The word diet has taken on an erroneous definition. Recently, more and more Fit2You clients have been seeking our advice and recommendations on “diets”. Seeking the best diet to quickly shed pounds or pack on muscle.
A diet is not a strategy to quickly achieve any physical change. More importantly, a diet is not a means to an end. A diet is a lifestyle - it’s your lifestyle. What you eat says a lot about the person you are and what’s important to you.
Beyond the simple clean eating means you care about health and poor eating habits mean you don’t, diets can be political statements (vegans & vegetarians) or address specified concerns (diabetes or celiac disease). No matter how we eat, we are all on a diet.
The notion that going on a “diet” is needed for weight loss is wrong and often leads to failure. Dieting isn’t the key, changing your lifestyle is the key.
Reflect upon your own values and what is important to you. If you dislike the way animals are treated, try vegetarianism or veganism. If maintaining a health body weight is important to you, try lean proteins, limited high quality carbs, and lots of a fruits and vegetables. Choose your lifestyle and seek out qualified experts to advise you on structuring a diet suited for that lifestyle.
Weight loss programs such as Nutrisystem, Sensa, or crash diets may help you lose weight but without changing your lifestyle to match your goals, failure is likely.
Consider Nutrisystem and other “prepared meal” plans. You order 6 weeks worth of meals which come packaged and ready to eat . You lose 10 pounds in 6 weeks. What do you do for week 7? Order more ? Go back to your old habits? Research shows most participants return to their old habits and gain the weight back. These participants didn’t change their lifestyle.
A big topic of discussion in our facilities is The Biggest Loser. The show participants make dramatic changes in their immediate lives, but not their lifestyle. Accordingly, nearly all of The Biggest Loser participants gain the weight back after the show ends.
The Biggest Loser does a great job teaching healthy eating and exercise habits, and providing valuable education to carry forward. The Biggest Loser’s failure is that it teaches these habits in a vacuum. Show participants are free from the stress and time constrains of work, family, and life. Not adjusting a lifestyle to ones life is a setup for failure.
Whatever your goal, the fitness and health professionals at Fit2You will help you build a plan to achieve these goals within the strictures of your life. We will help you develop a lifestyle plan that fits into your life. We
will work around the hurdles in your life and support you throughout.
I encourage you to contact Fit2You, have a discussion with one of our professionals - info@fit2youfitness.com.
Remember: "If you've got it, flaunt it. If you don't, get it with us."
