Please stop dieting!

Most people go on diets to lose weight.  So it should come as very good news to you when I say dieting is NOT the best way to lose weight.  This is good news because people hate being on diets, and research shows us that a history of dieting, and restrained eating will often lead to binge eating, and also trigger fat STORING programs.

Sure, there is evidence to show that low calorie diets are good for longevity and health, if they are part of your normal experience and not a diet, and if they are nutrient dense.  (Calories consumed were around 1600-1800 a day though, note – never 1200!)

Studies show us that dieting is very stressful for the body, and the body thinks it is starving, it often then activates fat storing rather than fat burning mechanisms.   Also in the presence of stress, the bodies primary preferred fuel source is glucose, not fat or protein.  Interestingly diets usually focus on reducing carbohydrates too.

What is interesting is once you activate the fat storing switch in your fat cells, you set yourself up to be super at storing fat, and it’s pretty hard to tell your body to stop.  There have been studies done with lab rats, that they will be starving to death and still not burning their own body fat.

Furthermore, a history of dieting and the presence of salient food cues (delicious looking food), -think your everyday environment with coffee shops and bakerys and cafe’s and supermarkets everywhere- can actually trigger binge eating…  So someone on a diet, will eventually come off the diet, and then there is a wonderful reward- the food tastes better, the famine is over, GET THAT INTO ME, and the bingeing cycle begins, with that the downward spiral in self esteem… because the weight all comes rushing back.

Diets are reinforcing though in a weird way, we are tricked into believing they work.  That’s because while you are starving yourself you will lose weight.  The problem is this isn’t sustainable, nor is it health promoting and it certainly isn’t a good way to keep the weight off.

So what can you do instead?

Ok, this is going to sound too simple to be profound, and borderline boring but here goes:

Eat to nourish.  Everyday, without focusing on dieting or restricting food, bring your attention and effort to eating foods that nourish your body.  Keep diet diaries and see how much good stuff you can get into you. Good stuff is “real food”.  Plants (vegetables and fruit), ancient grains (brown rice, quinoa, oats, millet), beans, lentils, pulses, add nuts to stews, add seeds to salads and breakfast, eat fish, eggs, free range game type meats, organic meat and poultry.  Eat rather than drink your food, you’ll feel fuller for longer unless it’s a nice broth with meat and beans and veg.

Over time as you nourish your body and your body feels safe and secure in the routine of being nourished, you will crowd out the cravings for all the rubbish, and it will well and truly become sometimes food, without the effort.

I don’t exclude anything 100 % and I definitely don’t deprive myself or suffer through my days, punishing myself by eating healthy food.

I LOVE my food, I love great tasting delicious, wholesome, nourishing, interesting food.  I feel great when I eat to nourish, and crap when I don’t.  It’s a no brainer for me to eat to nourish my body first.  Absolutely, I endulge in chocolate, ice cream and croissants and chips when I feel like it, but I honestly don’t feel like it everyday.  Honestly!  And I am not in the habit of eating mindlessly.

You can create a new habit of eating to nourish… just start with adding something fresh, and nourishing to every eating occasion… rather than starting with a long list of “don’t foods”.

Sure, the “don’t foods” aren’t good for you, you know that.  But if you set yourself up with a list of things not to eat, you will feel deprived… and then  you will rebel because you will feel like it’s all too hard and you are being punished.

Start with doing the “crowding out” approach, and get more good stuff in.

For the rest of it… get curious: check in with yourself.  How am I feeling?  Why am I eating this?

One final note.  You won’t lose weight if you are enduring chronic stress and crazy eating habits.

Either embark on a stress management or reduction mission, or do these things daily.

1. Check your breathing.  Whenever you catch yourself hunching or shallow breathing, take a few deep breaths.  Check in with yourself 10 times a day.  (1. On waking, 2. in the shower, 3. Before breakfast, 4. at morning tea time, 5. before lunch, 6. at 3.30pm, 7. on the way home 8. before dinner, 9. in the shower, 10. in bed).  It only takes a minute each time… that’s 10 mins a day.
   
2. Get 6-9 hours of sleep a night.
3. Do a gratitude meditation with yourself every night, (e.g. thank you for my body… bit by bit)

And please… stop dieting!