Not on a diet, this is your diet!

  I was thinking about the idea of "being on a diet". I've heard this term since I was little. My mother was always working out to her Jane Fonda along with "being on a diet". These diets were things that lasted anywhere from a couple weeks to maybe a month where you would have to cut out anything that's deemed "bad". I won't even start in on the crash diets and fad diets because that's a whole nother blog entirely! HAHA
   I've come to think that this idea of perpetually "being on a diet" has really hindered people in their quest for weight loss. There are 2 reasons I think this idea is a hindrance. One is if you're on a diet that means at some point you will be off the diet. This attitude toward nutrition causes the Yo Yo affect where you are so excited to be off the diet you go have a cheeseburger to make up for it. You haven't changed your attitude about your nutrition so you just go back to the way you were eating before and gain that weight back. I believe the solution here is to change your attitude about nutrition. Tony Horton says "knowledge is power, power is change". I love that idea because I think when people get new ideas they have the power to change. That's the idea behind this blog. My way of changing your attitude is to have you start thinking: I'm not on a diet, this IS my diet! That means you are no longer dieting, you are just making the conscious decision to make better food choices. This isn't a next 3 weeks thing, this is a rest of your life thing. There are some easy ways to start to do this without deciding one day that you're just going to cut out everything. Take one thing and focus on cutting it out, like soda or frappuccinos. Take it step by step cutting out a little more. While you cut these things out focus on eating more fresh foods. When you look at the grocery store these foods are on the outer perimeter of the store. Google some light cooking recipes and go to town! I guarantee that if you start filling your body regularly with all the vitamins and minerals it really craves that you will feel more satisfied and by extension feel really good about yourself.
  Reason number 2 that I think being on a diet is hindering your weight loss is the self esteem factor. When you're on a diet and you have decided to cut out all sweets, high fat and calorie items how do you feel if you slip one day at work when there is a potluck? Do you think well I had one so if I have 3 more it won't matter!! Then you're angry with yourself for not following through and resisting and start to feel bad about yourself. I have to say I have definitely been there. Going back to the idea of a diet, if you were never on a diet this wouldn't happen. Deciding to consistently make healthy choices means that it's ok to have something sweet maybe once a week. Or going to the BBQ and having a couple beers. You haven't fallen off the wagon because there was no wagon to fall from!

  What I'm hoping to give people with this blog is a different attitude about nutrition. I started thinking this way about 6 months ago and I'll tell you it's made me feel a lot better about my overall health.

The Secret

I heard a commercial on the radio the other day about someone having the "Secret to weight loss". I started thinking about it and there are a lot of commercials, pop ups, and diets that seem to all have this secret to weight loss. After hearing that commercial all I could think was I've got your "Secret" right here..... PATIENCE!! That's right, patience. I think that we are just way too focused on what it going to get them the fastest results. Course we are trained by our culture to want everything and have to get it right now!! I think we are missing the boat when we think this way about weight loss. Sure some of these methods of weight loss will in fact get you results but that doesn't mean they are going to stick forever. Regardless of their effectiveness how long are you going to want to live eating like they tell you to or how many wacky exercise gadgets are you going to buy..... "Shake Weight" anyone??
I read this book by Jeff Olson called The Slight Edge that has given me a lot of perspective about not only fitness but my outlook on life in general. His general idea is "compound interest" meaning when you make the right choices you're not going to see results right away. It's all about making those choices everyday and them adding up over time. These choices are easy to do and equally as easy not to do. When I really think about my workouts the hardest part is either getting there to the gym or pushing play on my dvd player. These are both easy to do and not to do and that makes all the difference in how I feel about my week when I look back.

After reading this book I have a different outlook on my future in my weight loss goals. I'm not looking for the fast fix, I'm looking for the fix that's going to last for the rest of my life. A long term outlook on my fitness allows me to not stress so much about it. I don't breakdown because I had a cookie and broke my "diet". I see that as one time I didn't make the right choice. It makes it easier to keep moving and keep pushing toward a more healthy "Me".

Isn't that what fitness is all about anyway?? Just learning to be healthy?