dieting there is always an emotional/psychological component which leaves one open to ‘diving head first off the wagon’ and setting fire to one’s weight-loss goals on the way down!
Though A LOT of damage can be done to a waistline in a week - more can be done in two or three weeks - it is wise to ensure that any major breaches in discipline are dealt with in a timely fashion.
It needs to be easy for the mind to link the caning to the cheesecake, so to speak!
Having the same time and especially the same day is important for measurement purposes. The subject of the discipline wants the full 7-days available to meet their target and it even allows a bit of ‘time off’ from dieting immediately post-discipline. More on that, shortly.
Blame yourself first!
The most important thing about the discipline session is to not be the person who is making a dissertation length speech about all of the ‘reasons’ (excuses) why you failed.
Do yourself a favour.
Just accept that you were crap this week and next you’ll resolve to do better.
I say this for 3 key reasons
You’ll accept the discipline more easily
You’ll impress your disciplinarian with your attitude
Canings are the starting point of your greatest future successes
Really. You WILL do better. You might not ace it the very next week or even by next month but little by little you will chip away at the problem, solve a little more of the grand puzzle that is your unique body, with its unique history and its unique psychology.
Getting things wrong, accepting responsibility and making a slightly less bad plan for next time out, is the foundation of real long-term success… in any walk of life.
A Typical Week on The Discipline Diet
Here’s a run-down of what usually happens whilst I’m in the ‘weight-loss’ phase of The Discipline Diet.
It is important to note that none of what follows is officially part of The Discipline Diet. Especially not the food and drink elements. What you shove down your biscuit chute is your damn business and nobody else’s. I’m just fleshing out what works for me, so that I don’t have to reply to as many comments/answer as many emails! Any long-term successful diet will be 100% tailored to the user. Period. The Discipline Diet deals with the (self)discipline problem that 99.9% of dieters have. That is all.
On the first Sunday I wake up, use the bathroom and weigh-in, making a note of the date, time and my weight. I also make sure I can place the scales in precisely the same place next time by looking for useful ‘markers’.
I then deduct 1.0 kg off of my weight and write that number as my ‘Target Weight’ under next Sunday’s date.
Quite simply, I know that if I am not that weight, or less, by the same time next week, then I’m getting caned.
Here are 5 things that I won’t even try during the ‘weight-loss’ phase:
Drinking alcohol
Eating sweets, cakes, pastries, biscuits or chocolate
Drinking soft drinks (carbonated; e.g., Coca-Cola, lemonade etc.)
Eating ‘Fast-Food’ (takeaways) of any kind
Eating bread, pasta, potatoes (in any form), or rice
I notice that I can break any - or even all - of these things one day per week, with the exception of drinking alcohol and still comfortably make weight.
(For some reason even a little alcohol, totally destroys weight-loss for me - I don’t know how exactly, or why, but I have tried everything. It simply won’t work for me so I abstain).
Essentially, what I found is that I can do 4 of the above 5 things one day per week and still take off 1.0 kg, or more, in the 7-day period.
Effectively those 5 challenges only need to be accepted 6 days out of every 7 and you may be able to get away with doing some of those iffy things more often!
My diet-free day is always Sunday and I begin eating and drinking whatever I like (with the exception of alcohol) immediately post discipline and basically eat and drink as I please for the rest of that day.
The next day (Monday), I jump on the scales, take a note of my weight - it will be up - and I don’t sweat it. I have six days to meet my next target and so long as I don’t do any of those 5 things listed above for the next six days I should hit or slightly exceed my target.
Alternating ‘Lion’ and ‘Lapin’ days
This won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s what works for me.
I alternate my days of the week, so that on one day I eat like a LION and on the next like a LAPIN (rabbit).
LION DAYS
In really simple terms; I eat meat and eggs on LION days with as much salad as I wish, but I will not ingest any (or very low amounts of) carbohydrates - such as broccoli, sweet potato and pretty much anything on the 1-5 list above.
I eat 3 eggs for breakfast - and no, I don’t have high cholesterol, that’s a Big Pharma lie - I then eat whatever meat I want for lunch; steak, chicken, lamb (or all three) with any amount or kind of side-salad.
The salad is always freshly made, is never shop bought and *IF* I dress the salad, I only do so with fresh ingredients - nothing out of a packet or bottle.
I don’t usually take dinner as I am still full-up from lunchtime, but if I fancy something I love to eat raw carrot batons; occasionally I have cucumber ones too and if for some reason I’m ravenous (exceedingly rare on Lion days) I might grill and devour another steak!
LAPIN DAYS
The next day, I will eat like a rabbit - though perhaps eat some fruits that a rabbit wouldn’t, or at least more fruit in total than a rabbit would!
The key component of this day is, of course, that I will not consume any meat, fish or eggs.
I typically eat a banana for breakfast - no, one banana every other day does *NOT* make you fat, that’s more ‘diet and fitness guru’ lies - a huge bowl of diced fresh in-season fruit for lunch and, if necessary, I’ll eat carrot batons for dinner.
(I take my ‘main meal’ in the middle of the day as I find it aids digestion and I seem to train better the next morning, if I am on an exercise programme of any kind).
Other times, I shall eat large salad dishes (freshly made), but zero (or close to zero) protein; no meat, fish or eggs.
If I’m really hungry, I sometimes make sweet potato wedges, done in coconut oil (no, that doesn’t make you fat either), with spices and herbs. Although this is trampling somewhat on ‘challenge no.5’, it doesn’t hurt my weight-loss as much as the same treatment of a white potato would.
