There is more to dieting than losing weight. Successful dieting is losing weight and keeping it off. The only way to keep the weight off is to not go back to our old way of eating. This is where the struggle comes in. Change is hard – even good change.
Serial Dieters
Most people diet until they lose a desired amount of weight and then go back to eating the way they always have. Then they gain the weight back, and then they diet and lose it again, and then they regain it, and so on. Most dieters are yo-yo dieters. Eat, diet, eat, diet, eat.
Change
Dieting involves a complete change in the way you eat. If you want to lose weight and stay slim forever, you can’t eat super-sized portions of butter-dripping, carbohydrate stuffed, high-calorie food. The mathematics of dieting will not add up the way you want them to.
Diet Math 101:
It takes 3,500 calories less in your diet to lose a pound. If you want to lose a pound a week, eliminate 500 calories per day from your diet. If you do this for seven days in a row, you will end up being one pound lighter. The longer you do this, the more pounds you will lose. Do this and limit your fat grams to 30 or under, and you will see a gradual decrease in your weight. Simple? Yes.
If it sounds so simple, then why do most dieters give up long before they reach their weight-loss goal?
Let’s Go Back to the Concept of Change
While dieting, you have to change the way you look at food. Food is not for anxiety or heartbreak or for comfort after a bad day at work. Food is for energy. It takes a long time for this “energy” concept to sink in. Don’t worry, though. It’s not your fault.
My grandma (and probably everyone’s grandma) firmly believed that food could solve every problem – a failed job interview, a romantic break-up, a bad day at the office, losing money in the Stock Exchange. Food was the cure. “Here, Honey. Eat this and you’ll feel better, and be sure to have seconds.”
We were taught that food is therapeutic – which is actually true. It makes us feel better in the short-run. But when we’ve gained weight from eating so much, we feel crummy, so the first thing we have to do is find new ways of comforting ourselves. This, alone, is one of the hardest elements of dieting.
Here are a few “non-food” ways to comfort yourself:
Exercise – This causes the brain to release endorphins, the brain chemical responsible for our sense of wellbeing;
Take a leisurely walk – Walking is de-stressing and helps us to find perspective;
Play a musical instrument – Immersing yourself in making music is a calming activity;
Listen to your favorite fast song and dance along with the music. Again, endorphins are released;
Paint, crochet, do needlepoint, knit, draw, or engage in some other creative venture;
Do something for someone else – Altruism causes us to focus on someone other than ourselves;
Call a sympathetic friend and vent.
Losing weight is 90% in the mind and 10% in the stomach. Diet one day at a time, and you will see good results. Begin to change your attitude towards food, and find non-food ways to comfort yourself. Soon you will feel better, look slimmer, and become a whole new you!