By: Anne ‘Kip’ Watson, MA, Licensed Professional Counselor & Certified Trainer

It still amazes me how the ‘diet’ industry has so many people fooled into thinking you can solve your weight and/or obesity issues with a quick fix. Yet billions of dollars are spent every year on instant change.

So, let me ask you, did it work? Did the change you were seeking last?

Consider what happens when you go on a ‘diet’. Usually, ‘dieting’ means you are resisting or depriving yourself in some way. Most of us can resist for a while but eventually that good ole will power caves and we give in to what we want.

Normal responses to going on a diet include physical, mental, and emotional struggles. Fatigue, irritability, and, powerful cravings are common.  And, the more times you diet, the harder it is to tell when you are physically full or if you are still hungry.  It is hard to concentrate or think about anything other than the ‘diet’. Many see an increase in self-centeredness and isolation. Nothing is more important than meeting the needs of the ‘diet’.

Eventually, most regain the weight plus additional pounds after getting off the diet. In fact, the number cause of overeating is ‘dieting’. 

Now consider the alternative. Try learning a lifestyle you can sustain the rest of your life. Invest in a ‘lifestyle’ that promotes eating most of the time in response to hunger and needed fuel rather than a quick fix that leaves you out of money and so much more. Invest in nutritional and exercise information which supports a healthy body. Then invest the time and hard work living out this lifestyle.

Normal responses to living a ‘lifestyle’ rather than a ‘diet’ includes eating for vitality, health, and pleasure yet in appropriate ways. It involves choices with nutrition and exercise that free you from worry, obsession, or pre-occupation with food, your body, and eating.

If you stop ‘dieting’ and learn a lifestyle, you will find this freedom. You will achieve a healthy weight. You will find better mental health and perhaps discover the greater pleasures in life with the friends, family, and special relationships in your life.