Food Is Not The Enemy!
How many diet books have you read personally? Five, ten or even more? Each one promises the key to weight loss; the secret to success. Problem is, most of them are dead wrong because they operate on wrong principles.
These authors will lock you into a regimented approach of calorie counting, weighing food portion, focusing on macronutrients or opening a package of funky diet powder. It’s all based on the premise of control – that is – you micro-manage what goes into your body and the end result is success. Problem is, we don’t have to time to micro-manage our eating. We have kids, multiple jobs, schools or any other life factors that always get in the way. And besides that, what happened to being able to enjoy food, instead of treating it like an enemy?
A new way to look at eating should be based on internal motivation. You’re simply not going to do something unless you’re convinced it need to be done. But if you make your health a responsibility which spurns you to action because you know it may help you live longer, feel better, create success and impact others (family, friends, spouse, etc), then that becomes the motivation to change.
The biggest successes I’ve had with clients have been because of these factors. If you simply read a book and the author convinces you to change because of their dietary approach, you’ll probably fail. The motivation didn’t come from within you and it won’t sustain you.
“The substance of food is not what makes one obese. It all comes back to our food choices and what we do with them that make these choices good or bad."
Truth is, food is one of the joys of life and restricting intake to an abnormal level never works for long. That fact has been proven through tens of thousands of diets. But we do have to understand the value of nutrition, the dangers of food refinement, and to eat for nourishment, not for gluttony.
As the above quote implies, it does not mean that we cannot enjoy some indulgences. But we should keep things in moderation to maintain good health. No one in their right mind would advocate three bags of chips with a couple of cokes while watching a movie and think it won't affect them in a negative manner.
While there are certain foods I simply won't eat because they are so heavily refined, I love alternatives. Homemade chips (veggie or potato) oven baked and drizzled in olive oil and sea salt are a killer alternative, allowing you to maintain weight and health, and keep things in moderation.
Once you make the decision that your health actually matters to you, you’ll do everything possible to make maintain or achieve it. And anything you do on a daily basis, no matter how small the approach, will give you greater success than a large scale, but scattered attack. Do the little things that need to be done and do them consistently. Then do them for the right reasons (your health), to have long term success.