Are You Tired of Gaining Weight Back When the Diet is Over?
Are you one of the 90% of people who gain the weight back after going on a diet?
Trust me, I have been there too many times myself, and I know how disappointing and frustrating it can be.
I don’t know about you, but for some reason, I always believe when I go on a diet and lose weight, I won’t gain the weight back.
But of course, like it or not, I always end up right back where I started, and always ask myself, how did this happen?
That being said, if I am close to describing the story of your life, you are likely trying to decide which diet you should try this time.
Should you try one of the newer ones that everyone is talking about, or go back to an old favorite that worked for you in the past. There’s a lot to choose from.
I am old enough to have experienced dieting advice that included, high-fat- low fat, high carbs- no carbs, counting points, eliminating entire food groups, eating pre-packaged meals, and even starving myself.
Do they all work? – yep.
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How Do You Choose a Diet?
Because I have memorized the rules of so many diets, when going on a diet, I would find myself switching to a new diet during the middle of the day!
Seriously, I could start the day with a diet that provides protein shakes as a meal replacement, and nothing to look forward to but a tiny piece of fish and lettuce for dinner.
The biggest challenge was having no carbs and that meant no fruit for the first two weeks. Even though this plan made no sense to me, I was determined to do this.
Nope, I guess I couldn’t because, by noon, I decided the diet I should follow is Weight Watchers, because they have released their new “free food” list. Who doesn’t like free food?
Plus if I switch to Weight Watchers at noon, I could eat fruit and have a glass of wine with dinner. Makes perfect sense, right?
Are New Diets Really New?
Let’s face it, the current “experts” are selling us the same diets with a new name and a little twist.
I remember when I was a teenager, the best way to lose weight was to eat protein, cottage cheese, no carbohydrates. Sound familiar? Didn’t the Atkins Diet put people in Ketosis to lose weight just like the Keto Diet?
No lie, did you know that in the 80s, it was recommended to LIMIT the amount of protein we ate and fill up on “good carbs”? Yes, we ate bagels and pasta and guess what, we lost weight.- And gained it back Finally, I got so tired of dieting and not eating the foods I like to eat or cook The thought of giving up carbs again, made me want to cry.
Like me, you may want to throw in the towel and Don’t Do Diets!
Maybe You Are Not Ready to Stop Dieting – That’s Okay
I get that the promises of diet plans are sometimes too hard to resist. Each new diet claims fast really fast weight loss and that is appealing. That is why dieting is a multi-billion dollar business.
So, I’m just going to throw this out there.
If you want to go on a diet, go ahead, you know how it works.
But, what if I told you, you don’t have to go on a diet to lose weight?
Let’s Make This Your Last Diet
How are you going to do that? By enrolling in How to Be In Control of Your Diet you can learn to add eating behaviors to your lifestyle that would allow you to:
be more successful in sticking to a diet if you choose to go on one
lose weight by following the eating behaviors and you make your own food choices.
keep weight off when you have lost the weight you want.
choose what you eat, when you want, and how much you want
But make no mistake, you do not have to go on a diet to lose weight with this course! It’s totally up to you, your choice.
Learning HOW to make eating behaviors become habits is not easy by yourself, so I hope to teach you how to do just that.
But before we get into details, let me say, the eating behaviors I am going to teach are not new, we have been hearing about them for decades!
The reality is for most of us, hearing about something and actually doing something are two different things.
It’s true these eating habits, alone, are not going to change your life, but together they are life-changing, and believe it or not, here is where long-term weight loss happens.
Before you bite into a piece of cake, can you picture it as the ingredients that are in it? For example, a piece of cake is just sugar, flour, fat and flavoring, that’s it.
Try to think about food as a list of its ingredients, and it may become a lot less appetizing.
2. Eat it Slowly, Pay Attention and Enjoy it
If you are like me when you eat something considered “forbidden,” you eat it fast while standing up and you miss the whole experience of deliciousness.
Why not finish chewing before you put the next bite in your mouth, and maybe put your fork down after each bite.
