Diet vs. Diet

KarmaxKitty
KarmaxKitty Posts: 901 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I often hear people talking about going on a diet. Or people "forcing" themselves to "finish" a diet. Or get messages asking me what "diet" I went on and how I "handled" it.

Diet has become an awfully evil word.

But I wonder if people know that you already HAVE a diet...that is to say, what you eat.

Diet doesn't have to be the negative temporary word for that thing that helps you fit in your skinny jeans for the weekend. It doesn't have to be that thing you dread every morning you wake up. (C'mon...if you're dreading something first thing in the morning, maybe it's time to try an alternative or something... :laugh: )

Start with small changes. Eventually those become habit. Then you make more changes and THOSE become habit. You don't have to make a complete 180 in the next three hours. Besides, if you spin too fast, you make a 360 anyway... Yes I still eat pizza. And Ice cream. And things smothered in unholy amounts of cheese. I have really really bad days a lot often than I would like to. But if only you could see what my food habits looked like in the beginning, is what I usually end up telling people. It's okay to not be perfect.

There is no secret to making a change, and what I've learned is the time that you spend looking for an answer is time that you could be testing a solution. Don't think of it as going on a diet...simply change the one you already have.

(All flames will be tossed down a pipe to the little Italian plumber dude in the overalls. Don't be a Bowser.)

Replies

  • antiwings
    antiwings Posts: 34
    Exactly! People I work with don't seem to understand the difference. As a simple way of explaining why I don;t want to eat "work food" I just say no, I'm on a diet. Every week they tend to go "You sure you dont want a burger?" and "When are you going to quit this diet thing?"

    I enjoy eating healthily, and I feel so much better then when I did when I did eat work food all the time.
  • lunarescape
    lunarescape Posts: 51 Member
    Agreed. I recently went to a party and one of the girls there is on a diet. She was miserable the entire night because we had pizza and breadsticks and other junk. She said she was on this diet where she can't have carbs, etc and she has to take these drops. "I know people on this diet and after they're done with it they can eat whatever they want!" Right. Because it's magic. I wanted to correct her so bad and tell her she doesn't have to suffer but it's her body, not mine. It made me so sad because she was torturing herself and I was sitting there eating two pieces of pizza, breadsticks, etc.
  • KarmaxKitty
    KarmaxKitty Posts: 901 Member
    Exactly. I eat oatmeal or granola in the morning...A LOT. I'm not on a special oatmeal diet, I just happen to really like oatmeal and it doesn't require a lot of brainpower in the morning...or any other time of day. :blushing:

    I tend to eat the whites of boiled eggs because I don't really like the way boiled yolks taste without loads of salt.

    They're just "odd" habits that most people don't do... But as soon as you eat something "wrong" BAM!

    "What happened to your diet?" :grumble:
  • BuffyEat2Live
    BuffyEat2Live Posts: 327 Member
    Great post! I love what you said about how making a 180 too fast will result in a 360. Classic!
  • innocenceportrayed
    innocenceportrayed Posts: 569 Member
    My teacher who is a eating disorder therapist(which is what I'm going for) says that the word diet is the meaning of evil because it's root word is "die"
  • mfp116
    mfp116 Posts: 108
    really inspiring post thank you
  • domgirl85
    domgirl85 Posts: 295 Member
    Yes! Exactly! :D
  • KarmaxKitty
    KarmaxKitty Posts: 901 Member
    My teacher who is a eating disorder therapist(which is what I'm going for) says that the word diet is the meaning of evil because it's root word is "die"

    Ha ha! My home economics teacher said the same thing. "Humans weren't meant to sit 24hours a day anyway. Eat the darned thing and then move when you're cleaning what you made."

    I loved that woman...
  • lorihalsted
    lorihalsted Posts: 326 Member
    I refuse to use the word diet. It's simply a lifestyle change. I eat smaller portions and rarely "miss out" on any food I want or crave. Very well said!
  • Coffeeholic8
    Coffeeholic8 Posts: 272 Member
    People ask me what diet I'm on when they see the weight loss I have achieved and then look a little confused when I tell them I'm not on a 'diet'. I'm not on a diet because there is pretty much nothing I won't eat if I want it and diets tend to be restrictive. Since I started this journey back in March I've, at one time or another, pretty much eaten all the things that would be frowned upon by most diets.
  • _TastySnoBalls_
    _TastySnoBalls_ Posts: 1,298 Member
    Love this!!
  • realia
    realia Posts: 169 Member
    Totally agreed! This is my mentality. It's so hard explaining that to people whenever they ask me what my secret for losing weight is. I just say I use MFP and exercise, because if I get too into it, they look at me like :huh:.
  • tashaa1992
    tashaa1992 Posts: 658 Member
    I love this! You're so right, it's all about taking those small steps to change your future, and diets are just short term, they don't fix your eating problems. You want something you can sustain for the rest of your life, you don't want to revert back to your old ways and personally I believe deprivation will lead you back there, that's just my take on it though.
  • stylistchik
    stylistchik Posts: 1,436 Member
    That boggles my mind too. I feel the same about workout plans. i mentioned to a friend that I was doing P90X and she said she started it but 90 days was "too long." :noway:

    I don't know about you but I plan on workout out for the rest of my life, not just til I finish a program. Each new thing I try is just to spice it up or try something new.
  • opuntia
    opuntia Posts: 860 Member
    Yes, the original meaning of diet is simply what one eats every day. So, from that angle, everyone has a diet! It actually literally means a way of life. You can have a good diet or a bad diet, a healthy diet or an unhealthy diet, but everyone has a diet of some kind!
  • Zylahe
    Zylahe Posts: 772 Member
    time that you spend looking for an answer is time that you could be testing a solution.

    I'm so adding that to my list of quotes.
    (and using at work when they start talking to long)
    :bigsmile:
  • mndamon
    mndamon Posts: 549 Member
    Love this post.
  • DoomCakes
    DoomCakes Posts: 806 Member
    I love this post. And I love your little end quote. xD Sooo true though. If you make a total change in your food, you're just going to relapse. I eat a cookie here and there, and I even try to be mindful to buy a healthier version with less sugar or something in it. But I've decided it's better to moderate the things I like and keep in mind that I can still be healthy the rest of the day with out killing myself.

    Also, eff diets, eff them MAJORLY. As soon as you say the word diet you instilled fear, and you'll lose. Just be smart. It doesn't take rocket science to say that it's not healthy to eat sausage gravy, KFC, and 5 slices of pizza just because it tastes good.

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