Dieting is not the answer

Diets don’t work. How many times have we heard that? And yet we somehow think that this time is different, this time I will lose the weight, this time I will stick to it. It’s about willpower, determination.

We think, when I am slim, then he will love me (or love me more), then I will be happy, then I will get that job, that promotion, that raise. We buy a new book about a new diet, or purchase a product from the drug store to help us in our efforts. We listen to the rhetoric, “It’s not a diet it’s a lifestyle, and we internally we hear, “It’s a diet that has to last for the rest of your life.” We feel depressed before we even start.  We remind ourselves that this time is going to be different. This time we are going to do the right thing and eat what we know we should and, more importantly, not eat what we know we shouldn’t. And then, because it’s going to be so hard, and we are going to be so good, we have one last splurge, adding another pound or two before we even start.

Then, come Monday morning, we take charge. We breakfast on a meal-replacement smoothie and pack a lunch of lettuce leaves, celery and carrot sticks plus a tiny tin of tuna. That evening we dine on grilled, skinless chicken with broccoli and no potato. “I can do this,” we say. “This is not so bad. I like chicken.”  We eat what we have been told to eat, in the quantities we have been told and at the times we have been told. We have gotten the message that it all makes a difference and one bite over the limit or at the wrong time of day will jeopardize everything.

At the weekend we decline an invitation out with our friends because it’s just too hard. We know alcohol has a truck-load of calories, and we are also smart enough to know that if we have a couple of drinks and are hungry then we will not be able to resist when everyone goes for a burger. No, we decide, better to stay home where the temptations are less.  We stay home watching a DVD, feeling hungry, unfulfilled and dissatisfied with our body, our diet and our life. We have entered the world of deprivation.

We know what happens next. Within a week or two our broccoli has a drizzle of thin cheese sauce on it and the chicken hasn’t had the skin removed because, as we know, it’s so much tastier when the skin is left on. But we are still being pretty good. And we are still feeling deprived.

After a few weeks, or maybe only days, we ‘fall off the wagon’ entirely.  We eat something we shouldn’t and we feel bad. We decide that we have wrecked the diet and that there is no point in continuing. Or we read an article that tells us that when we diet we lose muscle and slow our metabolism. It all seems so hopeless. We know we are going to fail. We know we can’t keep the diet going.

We celebrate our return to normal with a splurge on the foods we have been avoiding. We feel really bad and tell ourselves how fat and ugly we are. But for a brief moment, with our face in the tub of ice cream, or with our hands around a monster burger, we feel relief. We feel nourished. We feel fed.

Within a week we have regained the weight it took a month to get rid of. A month later we are a pound or two heavier than we were before we started.

We have been down this road before! We swear we won’t do that again, we know better, diets don’t work.

What is the answer?

Make incremental changes. Be prepared to make small changes and achieve small results in the short term. Take one thing out of your usual pattern of eating that is high in calories and low in nutitional value. What could you remove that you would barely miss? If you reduce your soda consumption by one can a day, or substitute for the diet option and you can expect to lose around 17 pounds over a year.

Increase your activity. When you can, stand instead of sitting, walk rather than stand. Take the stairs. Take up a hobby that requires incidental activity. Play a sport that you enjoy. Go bowling or some other physical activity that you will enjoy. Learn to associate physical activity with fun.

Be prepared to lose weight slowly... and permanently.