5 Reasons I don't diet

Does this sound familiar? You hear about this wonderful diet that will guarantee weight-loss, so you try it, only to gain even more weight back once you’ve lost it?
 
Don’t feel bad. You are not alone. Just because a diet works for one person, does not mean that it will work for you. Diets are destined to fail, and it should come as no surprise. After all, the word “die” is within the word “diet”. That should be your first sign. You want to live your life.  This is why I am always going on and on about LIFE style, not diets!
 
Here are the top 5 reasons that diets are doomed to fail:

1. People choose to use a diet to achieve a short-term goal. That goal is usually to lose weight before an upcoming event. Diets are perceived from the onset as a temporary action used to obtain an immediate result. Once that result is achieved, the diet is stopped and old eating habits return.   
2. The yo-yo diet or weight cycling. As mentioned, many people go on diets, lose weight, and then gain          weight, often more than they lost. And, for some reason, the cycle is repeated. To quote Albert Einstein:  “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This repeated failure can have negative effects on a person’s mental health and could result in an eating disorder.  Or really you just end up feeling badly about yourself because you have failed again, when really it's the system that you were following failed.
   
3. Many diets are based on the premise of counting calories using a formula meant for the general population as opposed to the individual. Everybody processes calories differently. This formula supports that caloric expenditure exceeds caloric intake and will therefore promote weight loss. It has become clear that this premise is no longer true. Every calorie is not created equal. Calories consumed from spinach or sweet potatoes are much more nutrient-dense than calories consumed from a processed, low-fat muffin. In addition, if you were to consume too few calories, your body goes into survival mode, slowing down the metabolism. You run the risk of your metabolism remaining sluggish once you start consuming more calories. 
4. Before even starting a diet, people believe that they will be depriving themselves of foods they love. Entering into a program with this mindset clearly does not support success. This constant experience of deprivation will bring on food cravings that will be difficult to ignore.  This one was a big one for me!
   
5. This brings me to the last reason why diets do not work. They do not address food cravings and how to handle them. Everyone has cravings. Having the tools to help navigate through those cravings and reach for healthy food alternatives will help to eliminate them.

 
Unfortunately for many individuals, diets only offer a quick fix to a larger problem.  Learning which foods nourish the body and which don’t is the best approach to eating in order to obtain weight-loss and optimal health.  And everyone is unique, that is why I often say you have to become your own body detective.  Learn what really feeds you, what makes you feel amazing and makes you the person you can be instead of just a survivor.

If you are interested in going on this journey of self discovery please join me on the 24th as I start the Fall Cleanse for Weight Loss!  I give you recipes a plan to follow and tools to help you along.  I will be there everyday in the forum celebrating your simple steps to what can be an amazing life change, all you have to do is show up!

Go here to sign up!