If you haven’t already noticed by now I focus just as much on nutrition and psychology as I do on fitness. The reason is that these two are just as important, if not more important than proper exercise. You will never accomplish your goals if you cannot motivate yourself to exercise, nor if you consistently sabotage yourself with poor nutrition. So, today I am going to address the concept of dieting. Something that I feel will never work.

Today there are thousands of different diets that people try. Some are very specific with what can and cannot be eaten, while others are more generic. The hard part is that diets never work. I challenge you to find one person who has maintained one of these diets long-term. These diets set you up for failure in so many different ways. Either the rules of the diet are way too specific to follow or the rules are too vague and impossible to interpret. On top of the the connotation of a diet sets you up for failure. These days diets are viewed as a quick fix to lose weight. Most of the diets don’t teach you how to maintain the results for an extended period of time. Lose the weight and go back to your old eating habits. The problem is with the return of the old eating habits comes the weight. I will tell you right now that a diet will never work long term.So if a diet won’t work, what are you to do? First, instead of viewing your nutritional changes as a diet, consider it a lifestyle change. I know this may seem like semantics, but it will have a much greater impact. If you go in with the mindset that you will go on a diet to lose weight, once you have lost the weight you will begin to slide back into your old habits. However, if you change youy lifestyle with regards to nutrition you will have long-term success. The key is truly convincing yourself that you must change your lifestyle to make physical improvements. This is where the psychology comes into play. In order for you to stay committed for the rest of your life, you have to view the changes you plan on making as improvement that will result in serious pain if you fail to maintain. This goes back to the idea of pain and pleasure that I have mentioned in previous posts.

Another pitfall that affects people is the idea of cheating and rewarding yourself. Most diets involve a reward system or cheat days. I will admit that these can be ok, if they are infrequent and in moderation. However, it seems that most diets don’t educate you on these aspects. It drives me crazy seeing diet programs allowing you to eat cake and other dessert, whether it falls within your points, or is on your food list. This isn’t preparing you for lasting success. It tells your body and mind that that kind of food is OK, but unfortunately it’s not. I guarantee that if you change your lifestyle choices to avoid those kinds of foods, sooner or later you won’t even want to eat them. You can program your mind to dislike food just as easily as you can program your mind to want food.

I’m not advocating drastically changing your nutrition in one day. I think it is important to slowly make changes that can be maintained for a lifetime. If today you tell yourself you are no longer going to drink pop because it is making you fat and unhappy, the pain, then that is the first small step. Then maybe next month you decide to eliminate something else. Over time, you will have transformed your diet to be much healthier and something that is easy to maintain.

As I stated earlier, I know I have been a little repetitive with my topics on nutrition. It reflects how important nutrition is. I am surprised at how many people I have talked to who do not want nutritional advice or who think they know it all already. I have been told countless times that “my nutrition is good” only to see that people make poor nutritional choices. Unfortunately people are extremely misinformed when it comes to proper nutrition. This is perpetuated by the creators of the fad diets, the media, and the so called success stories. I promise you that a “diet” will never work long term. Realize that you need to make subtle lifestyle changes to have lasting results. A diet is programming your brain to fail. You need to learn to control your thoughts and impulses to benefit you, not sabotage you.

From this point on, be honest with yourself. Truly commit to making the changes to your nutrition that will serve you as you get older. Stop trying to find the quickest fix because they will never work. Master your thoughts and desires and you can achieve anything in life. With a little effort and commitment you will create drastic changes in your life. You can achieve anything once you set your mind to it. Start today, expect more out of yourself. You would be surprised what you are capable of.

Trackback URI |