7 Reasons ‘Diets’ Don’t Work.

Most of the time we read about the latest diet fad and the must do healthy eating diet but here I want to tell you why I believe diets don’t work – long term – and to offer you a healthier, sustainable, long term solution to your weight issue. So here goes, take a deep breath and see if you agree with me.

1. Diets are about eating restricted amounts and types of foods and the hassle of weighing and measuring the foods can be tedious and is unsustainable after the goal has been achieved, and often before that. Other diets are about eating within certain time parameters or switching eating patterns on certain days of the week.
2. Diets are often about getting change fast, and for most people what you lose fast you can gain back over time. To achieve long term change losing weight more slowly is the answer and more sustainable over time as it reflects a true shift in lifestyle and behaviour.
3. Diets offer a blanket solution to a personal problem. However we are all individuals with personal needs and wants, with different lifestyles and challenges, not to mention unconscious beliefs and worries. These are so often unaddressed by dieting plans.
4. Diets are often followed alone which can be lonely and isolating. We are social beings and we learn and make changes more easily when we share that learning and journey with others and learn from them in turn. Equally if you are the only one in your family eating differently it adds pressure and stress to mealtimes which wears away at your resolve.
5. The language of diets often talks about ‘treats and sins’ or ‘rewards or indulgences’, about foods you can and foods you can’t eat. This changes how you see and think of certain foods. Labelling foods in this way effects our conscious and our subconscious minds. This then becomes something that effects future choices and feelings around food, potentially creating guilt and shame around something that should be nourishing and enjoyable – eating.
6. Diets are passive. They are about following someone else’s idea and plan. Outside of dieting we have our own eating desires and preferences. I believe that when you are active and involved in crafting your weight loss journey, the deeper the learning and change you experience. It is empowering! As a result, you become more self-aware, gain greater self-knowledge, leading to healthier choices and increased confidence around food and your body.
7. Diets can be rigid and impractical since they don’t take into consideration what you do when you have special occasions, are away from home, or unprepared and have none of the food options your diet plan says you must eat. That inflexibility and lack the support you need to navigate through the inevitable ups and downs of life, ends up derailing your diet goals.

If you agree with the above and would like to know how you can both lose weight and create a new healthy relationship with food, then contact me so I can explain how I work with Resonance and Coaching to help you achieve this goal.