I’ve been saying for many years that dieting doesn’t work. My 6 Weeks to Diet Freedom online program and my signature personal coaching program both emphasize simple whole foods, what they are, how to shop and most of all, how to make it all work in your busy life.
I was heartened to see NY Times Health and Wellness editor Jane Brody’s piece on March 5th in which she told her own story about health and weight loss.
““When The New York Times hired me to write about science and health 52 years ago, I was 40 pounds overweight. I’d spent the previous three years watching my weight rise as I hopped from one diet to the next in a futile attempt to shed the pounds most recently gained.
No amount of exercise, and I did plenty of it, could compensate for how much I ate when I abandoned the latest weight loss scheme. I had become a living example of the adage: A diet is something one goes on to go off.
Even daylong fasting failed me. When I finally ate supper, I couldn’t stop eating until I fell asleep, and sometimes awoke the next morning with partly chewed food in my mouth. I had dieted myself into a binge-eating disorder, and that really scared me. Clearly, something had to change.
I finally regained control when I stopped dieting. I decided that if I was going to be fat, at least I could be healthy. I made a plan to eat three nutritious, satisfying meals every day with one small snack, which helped me overcome the temptation to binge in response to deprivation.
Much to my surprise, a month later I had lost 10 pounds — eating!”
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Jane figured it out all those years ago, and since then her weight has been quite stable. Ask most healthy eaters if their weight fluctuates, and they will tell you it does not. Healthy eating is satisfying, leaving little reason to overeat or go for the junk.
Diet and Weight Loss is Big Business
Health and wellness coaches like me who show you how to eat healthy face great challenges. An ABC news report said the weight-loss industry, aka the diet industry, takes in $20 billion annually from dieters seeking the next best diet, drug, or weight loss surgery. At any given time there are 108 million Americans on a diet, and each one cycles in and out of diets 4 to 5 times every year. 85% of them are women.
It's Time for a Better Way
Please don’t do this to yourself. Learn how to eat healthy. Good food is delicious food. It reduces cravings. It provides energy. It makes you look good. It helps you lose unwanted weight. Celebrities are paid as much as $3m to endorse diets. This is big commerce.
What you can do
Get help that works. Learn what healthy eating is. Look at your lifestyle and how that impacts your food choices. Don’t believe ads that say pre-made meals are the solution. You may have already tried them. If they didn’t help before, they won’t help now.
5 Critical Steps
Calorie Couting is not the anwser
1, Set an intention
Make a commitment to stop dieting and learn to eat healthy. When you focus on nutrients, not calories, you will naturally eat enough, but not too much
2. Engage support for accomplishing your goal
This may be a professional, or it may be a spouse or friend who you know will guide you
3. Make it a priority
Change and goal-setting requires attention. Make healthy eating a top priority and give your attention to it over al else until it becomes second nature to you
4. Evaluate your progress
Do this weekly for one month, and if you are confident you will continue meeting your goals, switch to a monthly evaluation going forward
5. Reward yourself
Making a change like this, one that is essentially for a lifetime, deserves a reward. Think of something you’d really love to do, or have, and reward yourself with it.
These 5 critical steps are all a part of my 6 Weeks to Diet Freedom Program. If you are ready,
I'll close with one action step: Drink a minimum of 3 glasses of water today and see what happens.