When you think of the word diet do you envision a lone carrot stick and a cup of water? Perhaps you feel tense and empty every time you think of “going on a diet.” Unfortunately, diet is often associated with deprivation, restriction and struggle.
The problem with the word diet is that it is used as a verb instead of a noun. In actuality, we should be thinking not so much of a diet as something we do, but rather as something that is. A diet is technically the sum of the food that you consume. It is the energy necessary to fuel the body.
The fact that we buy into the media hype that we can deprive ourselves of calories and nutrients for a certain amount of time and revert to old eating and lifestyle habits and keep our weight down is ludicrous at best.
But for some reason, millions of Americans announce every day that they are dieting. What they are actually doing is starving the body of the fuel that it needs to be healthy.
What generally happens when we “diet” is that we lose a lot of water and muscle mass, and put back all the weight we may have lost, plus some, once we actually start eating again. The body is very smart; if we starve it of nutrients it will hang on to all that it gets once the food is replenished. This is rather counterproductive, to say the least.
Think about it: if diet food companies created a two week wonder food that magically melted away the pounds, never to return – they would go out of business. It is no accident that once you start a particular “program” you have to become a slave to it. The minute you let up a bit and begin to consume “real” food again, the pounds return with a vengeance.
So, now that we are straight on the fact that diet is a sum of food, we must decide on what is the best food to make up that sum. The best food is not a specific diet shake, or weight loss frozen meal, but rather whole food, as close to its natural state as possible, that will provide the fuel that the body needs to burn fat and keep it off.
Making the Change
Switching from a diet that is void in vitamins and nutrients to a whole food, fresh, nutritious diet should be a gradual process. Health is a journey, and because you did not get unhealthy overnight you cannot expect to regain good health overnight, either. However, the minute you start to fuel your body with the right foods, it will respond.
If your diet is mainly comprised of boxed, bagged, canned or fast food, start by cutting these out, but also by replacing them with valuable fuel that the body can actually use. Think of it this way: bad out and good in. You cannot merely cut out the bad without replacing the good.
So, if you eat a lot of potato chips, replace your potato chips with an avocado. You have just changed one part of your diet from void and useless to highly nutritious and valuable.
Making small changes like this leads to success, and you will never feel deprived or cheated. In actuality, you will probably begin to feel more satisfied as your body responds to the good energy you are providing.
Once your diet is comprised of all great things, your body will naturally gravitate towards a healthy weight. There will be no need for two week programs or special pills because you have created an optimal state within your body where it has what it needs to function at its best.
Remember, being overweight is not a condition, it is merely a symptom of a body out of balance. It is a body crying out to be nourished. Don’t think about deprivation and health together. Good health does not come through deprivation, but rather through the mindful consumption of whole foods and wise lifestyle choices.
Aren’t you glad to know that you don’t have to dread the”D” word anymore?
-The Alternative Daily