Pay attention to how the food really tastes before you swallow. If you like to eat as I do, it makes sense to take your time, right?
3. Are some foods BAD?
When you talk about foods, do you call some foods Good and some foods Bad? Truth be told, there is no such thing as “good” foods and “bad” foods. However, it is true there are foods that offer you more in terms of nutrition if that matters.
What I am saying is, stop telling yourself a certain food is “bad for you.”
Let’s say you are considering eating food deemed as “bad” like a frosted doughnut, and you really want it, then eat it. But, make it worth your while.
Buy the best, sit down, and eat it slowly. No one is going to grab it out of your hand and you really can’t pretend that later that you didn’t eat it.
4. Portion Control
Nothing new here, right? We all know how ridiculous portions are in restaurants. However, if any restaurant today served us the recommended portions of food, we would feel robbed and complain!
To be sure, pasta dishes, burgers, burritos, even salads are served with portions big enough to easily feed two, or three people.
Here are a few Portion Control tips that I really find effective.
When at home, eat on smaller plates. I’m not saying you can’t have seconds, but if you do it will be a “choice”.
If you are in a restaurant and you are served portions that you CHOOSE not to eat, as for a container before you start and pack up your leftovers right away.
Another suggestion I’ve heard about but never done myself is to push away the food you do not want to eat and pour hot sauce or pepper on it. – I don’t like the idea of wasting food I am paying for, but I am sure it works.
5. How Hungry are You?
What does full really feel like? Better yet, do you really know what it feels like to be truly hungry? I know you know what stuffed feels like, but can you tell the difference between satisfied and full?
Are you a member of the “clean plate club?” So I’m wondering, have you ever eaten slowly and stopped eating when you were comfortable? There might be food left on your plate! You can continue eating and lick your platter clean, but if you do, it is your choice and do you like how you physically feel?
6. What Do You Want the Food to Do for You?
Have you ever eaten when you were not hungry? How many times have you found yourself chewing on something and you don’t even remember putting it in your mouth?
When you eat and your not hungry, do you do it for entertainment, anger, fear, stress? Again, you may choose to take care of emotions with food, or you may choose to take of emotions in a healthier way.
Ask yourself, “how am I feeling right now and how is eating going to help that?
7. Sit At the Table
9. Learn to Read Food Labels
Most importantly, learn to be an educated eater. Begin looking at the total calories PER SERVING listed on the label. In fact, there are 4 calories for every gram of protein and 4 calories for every gram of carbohydrates. So, if there is hidden sugar the carbohydrates will be high. Moreover, companies don’t have to include the recommended amount of sugar on their labels. The soda industry is pretty powerful and they made sure you don’t know that NO amount of added sugar is recommended.
Additionally, did you know there are 9 calories for every gram of fat and 7 calories in every gram of alcohol? Yikes!
I am still hoping wine is a fruit.
Make it Your Choice
I am suggesting you give yourself permission to make your own food choices and not worry about the rules of a diet.
Long-Term Weight Loss Comes When Habits Become Automatic
In the end, when you make the eating habits Automatic Behaviors, you will have a much greater chance of keeping the weight off and beat the odds of regaining the weight.
However, we all know if you try to make too many changes at the same time, you are always out of your comfort zone, and we all love comfort, right?
Knowing that to be true How to Be In Control of Your Diet introduces one new behavior at a time so you put them all together and make them habits.
What I am saying here is that making effective lifestyle changes cannot happen in one week, so the course is spread out over 28-days, but you can adjust it to make it work for you.
It’s very normal to think of yourself as a failure and be depressed when you gain the weight back after dieting.
You are not alone, and you’ve got some pretty good company.
So, please don’t beat yourself up or feel bad, you have some new choices. I’m finding it encouraging to know lots of people, especially women are choosing to stop dieting and taking back control of their own weight loss.
Believe me, by choosing to make new behaviors become a habit, you are going to be healthier and lose weight along the way. And keep it off.
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