Why your old nutritional thinking is keeping you in the diet hamster wheel

Dieting is a huge part of women’s lives. We are always on the hunt for the right diet to help us look and feel the way we want. However, most of the diets out on the market are not sustainable. We either want the food we’re told we can’t have, we stop losing weight after a short time, or we get so tired of losing weight and gaining it back right away that we simply give up.

What if you could reverse some of those old nutritional patterns? What if you learned how to eat in a way that kept you full, nourished your body and actually made you happy! I’m talking about eating a bowl of ice cream without guilt or weight gain!

If you can change these three nutritional thoughts, you will be able to have your cake and eat it too!

Go from bad vs. good food to food accountability

Most diets tell you to cut out one - or more - food groups. They say that those food groups are “bad” and are the entire reason you’re gaining weight. They give you a list of approved foods and even a list of foods you can’t eat. But do you know what happens when we’re told that we’re “not allowed” to do something? We can’t stop thinking about that thing. It’s scientifically proven!

Instead of being told what you can and cannot have, what if you could make choices for yourself that allowed you to have that bowl of ice cream? Would you be willing to eat a super healthy lunch if it meant you could eat pizza for dinner? I’m always willing to sacrifice a little bit now so that I can have what I want later.

Food accountability allows you to make informed decisions. You know what you’re eating and you know if those food choices are moving you toward your goals or away from it. Ultimately, your success is up to you. You can decide if going outside of your food boundaries to enjoy a social situation is worth it. You can also decide to skip out on a cupcake at your daughter’s birthday party because you want to reach your goals.

Food accountability puts you in the driver’s seat. You get to decide what’s important and what you’re willing to do to reach your goals.

Go from extreme dieting to a balanced diet

We’ve all gone through an extreme dieting phase. I did! Extreme diets tell us that we need a lot of one nutritional group and very little of another in order to reach our goal weight.

There are two major problems with extreme dieting. The first problem is that we end up without the proper nutrients we need! Our bodies need protein, fats and carbs in order to function properly. Yes, our bodies need carbs. Carbs are an essential part of life! So when we cut out carbs or fats or protein our bodies don’t function at the levels we need them to.

The second problem with extreme diets is that it messes up our relationships with food. When we villainize a certain food or food group, we create a negative relationship with that food. If you’ve been told that all sugar is bad for you and that you shouldn’t eat it if you want to be healthy, then how do you feel about yourself when you eat the occasional candy bar? Does it make you feel guilty or like a bad person? 

When you eat a well-balanced diet, you don’t have these issues. You stop prioritizing one food group over another and you eat the amount that your body needs in order to accomplish the goals you want. You also create positive relationships with all foods because you are allowed to eat all of them!

Balanced dieting isn’t dieting at all. It’s the way you should be eating in order to fuel your body for your lifestyle. 

Stop yo-yo dieting and find a diet that works for a lifetime

No one sets out on a diet with the intention to yo-yo diet. What usually happens is we’re looking to lose weight and when we don’t see the results we want, in a time-frame that we set for ourselves, we give up. We jump ship and we try something new.

It’s ok to change course when we aren’t seeing the results we want, but we need to make sure that we’ve given it the right amount of time. If you set out on a healthy lifestyle and give up after a week of “eating clean” because you didn’t lose the 10 lbs you wanted to, then you probably have unrealistic expectations.

Creating a lifestyle of healthy living takes time. You’re not going to lose 10 lbs in a week or even in a month! It takes a lot of time, eating the right foods, for our bodies to change. When we jump around from diet to diet, our bodies store more because they aren’t sure what to expect next. What if you stop feeding it the fat it needs to keep things going? It better store some just in case

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, then you have to show your body that you are serious about eating well. Show your body that you won’t cut out essential nutrients. You may adjust them, but you will always give your body the baseline of what it needs to keep up with your performance. Once your body realizes that it can depend on you to feed it, then it will work with you!

A balanced diet is the best way not only to lose weight but to live. If you’re ready to give up these old-school nutritional thoughts and actually eat the foods your body needs, then let’s talk! I can help you set up a flexible diet that lets you eat the food you love while giving your body the nutrients it needs.

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