Diet? What Diet?

I have completely eliminated the word diet from my vocabulary. Over the years what I have learned is that diets can give fast immediate results, but rarely are the results maintained.  However, when you look at health and fitness as a lifestyle change, results can be life changing. When you decide to make a lifestyle change no longer do you have to starve yourself, eliminate food groups from your plan, no counting every calorie and you will never have to give up the foods you love!!!  Now that sounds like a plan that both will work and that you can love and stick to!

I once read that D.I.E.T stood for Delusional-ineffective-eating tactics and honestly they are just that. Why would you want that? Reality is that most people don't need diets at all.  They only need to make a lifestyle change and have a coach who can guide them with support and motivation to make the changes needed.  It's all about change, changing the way you think about food!  Food is not your enemy, it is the very thing that fuels our bodies to perform at optimum capacity.  Whether you are resolving to be more healthy or to achieve a significant weight loss, change is required!!

We all are drawn to the quick fix diet fads despite our common sense telling us they won't work.  We fall prey to the unreachable images of the ripped abs and sexy beach bodies that the social media inundate us with! Who doesn't want to look like that?  Truth be told those images are not a true reflection of what those individuals look like!!  Everything you see in magazines or on TV are photo shopped!  Rule of thumb, no quick fix is sustainable!  What wins the race?  Slow and steady!

My heart breaks when I see people starving themselves, fighting off the hunger pains, hoping and praying that they achieve the results that are advertised.  The biggest problem with dieting isn't fighting off hunger pains or depriving yourself though, but the fear of will I gain the weight back when I've completed the diet.  Unfortunately, that fear is the very thing that will prevent many from ever trying to get healthy.

If you want to be successful at weight loss you have to remember that it is about more than the amount of pounds you lose. Success stories come from the individuals who made lifestyle changes. You have to retrain new habits that work.  Learn about the science of nutrition and not scare tactics of deprivation.  A lifestyle change requires practice and consistency.  When you've realized this important lesson, you will have come to a turning point in your life and a successful future will be imminent.

So you're probably asking yourself if I can't diet how can I possibly achieve a healthy lifestyle?  The answer is simple, find yourself a health and fitness coach, someone who is educated in these areas. Someone like me!  A coach will sit down with you come up with goals and a plan that both work, and fit into your busy life.  More than anything else, a coach will walk beside you in your journey supporting, motivating and inspiring you to reach your goals.  Many of life's failures are when individuals don't realize how close they are to success when they gave up! Moral...NEVER GIVE UP! Keep putting one foot in front of the other because without failures and set backs we don't learn and without learning you'll never change!