Reject the Diet Mentality (Principle #1)

A great place to start when you reject the diet mentality is to toss out those diet books. Seriously. Most of them are nonsense and at best, assume that:

• We can’t trust our body to tell us what it needs.
• Our bodies should all be a similar size.
• Higher amounts of body fat automatically equate to poor health outcomes.
• If the diet doesn’t work for you it’s because of your lack of willpower and your inability to simply adhere to the dietary principles (AKA rules and restrictions).

It’s a multibillion-dollar industry that only survives if people fail and return for more.

No, seriously. Do you think Weight Watchers (sorry, WW) or Slimming World would be even 1/10th the size they are as businesses if their programs actually achieved sustainable results?

The stats on sustained weight loss are pretty grim. We’re not going to get into the why here, but depending on the study, you’ll see anywhere from 80%-90+% regain the lost weight. And, in many cases, dieters shoot past their starting point and experience an even higher weight.

Yet, so many people say, “It worked for me before. I think I’ll do it again.” Is that really “working” if it only lasted a relatively short period of time?

I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

Putting intentional weight loss on the back burner (or tossing it out completely) is an important place to start when working through the other principles.

Why?

That lingering hope interferes with trying to tune into the hunger and fullness cues in your body that tell your brain how much food you need and when to eat according to your unique genetic blueprint and level of physical activity.

Since all those other diets in the past haven’t worked, why not consider a completely different approach that gets to the heart of the matter. One that addresses the source.

Think about it. How has dieting (even “sensible” dieting) affected your relationship with food and your body over the years?

Are you interested in learning about principle #2? Click here to read about honoring your hunger.