Why Do We Cheat On Our Diets?

If only we could solve this question, the world (for many) would be a better place! Well, the reality is that there are real answers to this question that will apply to many people. It will take a good dose of reality and a brave heart to stop denying what really happens. Read on to discover some answers that may change your life forever and give you the impetus to lose weight and keep it off!

Justification?

Being overweight can be used as an excuse for being unhappy, especially when you do not do anything to help yourself. Subconsciously, over-eating is a comfort for many people and this then allows them to hide behind their weight problem and helps them to justify rejection and avoid being hurt. They can then shift the blame of rejection on their weight-problem, without addressing other aspects of their fears. Sometimes it seems easier to hide behind your “weight problem”, than address other matters where you may have a greater fear of failure.

Eating Without Thinking?

If you are concentrating on another activity while you are eating you are more likely to overeat because you are not fully aware of how full you are feeling. This factor can be difficult to change because it is not a conscious action. Try to only eat when you don’t have a lot of other distractions. Sit down, eat slowly and enjoy the food you are eating, and remember that it is not always necessary to go back for seconds. It takes 20 minutes for food to reach your stomach and for your brain to register that you are full.

Cravings?

The famous “Pavlov’s dogs” were conditioned to eat at the sound of a bell, and we human are much the same when it comes to habitual cravings. If you wonder why you always feel like a chocolate when you sit down to watch a movie, or you have to have a box of popcorn….think again. You are not necessarily craving these foods because you are hungry, but rather consider force of habit. During the time when you have a craving, try to ask yourself whether you are really hungry or not. If you are hungry, reach for a low fat snack rather than a chocolate bar or bag of crisps.

Indulging?

Eating or thinking about food can be a distraction from your troubles and you may therefore be unnecessarily over-eating. Emotions and hormones can trigger certain cravings, for example, if you are feeling low, chocolate and carbohydrates assist the production of serotonin in your brain. Serotonin helps you feel happier. This is why we might crave sweet or starchy foods during times of sadness or stress.

If you identify with any of the above factors, you could be on your way towards discovering what is triggering you to overeat.

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Why Do We Gain Weight?

There are many factors that cause us to increase body weight, yet three stand out from the rest.

Our genetic make up Every cell in our body has a central control panel, that is a nucleus that contains our genes and chromosomes. This is the instruction manual for your body and this is inherited from your parents. It is this instruction manual that is largely responsible for how your body, and even your mind, behaves.

The environment in which we liveOur personal environment may also contribute or cue you to adopt poor eating or exercise habits. This is especially true in today's society, which is dominated by speed and convenience. For example, escalators, elevators and remote-control appliances make us less physically active. Also, greater availability and the constant marketing of foods that are high in calories, fat and added sugars, and larger portion sizes promote unhealthy eating behaviors.

There may also be personal reasons why you are consuming too many kilojoules from food and

Knowing the reason why you may be consuming excess kilojoules or not participating in physical activity, is an important first step in changing your lifestyle habits to help you reach a healthy weight.

drinks, or not being physically active enough. For example, when feeling down or bored you may eat more than you need, or if you are feeling depressed it is more difficult to get active.
Our lifestyle What we eat and drink and how active we are. This is the gradual gain in weight as a result of eating food and not exercising enough.

The extent to which we can affect our genetic make up and our environment are limited. However, lifestyle is the area in which we can significantly manage and if need be, improve our body weight to ensure we maintain a healthy weight for our height, age and gender. This is why learning a healthy nutritious eating pattern and adopting it for life, that is, lifestyle changes has a significant impact on our ability to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Gaining and losing weight works according to some a simple biological principle. When you consume more energy in the form of food and drinks that your body uses each day you will gain weight. When you consume less energy in the form of food and drinks that your body requires each day you will lose weight.

Despite what some advertisers would have use believe, weight loss does not occur as a result of any of the following:

* Supplements that will melt the fat while you sleep or while you wash

* Exercises that don’t take any effort and cause no sweat

* Unique food combinations that will allow you to eat what you want and still lose weight

In order to lose weight you will need to know approximately your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Your RMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest in a 24 hour period. When your body gets about 500 less calories than it needs each day as a result of eating less or exercising more, you will lose one pound of weight per week. To illustrate how efficient the human body is in motion, the average female would need to go for a brisk walk for 1.5 to 2.0 hours in order to burn 500 calories.

When you consume 500 calories a day more than your body’s requirements, you will gain approximately one pound a week! To illustrate how easy it is to gain weight, one 7oz bag of corn chips has approximately 1000 calories. If you ate a bag of corn chips every day in addition to three square meals its possible you could gain 2 pounds in a week!

