DIETS

I would venture to say that almost everyone has tried a diet of some sort at some point in their life. Whether it was a diet for weight loss, correcting health issues such as blood pressure or high cholesterol or an elimination diet to rule out possible allergies or sensitivities, odds are you or someone you know well have tried one.  I would also venture to say that whatever diet was tried in the past, is not still in practice several years later. Maybe you had some success, maybe you didn’t. If you did have some success then, however, I’d bet that now you are right back where you started. How do I know? It’s the old expression, “diets don’t work.” Let’s discuss why and what you can do about it.

It’s true diets don’t work, at least not long term, and here’s why. A diet may work for a short period of time. It may give you a boost and improve your lab results for your doctor or help you lose weight for a while, but diets don’t typically work long term because they are too restrictive, or they require too much effort to maintain, and they don’t create behavior change. That behavior change is the difference between a diet and a lifestyle.

Some diets require you to buy their pre-made meals and this may work great for a while but are you going to buy those pre-made meals for the rest of your life? Will that company even be around? Other diets require you to count points based on the foods you eat. Some of these types of diets can work very well as long as you count points. Odds are though, at some point you are going to get sick of counting points and doing math to eat a meal. Some diets require you to avoid a certain food group or increase another food group or have a shake for every meal. Too much of any one thing is going to get old really fast.

Here’s an example. A friend of mine decided a couple years ago that she really wanted to lose weight and had heard about a “soup diet”. She had known someone who had had success in losing weight by eating nothing but soup each meal and she felt motivated to try it. I of course asked more about this diet out of concern that she might be trying to eat store bought soups that are highly processed and might affect her health in other negative ways other than weight. Fortunately, she was planning on making her soups from scratch. However, her plan was doomed from the start as nobody wants to eat soup every meal for the rest of their lives and if you don’t learn how to eat healthy and be healthy when the soup is gone, the weight or other health issues will come right back.  

To be successful with weight loss or becoming healthier in general, you must not only change your behavior, but you must incorporate your new behavior into your lifestyle and have it become part of who you are.

So, how do you do this? You have not only got to learn what to do, but why you should do it and you will need to find easy healthier alternatives (that you like) to things you used to do that aren’t so healthy. In other words, it takes time and knowledge to change your lifestyle.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think some diets can be healthy and can be a good way to learn about how our bodies react to certain foods. Some diets give us a good jump start toward our goals. However, without true behavior change, it likely won’t be sustainable.

If you are interested in learning how to make behavior changes in your life to become healthier, and why you should make those changes then subscribe with your e-mail below to receive the twice weekly blog when it posts as well as to receive updates. Follow along on social media as well and stay tuned for The Health and Wellness NP’s Transform 52 Plan coming soon!