If I were to ask you to do something that would make you dislike your life, would you do it? Maybe you would, initially, because of a promised reward but how long could you manage?
As human beings we have some primary biological motivators, one of which is avoiding pain or discomfort. This is a primal instinct, and dieting usually does not fare well with this innately wired mechanism. The discomfort that comes from consistently restraining, restricting and depriving eventually triggers are basic need to allow.
I understand that sometimes to get what we want we feel that we have to sacrifice, be uncomfortable and push through our walls. That makes sense, to a certain point. If our discomfort and wall-busting efforts lead us to an endless obstacle course we are screwed in two ways; we will never achieve our true goal AND we will quit the game feeling worse then when we began.
I see dieting as a small compound isolated on the outskirts of our world. People get sucked in after getting lost in the wilderness and end up trying to conquer each obstacle course set before them. They focus on staying within the confines of the dieting compound, out of fear for what lies beyond the boundaries.
Why Diets Make Us Hate Our Lives
- The goal with dieting is to lose weight. The obstacle course always leads us to the end. Then we have to start all over.
- If that was your true goal, than ANY diet would work (including the eat-only-twinkies diet). Most likely your true desire is to develop a healthy relationship with food and body that lasts a lifetime.
- Dieting teaches us to be afraid of food. The obstacle course gives us no tools to explore beyond the confines of the game.
- We learn that certain foods will make us fat, sick, congested, inflamed and tired. We sometimes feel more at odds with food after a diet than before. We lose the ability to find pleasure in eating.
- Dieting teaches us to not listen to our body. The obstacle course sees you as just another participant, not a unique human being.
- We have a calorie ceiling so we do not listen to our hunger. We have not eaten all day because of wacky diet rules, so we eat beyond comfortable fullness in starvation mode. We employ will power; the essence of which is to deny our desires.
- Dieting teaches us to listen to someone else. The obstacle course was made by someone else and we begin to believe that we cannot create our own path.
- We learn that a doctor, nutritionist or infomercial lad knows more than we do. We feel anxious about making food decisions without referring to them or their materials. We get confused in a world with thousands of different diets - teaching us that THEIR way is the best.
- Dieting teaches us what to eat. The obstacle course keeps us focused on rules rather than how we truly feel.
- Every year a new food is taken off the bad list and put on the good list and vice versa. Some Nutritionist's say you should eat carbs at every meal, others say protein. Some say grains are good, others say grains are bad. This is crazy making!
- Dieting makes us feel bad about ourselves. The obstacles wear us down, and there is no time for enjoyment or play.
- Instead of approaching ourselves with compassion, curiosity and delight we learn to treat ourselves with shame when we connect follow the rules.
If you do not like your life while dieting, chances are you will not continue living it in that way. It is time to quit the dieting and emerge into the world with your happiness and pleasure intact!
To a day of free-roaming pleasure with eating!
Natalie provides local and long distance Nutritional Counseling using her exclusive formula for long lasting natural weight management.
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