When you hear the word “diet,” what pops into your head? Do you think of endless days of misery, watching everyone else enjoy life, while you suffer through meals of lettuce, strange beverages and herbal supplements? There are a lot of people out there who are sick of dieting. They are looking for a way to lose weight that will not be so hard! If the weight loss could last for a lifetime and not seem like a diet, that would the icing on the cake. Oops, sorry, shouldn’t have mentioned icing right? I’ll give you a minute to put it out of your mind!
If you are trying to lose weight, I am sure you have heard the words “lifestyle change” at least once. I’m also sure that you know at least one person who has told you that “they are not dieting; it’s more of a lifestyle change thing.” If you are sick of dieting but still need to lose your extra weight, you should probably give this lifestyle thing a try. Changing your lifestyle works slower than most diets, but it is the only way to lose weight without dieting.
How does it work? Think about all of the diets you have been on. How many times has the weight come back? (To answer that one, just count the number of diets you have been on…) You may have thought that the problem was you, and you should have been able to keep the weight off, but you couldn’t be more wrong. The problem lies with the diet, not the dieter! There aren’t too many diets that a person can stay on for the rest of their life and remain healthy. A lot of diets lack in certain vitamins and nutrition, and it is not recommended that you stay on them for longer than a couple of weeks. What is the solution? Give up dieting! Now it is your turn to say to people, “it’s not a diet; more of a lifestyle change thing.”
Lifestyle changes last a lifetime, as long as you really want to change. Unlike diets, lifestyle changes do not see results fast, but the results do come in time, and they last. Sit down and make a list of things you need to change in your eating habits and level of daily activity. Be honest with yourself, because this part counts. Don’t get overwhelmed looking at all of the things you need to change, because you’re not going to do them all at once. Nobody would ever succeed if they tried to do that! Instead, take one small change and try implementing it this week. Be proud of yourself and your accomplishment when you are able to incorporate this change into your lifestyle.
After you are sure that you have really changed in that area, you can move onto something else. If you think you can handle 2 or 3 things at a time, then go for it, but only start out with one. It is important to build confidence in yourself in the beginning, so don’t set the bar too high right away. Start small and work your way up from there.