Diets vs Life Style Change

slpanet

I have purchased many diet books trying to lose weight, only to have gained it back plus some. I am sitting here looking at the stack of books Atkins, Eat More, Weigh Less, Sugar Busters, Fat is Not Your Fate, Scarsdale Medical Diet, Dash Diet, South Beach Diet, You on a Diet, and The Carb Cycling Diet. I joined Weight Watchers, I did Nutri-System (twice), I joined Jenny Craig (worked there too) and Richard Simmons Food Mover. I have had results from all and I gained back my weight in 3 to 5 years. I have been gathering knowlege from all of these books and programs. Then decided in 2011 I was going to educate myself even more and find the answer to the question, "What do I need to do to lose my weight forever?"

My sister said to me, (in anger) "For someone who gives so much advice about healthy eating why are you so huge?. It was a mean thing to say, but it is true. I have so much knowlege and wasn't putting it to use. I also had a lot of issues/reasons I was not following my own advice. There were several issues that contributed to my weight gain, I quit smoking, I went through menopause, family issues (stress) and I was on Cymbalta (a drug that was the main root to most of my weight gain).

The problem with resctricted diets is just that, restricting certain foods always makes you want them. I started with the Atkins Diet and lost 10 lbs, I started feeling sick after a month at the thought of eating the foods on Atkins, so I decided to try South Beach Diet, a little better than Atkins, Dash was next, the food was great but no weight loss. I bought Carb Cycling because it made sense to eats high carbs on workout days and low on the other 4 days, but never really figured it out to my advantage.

The best book I read was, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Total Nutrition", it helped me to put all I had learned together and helped me figure out what I needed to do to lose the weigh forever. The plan was called, "The Bubble Game". I realized it looked an aweful lot like Richard Simmons food mover. So I compared the 2 tools and decided it was so close that using the food mover was easier than to keep going back to the book. The funny thing is like most of the books I purchased I never really used the "Richard Simmons" plan.


The moral of this story is pick a plan, make it your diet for life. If you keep bouncing from one diet to another your weight will keep jumping up and down. Most people do not understand that diet is not a bad word, it is what you eat!!

lukeout007

Here's the thing...diets are temporary...they end eventually...if you tell yourself you're going to eat healthy until you hit your goal or cut out carbs or drink nothing but juice....as soon as you go back to normal eating habits its all going to come back. The only way to ensure that you're eating habits aren't causing you to regain all the weight is to change your eating habits for good...which doesn't mean cutting out all the things you love because that won't last. It has to do with a balance of healthy eating habits and exercise. This is something I've known for years but have always shrugged off. Now I'm finding that unless I change my habits for good and find a way to burn some extra calories every single day...I'm going to fail.

dls06

Here's the thing...diets are temporary...they end eventually...if you tell yourself you're going to eat healthy until you hit your goal or cut out carbs or drink nothing but juice....as soon as you go back to normal eating habits its all going to come back. The only way to ensure that you're eating habits aren't causing you to regain all the weight is to change your eating habits for good...which doesn't mean cutting out all the things you love because that won't last. It has to do with a balance of healthy eating habits and exercise. This is something I've known for years but have always shrugged off. Now I'm finding that unless I change my habits for good and find a way to burn some extra calories every single day...I'm going to fail.

Also find healthier alternatives for the things you love and get a food scale to make sure portions are correct.

lukeout007

Also find healthier alternatives for the things you love and get a food scale to make sure portions are correct.

I just don't think healthier alternatives are always the best plan (or even possible). Example...I've loved Cadbury Creme Eggs since I was a kid. I look forward to this time of year because they are available and I take advantage of that. If I had to give up things like that that I love which really have no good alternative I'd probably fail because I'd resent the fact that I can't eat them when I see them. For me it's coming down to making sure that if I eat 1 (and only one...not 4) that I either exercise enough to make up for it or have room in my diet that day to warrant it.

lukeout007

Although I should say that if you can find a healthy alternative that you enjoy just as much then by all means its a fantastic suggestion. Good example...I make a baked mac and cheese that everyone loves. But its basically a heart attack in a pan. My goal once I have some extra time is to find a way to make that healthier. I've researched some "healthy" mac and cheese recipes and I think I can come up with a good compromise without sacrificing taste.