Diets don't work!
To some, who have tried every diet there is, this will not
come as a surprise. The word "diet" gives the impression of
various calorie restricted, low fat, low carb, low
something or other!!! However the actual word "diet" is
used incorrectly in many situations, we all have a "diet",
it is the food we choose to eat regardless of whether it is
good or bad. The phrase "going on a diet" is wrong because
we already have a diet.
Anyway now I have destroyed the title and first line of
this article, let me explain why we should become
nutritionally "responsible" instead of "going on a diet"
Because of the bad press that diets get, when you decide to
start a new diet plan, you immediately feel the stress of
cutting out the products you love, and being forced to eat
the stuff that you don't particularly like. The process of
cutting out alcohol, sweets and fried foods makes you want
them even more, because you are not allowed them. Going
cold turkey just makes you irritable, hungry and ultimately
you fail to stick to your plan long term.
Lets face it, you know that once you have followed Weight
watchers or Jenny Craig for the 3 or 6 month period, you'll
eventually revert back to your old habits. Long term
success is so rare on many diet plans that it makes the
authors and owners of these diets very rich as we try to
rekindle the initial short term success every 12 months or
so.
Nutritional responsibility is a very simple process that is
a very different mindset that works on adopting life long
eating habits, rather than short term quick fixes. By not
expecting you to become a monk, never to touch the
forbidden fruit ever again, your chances of adherence to
this approach are massively increased. The philosophy of
nutritional responsibility is to eat foods that are
nutritionally sound MOST of the time, this means eating the
cleanest, freshest, unprocessed foods you can get your
hands on.
Our food supply has changed enormously over the last 10-15
years to a point that most of the aisles in the supermarket
are packed to ceiling with heavily processed foods. The
basic raw produce such as fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh
meat, fish and basic diary products have been pushed into a
small corner. Yes the processed foods are more convenient
and do take less time to prepare, but if your goal is to
live a healthy, illness free life then maybe it will pay to
prioritise the time to prepare food that will support that
goal?
As a fitness professional who truly loves his food, I
always expect my clients to approach their eating habits in
the following way. For 90% of your week eat food
responsibly, don't worry about counting calories or points,
fat grams or any of that craziness, just eat fresh, clean
produce that has NOT been processed in any way. The other
10% of the week, eat what you like, but once again be
responsible for what you eat. By all means keep a record to
make sure you are not using up more than 10%, but try not
to get worked up over the details.
If all this sounds like common sense, you would be right...
Now lets start making it common!
----------------------------------------------------
Tim Goodwin is a Luxembourg based fitness professional
specializing in help the busiest people achieve more with
their amateur sporting interests, and at the same time
ridding them of excess body fat. Visit
http://www.getfit.lu/success.html to get a free 18 page
report "How to lose weight even when you are really busy"
containing a full 4 week program which you can start today!
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