Beverages
I occasionally drink 500ml of freshly squeezed lemons (three), mixed with hot water and real honey (from a bee farm, not a shop) - mainly for health purposes.
On the whole, I drink 1.5 to 3 litres of chilled, filtered still water per day.
I don’t like tea or coffee and won’t touch ANY sugary drinks when dieting (except on Sundays).
If I am really struggling, I may drink some sparkling water or take 1 or 2 alcohol-free beers or glasses of alcohol-free champagne.
I’ve found that I can drink up to four AF beers without it impacting upon weight-loss, but I rarely have the urge to drink more than one or two.
As far as I know, tea and coffee are easily accommodated in sensible amounts and so long as you don’t take milk, cream and/or sugar with them! Experiment away but for goodness’ sake keep good notes!
When things get tough
If I am starting to struggle, I may allow myself one ‘cheat meal’ on either a Thursday or a Friday, where I break the some of the 5 challenges above. I may make a pasta dish, or take ‘soldiers’ with my morning eggs. Perhaps I’ll make a fancy sandwich, or cook a stir-fry and rice and dine with my HoH.
I would never do this on a Saturday though, as eating unusual things can have very unusual effects on weight-loss. If I happen to eat something that kills my weight-loss, then I’d rather know about that on a Thursday or Friday rather than on a Saturday night - AKA Spanking Eve!!
If a cheat-meal does my weight loss some harm, I’ll immediately switch to LAPIN days until the Sunday weigh-in is over and I’ll be sure to not consume any sweet potato, broccoli or anything that looks too ‘heavy’ just to make sure.
Naturally, I write everything down anyway, so I’ll know in future to not risk whatever the dodgy meal was that late in the week again!
3 winning snacks that might just save the day!
hard-boiled eggs
nuts, coconut and dark chocolate
omelette
Hard-boiled eggs (assuming you like eggs) are amazing. Whilst I usually avoid them on LAPIN days, they are so much better for you than breaking your otherwise good dietary habits with an ‘emotional’ choice such as a pizza!
One, two or three, with a bit of salt is filling, immediate and an excellent source of good protein and high-quality fats - which is not what is making you fat, by the way!
I always keep a bunch of hard-boiled, shelled eggs in the fridge to prevent disaster, I boil up a batch at weekends to save time and if there are any left my dog loves them too!
A tiny handful of nuts, coconut shavings, and tiny amounts of high-quality (90%+) dark chocolate is pretty weight-loss friendly. The portion needs to be small and you certainly are not going to get away with it every day unless you are skipping meals (not necessarily bad for you - research intermittent fasting here) or working-out hard.
Lastly, an omelette - even a six-egg omelette - will not torpedo your weight loss… assuming you don’t put something outrageous like Nutella in it.
I like to throw; cheese, tomato, chillies, peppers and onions into mine and if I’m starving, I’ll add in some pre-cooked (at home, not shop-cooked) chicken too.
It’s a massive meal and one is NEVER hungry after a 6-egg omelette! (3 eggs is likely enough for most ordinary people!)
Spanking Eve
Known to vanillas as ‘Saturday night,’ is the time to be very, very careful.
Drink plenty of water, consider skipping your evening meal - or if you’ve been brainwashed to think that that is somehow bad or dangerous, then decide you shall fast until the morrow.
All of the world’s major religions contain a period of fasting. Interesting that.
Get to bed nice and early as sleeping is supremely good for weight-loss and for goodness’ sake, don’t eat or drink anything ridiculous.
Spanking Eve is not the time for a breach of discipline.
Whatever it is that you ‘simply must have’, write it down and promise yourself you can have it tomorrow after discipline.
Then, be good to yourself and follow through on your promise and let yourself eat or drink whatever it was you ‘needed’ the previous night - assuming you still want whatever the hell it was, that is!
Discipline Day
Try to not fret too much.
You will be caned at some point on this diet - that’s pretty much inevitable and it’s best if you accept that fact from the off.
When you wake, use the bathroom and then immediately take a note of your weight.
Wiggle the scales around a bit, or change the position of them if you must but don’t cheat - it will only make things worse next week (been there, got caned pretty bad for that!)
If you are not where you want/need to be, you could wait an hour or three (abstaining from eating or drinking anything) before you weigh-in again.
You will be a touch lighter if you wait for several hours, however I don’t recommend waiting too long as all you are doing is storing up more weight that has to be lost for next week. (The weight that you ‘lose’ at this late stage is almost 100% night-time dehydration and that will only spare you a thrashing for so long!)
REMEMBER: If you beat your target weight; e.g., you lose 1.5 kg, when your target is 1.0 kg, then you would only be required to lose 0.5 kg the following week. This is a ‘reward’ for doing well and the smart ones amongst us will still endeavour to take a further 1.0 kg - or more - off the following week in order to preserve the lead!
Having some weight-loss to play with is invaluable as things do have a habit of ‘cropping up’ at the most inconvenient of times!
Smile as much as you can!
Nobody likes a miserable dieter, so be sure to smile as often as you can. Yes, dieting is tough, yes, this is one hell of a way to go about it, however; be proud, you are doing it while others are making excuses for why they “couldn’t possibly” do it.
If you keep writing everything down, accepting discipline when either you get it wrong or circumstances conspire against you, then you will be a better, lighter and much happier person on the other side.
Finally; it gets easier.
The first few weeks and months are the hardest but once you come through those, you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about.
The mind and body adapt and so long as you retain your sense of humour all will be well.
Give it your best shot, what have you got to lose? ;)
Bottoms Up!
Jacqui James
Live-Lash-Love
The Discipline Diet: https://jacquijames.substack.com/s/the-discipline-diet
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