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Why dont diets work?

It is a widely reported FACT that 95% of diets don't work! That fact doesn't stop over 75% of people saying they had been on diet in the last year. So this being the case what’s the point in losing 20 Lbs, and gaining back 25Lbs and why do people do it? There is no doubt that there is great pressure over the last few years to look 'thin'.

So why do diets fail?  That's the million dollar question. The main reason diets fail is we are guilty of falling for the latest cleaver marketing campaign. Over the last 10 years there has been a stack of diets on the market many endorsed by Hollywood stars.

Many of these diets DO work, BUT only short term. They often do produce quick weight loss and fantastic results. The problem is maintaining the weight loss as it is very difficult to stick to these eating plans. They are simply too boring. Once you lose the weight it is all too easy to slip back into your old ways and go back to your normal calorie intake. This will result in weight being put back on probably as fast as you lost it  - often you will end up heavier that when you started the 'diet'.

Healthy eating plan
The best method to lose weight is through a healthy eating plan and exercise. It's about re-educating how you eat and what you eat. It's not rocket science. Don't fry food or take fast food takeaways. Cut out the chips and chocolate or least cut it back. Have fruit instead. Drink lots of water. If you are finding it difficult to stick to the healthy eating plan don't torture yourself, allow yourself a treat once a week, but don't over do it - always moderation.

Exercise is key
The bottom line is that exercise is good for you and helps with your entire wellbeing. It doesn't matter if you run, swim, play football or do 1-on-1 Pilates – exercise is what your body needs. Exercise will improve your muscle tone, help you control your weight, reduce your blood pressure, help prevent heart disease.

Let's face it: Not everyone can be thin. But you can reach and maintain your best weight! It's not easy. But it's possible. Your genes may affect your susceptibility to obesity, but some people simply eat too many calories.  So battle the bulge with a plan that includes developing - and maintaining -a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. So in conclusion eat sensibly and maintain some sort of exercise even if it just a 10 minute walk each day!

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Writing For Your Weight Loss Success

Motivation is one of the key variables for the equation that yields long term weight loss success. The question is how do you maintain the motivation to attain the ultimate goal? Regardless if your weight loss goal is 20 pounds or 100 pounds you must change your thinking to change your behavior and writing makes that happen.

Weight loss really does begin in your head. Every successful athlete understands that his thinking process is either working for him or against him. The same holds true with weight loss. If your internal dialogue is negative, your results will eventually manifest the same result! You can’t degrade yourself to a healthy new you! You must change your thinking to work for you, to build your resolve, and to maintain that all important motivational factor.

Writing is an exercise that will help your mind change its thinking! It allows you to process the negative emotions and helps to instill the positive changes. Start with these simple exercises:

1. The Negative Emotions Daily Dump: Many success coaches advocate writing out your negative thinking on a daily basis. Simply spend approximately 15 minutes writing out all the frustrations, bad feelings, and discouragement. This helps you to process these bad feelings out of your system so that you can make room for positive affirmations. Do not reread the entries and do not keep them. Write it out, and then throw it out. We call this the Negative Emotions Daily Dump.

2. Affirm Your Goals: Prepare a list of affirmations that will help your subconscious work with your conscious brain to make those all important behavioral changes. Then write your affirmations at least twice a day. Write them once after you have written your Negative Emotions Daily Dump. Don’t do the Negative Dump without filling it with the positive affirmations. You should always end with this. Write the second set of affirmations either right before you go to bed or first thing in the morning. Read your affirmations several times a day.

3. Understand your Motivations: In order to stay motivated you must understand your real reasons for losing weight. In other words, understand why YOU want to lose weight. Not why your spouse or friends want you to lose weight but why losing the weight is important to you. Do you really want more energy? Do you just love skinny clothes? Do you want to participate in an activity that would be easier if you were slim and healthy? Write these motivations out in detail so that you can solidify them in your head and they can continue to motivate you through the entire weight loss journey.

4. Accountability: Keep a food diary. Keeping a food diary has been proven time and time again to increase your weight loss success by as much as 50%! A food log is your accountability factor. It keeps you honest with yourself.

5. Visualize: Visualize yourself enjoying the portions of your weight loss program that you are currently struggling to do. For instance if you hate the cardio portion of your day, start seeing yourself loving it. See it as “”your time”. It can be your time to read while you’re on the stationary bike. Or your time to watch all those movies you feel guilty watching any other time. Once you begin to visualize positive feelings about a certain activity the easier that activity will become.

