Turn your endless uphill health battle into a downhill victory lap by beating the calendar! Knowing what NOT to do can often be as, or more, valuable than knowing what TO do. We might not all know how to properly handle a firearm or the chemistry behind petroleum, but we know not to have a staring contest with the end of a rifle or to extinguish a fire by drowning it in lighter fluid. As a professional health consultant, I’ve discovered the quickest way to gain weight, which is a valuable tool in the mission to help clients lose it. Want to know the secret? Go on a diet. Yep, going on a diet is a surefire way to pack on the pounds and feel horrible about life (and yourself while doing it). Make sense? If you’re confused…you’re not alone!
You’re familiar with diets, in fact you’ve probably tried dozens, and we all hold the same calorie-cutting contempt for them. During every diet (or on the rare occasion we “finish” one) studies from around the world reveal to us the ultimate result. We end up well fed and fed up, fatter than ever. Why? It’s quite simple. Diets by nature have failure baked in (pun intended) — infuriating, inescapable, self-sabotaging failure.
When you consider a diet, and all that implies, examine your thoughts. You can only be considering one of two possible outlooks. Experience with clients for many years agrees with what science has demonstrated to us countless times in recent years. Most people strictly view diets as a short-term tactic, a defensive countermeasure to quickly shed unwanted pounds that have slowly accumulated. Did you catch it? There are more problems with our perception of dieting, than calories in New York cheesecake. Reversing the internal damage manifested externally in the form of an uncontrollable waistline from years of unhealthy food choices and overeating cannot be accomplished with our usual “I want it now” mentality. We wanted those fries, pizzas, and drive-thru salads now-now-now, and we panic when we can’t hit the Easy Button and watch it all melt away.
The word “diet” has been hijacked, and we’ve been duped.
By far the biggest obstacle we overcome with our consultees – whether they’re battling chronic diseases, preparing for an elite-level physique competition, or a soccer-mom frozen in disgusted shock after stumbling across a wedding photo from 10 years (and 40 pounds) ago – is curing the punitive mindset when it comes to dieting. Everyone perceives diets as a negative-sum equation because our basis of information is skewed. We assume it’s a matter of cut-and-dry thermodynamics, consume (eat) less calories (energy) than we expend, and it’s all good in the hood, right? Wrong. Everyone hates diets because A) They don’t work, and B) They take away our yum-yums…not the yum-yums! So, we build this loathsome emotional reaction when it comes to diets because we don’t see them as effective tools at leading an energetic, medication-free, healthy lifestyle; we see them as ripping our favorite toy away and smacking our hands while doing it.
So, what’s the solution?
First, stop using the word diet. Don’t think it, don’t say it, don’t even think it (yeah, I said it twice). Diets are a plague, an irrational irresponsible and unreasonable knee-jerk response to a condition that requires a lot more than skipping the office’s desert-of-the-day and our usual one-or-six of carcinogen-colas. Diets are a horrible crime against humanity, and they must be scorched from this earth. What’s my beef with diets? Well, they didn’t take my lunch money or pick me last during recess, but they’re most-def an enemy combatant!
Second, stop setting time-definite deadlines and expirations on healthy eating! Do you just want to look and feel good for the next few weeks? The reason a diet is the quickest way to gain weight, is because as humans we’re programmed to survive – which means an entire biochemical and hormonal cascade takes place every day ensuring we seek the most calorie-dense fattening foods we can sandwich between two grease-soaked refined processed flour buns – and we’re pretty good at it too. Thing is, we live in a Utopia of readily available food. Our intrinsic cravings are met with a global industrial food manufacturing complex that creates the perfect storm of fatty-fat failure.
It isn’t about a temporary transition…it’s about a permanent paradigm transformation.
When you eat a healthy well-rounded meal-plan, you’ll find that the world of food comes alive, and rather than being starved and miserable, you’re supercharged and wonderful! Once you’re on track, don’t allow silly slip-ups to derail you, or worse yet, goofy gadgets (like weight-scales and calendars) to dictate your progress. Scales measure gravity’s effect on your body mass, period. Calendars highlight New Year’s Day, but please don’t wait till January 1st to do something you should’ve done last year (and the years before). Avoid the millions of serial Resolutioners who statistically fail before February 1st.
Give yourself the edge, give yourself some credit, and give yourself a chance. Create your own momentum by expanding your horizons of health, and discovering a new world of healthy food options abounding around you. For practical and specific guidance on how to solve your pound-problems and visit us online at www.flexyourfaith.com.
A Real Solution, not Another Resolution
