[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]There are many reasons why diets don’t work but one of the main reasons is mindset. When a person thinks of going on a ‘diet’ they think of it as a temporary situation for their goal outcome, something that will stop when they reach that ultimate scale goal. Some of these so called diet fads will definitely have one shedding the pounds and some even fast, but often in unhealthy or even dangerous ways. There are many ways of adjusting food intake ratios that will have most people shedding the pounds, but often times gaining back the pounds even faster when they stop, or more often then not packing on even more then they previously carried. Why is this? Because while changing food ratios whether it is from calorie intake, fat intake or doing the ridiculous, like just eating cabbage soup, will take off initial weight because the drastic change in caloric, fat, or low healthy carbohydrate intake (not those from wheat and seeds of grass, more on this in the blog, Why Paleo and Wheat Belly are Not Fad Diets but Lifestyles). While you get the short-term weight loss your body creates long-term problems from your quick fix diet, like lowering the metabolic rate in which you burn fat to increase your survival from starvation because of lack of caloric and fat intake to the body. Your body also starts to use muscle for energy instead of fat, in times of perceived famine, which often happens in fad diets. When you have less muscle you burn less calories in a day, both in physical activity and at rest. Then once you go back to eating those forbidden foods from your fad diet you gain all the weight back and more, from the excess of calories, fat and carbs that your now lower metabolic rate and lack of muscle can’t keep up with. Your body needs fat and healthy carb calories to work properly, maintain muscle, and burn off visceral fat without going into famine mode.
The fat free fad that hit our food markets in the late 1980’s exploded as shelves were restocked with “fat free” prepackaged foods like Snackwell cookies which took out fats, to be replaced with more carbs and sugars to keep them tasty and addicting. This fad started off of reading the wrong information out of scientific work and ignoring other major factors in their research, but started out of the fear that consuming a high fat diet would cause cardiac disease. We now know this is not true. More evidence is moving toward the blame being unhealthy carbs like, sugar and wheat. This ‘fat free’ fad was the beginnings of making American’s fatter then ever. By 2010 more then two-thirds adult American’s (68.8 percent) were overweight and 35.7 percent obese. From between 1980- 2012 the childhood obesity epidemic grew from 7% to 18%. There was even a sickening statistic of 6% newborns being overweight, newborns! This was because of how mothers ate when pregnant and, did you guess, formulas mothers gave their babies. One popular brand formula I read contained both sugar and high fructose corn syrup, more like a baby milk shake. Next time you go to the grocery store pick any packaged item up and it may shock you most either contain some form of sugar and or wheat product, even salad dressings, soups and candies like Twizlers.
The only way to successfully lose weight and keep it off is to change your lifestyle. Change the way you think of foods, and what foods you eat, what you think of fitness and movement, how you handle stress levels, and sleep. Sounds like a huge undertaking, and in todays society it can be. We have been conditioned to a new fast food world for our new fast moving lifestyle. Mom no longer stays home to take care of home and hearth, and while it was an undeniably huge leap in liberty for women to earn the right to be considered a equal to man, it also damaged key healthy fundamentals of the importance of the job of taking care of that hearth and home. We have lost the simple knowledge of how to take care of our families’ wellbeing, whether that is the woman or mans or a combination of both men and women’s job. Simple fundamentals like how to cook have been nearly lost, for example, when a college student is sent out into the real world, they might not even know how to boil an egg, let alone cook a healthy dinner not prepackaged in a box or can.
We have demonized exercise, into a no fun, have to do, obstacle, instead of something we love to do like, going out dancing or playing outside with your kids as you toss and run after a ball. When our parents were young they had to play outside, there was no video games and hours of television. Belief was instilled in kids early on the importance of movement. But today we take off gym class at school, and let the kids play with their electronics all day and then wonder why when they become adults they hate the idea of working out. Fitness should be easy and enjoyable something you look forward to doing, and not be a stagnant same old gym routine you hate to do every day, unless you get a kick out of that (but remember to switch it up to trick your muscles into fat burning when stagnant).
You must find things to do, and foods that are healthy that you love to eat and make it a way of life, not a temporary solution. This will help with stress levels as exercise, especially forms that you enjoy release serotonin the ‘happy’ hormone. If you can, do some exercise outdoors as well, that will add in some vitamin D and fresh air which helps children and adults sleep better at night. You should also make sure to set a time for bed and wake up and stick to it, there is a reason toddlers get cranky off schedule. Sleep is a time of healing for the body; we need our daily-allotted fix. Eat healthy, a seed of grass and sugar free, healthy carb intake lifestyle, full of healthy fats and calories (more on why grain free/sugar free in these blogs and why: Why Grain Free and Why Sugar Free) along with some form of movement, and lots of good sleep is the only way to see a lasting result in your future for a healthy mind, body and spirit. Before you go to start a ‘diet,’ think, is this something I could do forever and be happy, healthy and satisfied with? If the answer is no then the results won’t last and you have lost precious time and maybe more importantly, health in your life. How do you plan to change your lifestyle to get healthy and gain lasting results? Share below.
Until next time, enjoy the good life,
Woman on the Journey[/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]JTNDcCUyMGNsYXNzJTNEJTIyc2lnbmF0dXJlJTIyJTNFQW1hbmRhJTIwSmVhbiUzQyUyRnAlM0UlMjA=[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]References:
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]