Diets: Designed to Make You Fail?
Ditch Diets Forever And Still Be Healthy!
One of the biggest reasons people relapse when dieting is because it is just that: a diet. Diets are not sustainable, and often they eliminate nutrients that are essential for optimal health.
People also become overwhelmed with the whole “change everything at once” idea. The fact that you need to eliminate anything and everything that is potentially bad for you – immediately – and never eat it again is not logical or sustainable. And quite frankly, it is excessive.
In my opinion, I think that is how diets are designed: so that you DO come back. I mean, after all, they are running a business, right? Take for instance diets that make you count your calories or “points”. You cannot count calories every.single.day of your life. It is just not practical.
So what happens?
You go on the diet, count your intake, lose weight, go off your diet, and then over time you gain back the weight you have lost and return to the diet program to lose weight again. It’s a vicious cycle that I believe has negatively impacted our views on health, and has created a toxic relationship with food as a result.
What we need is something more sustainable and stable. We need a lesson plan rather than a diet; something that you can maintain the rest of your life, something stable. A plan that teaches you to live a healthier lifestyle that you can incorporate every day. I truly believe that when you actually learn how to make these lifestyle changes, you are less likely to revert back to unhealthy ways. It’s like the quote, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” You can absolutely follow trendy 30-day diets or 7-day cleanses, but if you haven’t actually learned how to change, chances are you will always revert back to old ways.
With my 70/30 Plan, I recommend people start by identifying ONE area (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) you have the most difficulty eating healthy and starting here. From here, you begin learning how to meal plan for that one area to ensure you are eating healthier choices for at least one meal a day.
Once you have mastered meal planning and eating one meal a day healthy, you are ready to transition towards eating healthier for the majority part of your daily meals. This allows for flexibility, but is also sustainable, something you can maintain as a lifestyle rather than a quick-fix.
It simply is not realistic to expect to eat everything healthy every day for the rest of your life. Quite frankly, if you go in with that mentality, you are positioning yourself for failure and guilt on the days you deviate from your diet. You have to remember holidays, vacations, birthday parties, business dinners, and life in general.
Allow yourself some flexibility!
The best plan is a sustainable one that allows for areas of moderation, but the majority of the time making healthier choices. This plan is a foundational approach, starting with a few small changes that eventually grow into something much larger, but at your pace and with the flexibility that work best for you. Make sure to check out my 70/30 Plan on my website that helps people transition towards eating healthier by learning how to meal prep the Fairy Gutmother way. As part of the plan, I encourage people to start by making two proteins on their prep day and then thinking of 3 different meals to make with each protein. Then, prepare your fix-ins needed to make those meals. For instance, say you oven roasted a chicken on your prep day. From here, you can make a waldorf chicken salad, chicken bone broth with the chicken carcass, and a nourishing chicken noodle soup. The idea is really creating a salad bar in your fridge so when you come home at night, all you do is assemble ingredients, cutting down on prep time. Plus, this way your meal prep stays fresh throughout the week, and it is as though you spent all evening in the kitchen when, in reality, you simply assembled ingredients. Check out my 70/30 Plan Recipe pages for more ideas on easy recipes to prep and have throughout the week!
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