Ditch the diet!
This year ditch the diet!
This means abandoning any plan that before or after any holidays or special occasions, you’ll go on a diet.
Forget it.
By not denying yourself nourishment in anticipation of what you’ll eat, and by letting go of the idea:
‘Well, come to New Year’s Day, I’m going on a diet anyway’
you won’t be compelled to load up due to the ‘all or nothing’ reaction that inevitably happens.
Dieting is a menace. It switches our primal brain into deprivation mode and also leads to malnourishment, both of which lead to bingeing and compulsive eating. And I haven’t even gone into the lowering of our metabolism as the body copes with ‘starvation’, the mood swings and the insulin surges with accompanying blood sugar drops.
Add to that, the inefficacy of dieting, it’s estimated between 80 – 97% of dieters regain the weight they lost, with up to two-thirds putting more weight on after dieting than before.
And let’s talk about the misery that dieting engenders.
You might think it’s a good idea to diet leading up to your holiday or Christmas or another special occasion - so you can fit into that perfect dress, but really is it worth it? You know how it is, you restrict yourself to only certain foods and/or a certain amount of calories, and maybe you lose a bit of weight, but then you find yourself thinking about the food you can’t have all the time.
It becomes an obsession. And then you REALLY want it: you feel you’re missing out, and you dream about the time when you can have it. The idea of it becomes tastier by the day.
Then there are the endless visits to the weighing scales. The foundation of your day becomes about whether your weight has fluctuated: if it’s down, there is euphoria until the next weigh-in, or if it’s up, it initiates anxiety, depression, frustration and more restriction…
All of this tends to end at some point in reaching for food you wished you didn't, and/or "blowing out".
And then there are the feelings of failure and being out of control.
It's a horrible loop to be in. And despite the allure of dieting. It just doesn't work. Why do you think that Weight Watchers and Slimming World are so successful? Not because they offer a way out of the whole dynamic.
So what to do instead?
It is possible to eat in harmony with your body, mind and spirit, and be completely free from the rollercoaster of over-eating and dieting... and your weight to normalise at the most optimal for your most vital and attractive you.
In Nourishing Light, I share how to do this. Have a look at my courses to see how I can help you change your relationship with food...and your body :)
