Dieting. Honestly even hearing the word makes me shiver. When you see the word “diet” what comes to mind? Meal after meal of bland vegetables and plain chicken. Perhaps you think of diet foods like sugar free jell-o and diet soda. Maybe you think of juice cleanses or tea detoxes. Whatever diet experiences that you’ve had, the outcome is usually the same. We hype ourselves up and tell ourselves that this is it, this is the diet that’s going to change everything! We are going to get our dream bodies if we can just stick to this plan for a couple of weeks. Then a couple of weeks passes or let’s be real, for some of us it’s a couple of days and we are off of our plan. We have strayed from the course and are hiding in a closet somewhere scooping spoonfuls of Ben and Jerrys into our mouths crying about how we are never going to be skinny. (Or maybe that was just me after every diet attempt failed miserably).
Anyway we have all had those types of experiences. Maybe initially we lost weight, but then gained it back. Or maybe we struggled for weeks or months sticking to a strict food regimen without seeing any results. Maybe we have yo-yoed up and down for years. Maybe we tried slimfast. Maybe we did a juice cleanse. Maybe we just ate “clean”. In the end I am sure that you felt similar to how I had felt: ashamed, frustrated and hopeless.
So why don’t diets work? We see hundreds of success stories on the news, social media and maybe even people in our personal lives that have lost weight, gained muscle and look awesome. So what’s wrong with the rest of us? The problem is in our understanding of the term diet. The definition of diet is the kind of food a person habitually consumes. But to most of us a diet is something you do for a short period of time. There’s nothing habitual about it. We tend to diet to reach a goal whether it be a number on the scale, a pant size or to simply feel better. Some diet before a vacation, before a wedding, or some milestone and after they reach their goal they stop dieting. They don’t stop eating but they discontinue their good habits that they had developed during their dieting. In our mind diets have been and always will be temporary and that is why they will always fail. We see a diet as a means to an end, a temporary fix. After the wedding, the vacation or reaching that goal weight, most will either stop dieting or slowly give up on their new healthy habits. If we keep looking at our diets as temporary we will never be able to reach our fitness/health goals and keep them.
So how do we fix this? STOP DIETING!!! Or stop thinking of a diet as something that you do temporarily. Develop a healthy mentality on food consumption. Learn to balance out your sweet treats with nutrient dense whole foods. And please don’t put yourself on such a strict plan that it allows no wiggle room and then forces you to binge on the weekends. Eating well during the week and then acting like 5 year old in a candy store on the weekends will never bring lasting results. Also try not to restrict yourself from foods that you love even if you deem them “unhealthy” (Shameless plug: read my first blog if you still don’t know what’s healthy and what’s not). Simply try to consume these foods in smaller amounts so that you don’t feel tempted to go hog wild on cheesecake the next time you go out to dinner. One slice of cheesecake won’t ruin your plan or make you gain weight, but 3 slices of cheesecake and a day spent eating all of the food on your “no-no” list will!
At first changing your mindset on dieting may be difficult but just keep in mind that your diet is nothing more than the food that you eat each day. Now it’s your choice how you want to “diet”. This allows you to be flexible and find what works for you personally. Now how do you know what to eat in order to see maximal gains in the gym and in the mirror? Keep an eye out for my next blog for the answer.
XOXO
Kristen