DIET: What is it

One of the worst things ever said about the word diet is this:

"The first three letters of diet are DIE."

I've heard it before, but the most shocking place I read it was in an Anthony Robbins book. I find it incredible that a guy who talks about the power of positive thinking would cast such a negative view on something so neutral.

Diet is a noun. It just means the food you normally consume. You can have a good diet, you can have a bad diet, you can make and follow diet plans, but in the end, your diet is just the food you eat. It's a completely neutral concept.

Oh, I understand. We THINK of diet being a particular diet (e.g. Adkins Diet, South Beach Diet) or of eating food we really don't like in hopes of losing weight. It carries a lot of negativity with it, but that's the first thing you need to get rid of. You can eat nothing but cheeseburgers, but it's still a diet. Albeit, a bad one. The only time you're not "dieting" is if you are starving yourself and eating nothing at all.

I'm not a fan of specific fad diets. Why? Well, they aren't enjoyable in the least and they aren't sustainable. Most fad diets aren't even meant to be sustainable. You're supposed to eat X foods for Y days, lose so many pounds...and then what? You haven't learned any long term eating habits to help you keep the weight off, so you end up gaining all that weight back. One plan I do actually like is the Body for Life plan, because it actually teaches you long term healthy eating habits. But in all reality, I don't think you really need to pay somebody to understand how you should be eating.

All those things you learned as a kid about eating habits are still true. Eat your fruit and vegetables. Don't eat too many sweets. Don't snack too much. Don't overeat. Eat balanced meals. Drink lots of water. So on and so on.

The problem is, along the way we deviated from those simple maxims. We prefer foods that are tasty and with our busy lives it's so much easier to stop at a drive-thru or make quick meals that are boxed, canned or frozen...made possible by excessive amounts of sodium and preservatives. It's hard to find a lot of really healthy options out there, you have to scour the grocery aisles and menus to find healthy choices. What's worse, so many supposed healthy foods have hidden sugar and sodium which cheat us out of our efforts.

And once you've gotten used to eating all that sugar and sodium and preservatives, your body expects them. But they aren't healthy. And you've probably eaten that way for so long you don't even realize how rotten your body feels after eating all of that. But trust me, your body feels it. If you eat healthy for a while, you're going to discover that all those foods you thought were tasty really aren't, and they make your body feel miserable.

You have to break the cycle. You have to commit yourself to exploring the nutrition labels, reading nutrition guides for restaurants (most are available online), and finding recipes that are healthy. You would be surprised how many more calories or how much more sodium and fat are in the simplest of things you eat. Chose a salad (and throw out the usual dressing) over a hamburger. Chose fruit instead of potato chips. Not really tough decisions, but you do have to make the decision.

Rather than explore ways to get weight off in super-fast ways, it's better for you to make proper dietary decisions from the beginning, so that when you do hit your target weight, you'll be able to keep making those decisions and maintain your hard earned losses.

In future posts, I'll begin fleshing out how you can make a proper, sustainable diet plan. It will require some homework, but in the end you'll be glad you did.

Cheers