6. The Pat-On-The-Back: Keep a written log of your weight loss success. By writing down your weight loss on a weekly basis you are validating your efforts and giving yourself a pat-on-the-back. This will go a long way to keeping you on track.

Keep in mind that if you are utilizing the assistance of a personal fitness trainer or weight loss professional that they may use techniques to help you face your self-defeating habits. This might feel harsh and negative, however it isn’t. Honesty is necessary to motivate change and this is different than running yourself down! Sometimes we have to hear the hard words to make the hard changes. Keep in mind that these professionals are seeking your ultimate success. Your success is their success. Let’s face it, the weight gain started with you and to change that behavior you may have to deal with some uncomfortable feelings. A good trainer will help you feel cared about while still insisting that you deal with your bad habits. It’s a good thing to be pushed past your comfort zone to becoming a better you!

Writing is the new “exercise” that can make all the rest of your weight loss efforts including good nutrition, exercise, and resistance training work for you because you will be working with these principles instead of against them. You will start seeing these weight loss techniques as a positive and permanent part of your life, instead of a temporary device. That will result in faster results that last forever!

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You Are Not Doomed To Be Fat Forever

I know, you're probably thinking you have to diet to lose weight. But nothing could be further from the truth. With rare exceptions, most people were born into normal weight bodies. But then we learned to diet.

Dieting causes the body to go into survival mode. Dieting itself sparks the intense biological urge to consume large quantities of high calorie foods.  It causes the body's instinctual drives to override all intellectual controls. It primes the body to maximize food intake and minimize energy burned.

Diets have set us up to fight against our own physical survival, the body's most basic instinct. 

As a comparison, think of how difficult life would be if you had to go to the bathroom on a rigid schedule. What if you only allowed yourself to urinate 3 times a day?

At 8 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. you could release exactly 5 ounces. You'd measure it - of course - to be sure it was the right amount. If you needed to go more, you would force yourself to wait until the next scheduled time. And too bad if you needed to go at 10 am, hold it until noon.

You would be miserable. Your body would have a very difficult time complying with an arbitrary schedule. It would probably get ugly.

Overeating because your body refuses to starve doesn't make you a failure. It means you're human.
*It doesn't make you diseased.
*It doesn't mean you are flawed forever.
*It doesn't doom you to being permanently sick and trying to recover for the rest of your life.
*It means you did the best you could at the time.
*It means you can forgive yourself and move on.

Eating is the most natural thing we do and your body knows exactly what it needs to live at it's very best. All you have to do is practice listening and  ACT on the information. Your body knows what to do. Just as it knows how to breathe, reproduce, and heal.

Think of how children live, we can learn a lot from them…
*They rest when they are tired.
*They run, jump, swim, dance, and play as much as they can because it feels good and it's fun.
*They are picky about what they eat. They'll go hungry rather than settle for something they don't love.
*They eat when they're hungry.
*Once they feel full, they have to be tricked or bribed into eating even one more bite of food.
*They drink when they're thirsty.
*They love their bodies and they don't care how their thighs look or if their tummy isn't flat and tight.
*They don't have to think about all this. It just comes naturally and easily as a part of being human.

All of these natural instincts live in each of us, too.

We all have the inborn ability to take care of ourselves. We just have to remember. We just have to get back in the habit of listening to our bodies…of following their wisdom. Remember, a normal body weight is your birthright. It was stolen from you. Now you get to take it back.

So stop thinking of yourself as forever fat. You are not doomed to either being overweight or to being on a perpetual diet. Let overeating and overweight fade into the past. They served you well to keep you alive. Once you stop dieting and accept the body you were born with, you can return to your unique, normal weight.

I'm not suggesting everyone is going to be model-skinny. The endless, tyrannical pressure to be very thin is a big part of the problem. Some bodies are meant to be soft and curvy. Others are naturally sharp and angular. We are variously stocky, tall, fleshy, muscular, sinewy, short, etc. There is wonderful beauty in diversity.

Accepting and loving the unique beauty of your body will heal you and set you free. Be like a child and delight in the body you have. Cherish the power in your muscles. Enjoy the feeling of being alive here on this planet. Let go of having to look a certain way. Be yourself. Let someone else try to be like the models or celebrities. The world will be a better place if it gets to have the real, unique, special person that YOU are.

Believe in your own healing. Believe that you can live easily and naturally at your own ideal weight. That faith is a huge part of what will set you free. Eating normally is completely natural. Deep down you know how to do it.

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