Are You Dieting The Right Way? (Or, Why You’re Doomed To Fail And What To Do About It)

Are you dieting? Thinking about going on a diet? Constantly on-again off-again with your diet? Or maybe you’re simply ‘trying to eat well’. Well let me ask you this – how’s all that working out for you? Whether or not you care to admit it, there’s a fair chance you’re not dieting the right way. In fact, the typical dieter’s eating pattern tends to be nothing more than a mish-mash of ideas gained from different magazines, online articles, TV shows, and their own ideas about food wrongs vs rights.

Now, considering that the vast majority of ‘actual’ diets (as in, following a structured diet plan from a book, magazine, nutritionist) doom you to failure, with only 5% of dieters reaching their goals, and further considering that most of these are designed by health or nutrition ‘experts’ (let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, although I strongly suspect many of them either made it up themselves or learned from the school of Kellogs whether  knowingly or not) how is it that you imagine that you might be able to come up with a successful diet plan that just happens to cover your nutritional needs as well as leaving you feeling and looking your best?

Let me save you some trouble – it’s not going to happen. And yet somehow, amazingly, even the smartest of people will manage to overlook the obviousness of this fact, and proudly announce that they’re following a diet they “put together themselves”. Start with some bad reality TV advice, add a dash of whichever-trendy-fitness-periodicals-you-reads-latest-nutrition-advice, cut out the things you don’t like or that you feel have wronged you in another life, or that morally you’re convinced you shouldn’t eat, cross your fingers, spin around clockwise three times, and add some lemon and pepper just to cover yourself. That seems to be pretty much the basis of most do-it-yourself-diets.

Before you think I’m getting just a little too comfy up here on my high horse, know this –

I’ve been there. And not just for a little while, either. I designed my own diet for years. There was the ‘eat nothing but fruit before lunch’ phase. The ‘8 mugs of low-cal diet hot chocolate’ per day phase. The rice crackers and tuna phase and not a heck of a lot more phase. The soup diet. The no-sugar no-meat no-dairy diet. The ‘if I feel like it’ vegetarian phase. When I think about it, I’m lucky I didn’t develop some sort of severe degenerative disease. Fortunately, most of this experimentation came just after my developing teenage years, rather than during. I learned the hard way (and I truly hope I can help you avoid or stop the same weight loss and health despair I went through), but learn I did. And let me tell you this – the one thing I’ve learned above all else is that just because you’re all grown up and can (in theory) think for yourself and eat whatever you darn well please, doesn’t mean you should. And nor should you imagine for a minute that you’re capable of understanding the intricate needs of the human body just because you own one. The brainwashing and hypocrisy of modern-day nutritional advice is simply so effective that, for the most part, you don’t even realize it’s got you by the balls.

Wouldn’t it be nice, wouldn’t it just be such a relief, to finally happen onto a diet plan that was actually sustainable for the rest of your life? One that doesn’t involve strange food combinations, or the counting of anything other than how much money you’ve saved on all those no-good low-fat foods? One that was designed around eating foods that your body truly desires and needs for optimal health? A lifestyle diet that not only allows you to slowly but steadily reach your ideal weight, but actually improves every aspect of your wellbeing and energy, and one that you can just tell is right for you?

Reality?

This is not such an impossible dream. Of course some of the ingredients may be a little bitter to swallow at first (no, just because it’s labeled ‘diet’, ‘low-cal’ or ‘low-fat’ does not mean it’s okay; yes, whole-grains still count as a processed food; sorry, but soy actually is not a food at all; like it or not but vegetable oils are among the stupidest food choices you can make), but that’s just the effects of the brainwashing wearing off.

And sooner or later you’ll realize that eating the way your body wants you to eat is simply delightful. Are you allowed to eat rich and indulgent foods? Yes – if you’re talking about nature’s beauties such as red meat and other hearty animal proteins, eggs including the yolks, (preferably raw) full-fat dairy, whole avocados, coconut fats of every kind. Think about this for a moment – would you ever consider binging on steak and eggs? Scarfing down 3 or 4 avocados in a sitting? Sneakily working your way through 4 or 5 huge bowls of fresh green veg? The foods that are truly intended for you for good health are those that you will naturally eat in the amount your body needs. Perhaps a little extra if they’re particularly well prepared. Those foods that you just can’t say no to? The toast, the flavored yogurts or milk, the fruit or fruit juice, the pasta and rice and noodles and, oh, the creamy mashed potato – and you know I haven’t even mentioned the really bad stuff – tell me honestly, even though you might not binge out on these foods regularly, they’re sure a heck of a lot harder to eat only in moderation, aren’t they?

Do you think maybe there could be a reason for this?

The truth is that nature is not as nurturing as we might like to believe. She tricks us, seduces us, gets us addicted to substances that addle and confuse our minds, and then bites back viciously when we’re silly enough to think we can outwit or control her. Did you know, for example, that poppy seeds were one of the first foods to be farmed? Nobody’s going to try and say that this was for nutritional purposes, are they? Even animals have been known to become addicted to and intoxicated by nature’s bounties, and to suffer illness and even death as a result. Addiction is a fact of nature, and many of those so-called health foods are the modern day definition of said fact. The long and short of it is that just because it’s ‘natural’, just because it tastes good, doesn’t mean you should be eating it.

Isn’t it time to get back to basics, to stop being persuaded by the puppets of the diet industry, to get off the fad rollercoaster, and to return to a diet that truly will sustain you for life?

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