Tag Archive for: weight cycling

How to Avoid the One Last Diet Trap

You realize that the diets you’ve been on all these years have not served you well. More than likely the weight that you lost found you again. It’s depressing and you feel distraught. You really want to lose this weight once and for all.

But the diets haven’t worked. Well, maybe they worked short term, meaning you did lose weight when you followed them. But that weight loss was short-lived (research shows dieters regain weight within 1-5 years).

You’ve heard about the anti-diet approach to eating. But somehow, that doesn’t sound logical to you. From what you’ve read on the internet, Intuitive Eating means eat what you want, when you want. (Nah, that’s not what Intuitive Eating is at all. I’ll get into that on another blog)

Either way, you’ve decided to look into Intuitive Eating, after all, what do you have to lose. As you consider “trying” Intuitive Eating, the thought of maybe you’ll go on one more diet to lose those X pesky pounds, and then do “Intuitive Eating”. This is what is called – falling into the “one last diet trap.”

What is the One Last Diet Trap?

This is when you decide to give up dieting to learn to become an Intuitive Eater. But your friend, colleague, coworker, mother etc. just called to say they started a new diet and it’s amazing, you should do it too.

You think about it and consider it. Maybe, just maybe, THIS will be the diet that will help you lose the weight. You decide to try this one last diet, then you’ll start Intuitive Eating.

You have just fallen into the trap!

Don’t Ignore the Facts

 Falling for that one last diet ignores the facts that:

  1. Diets do not work. For the 3-5% of people that may keep the weight off, they exhibit disordered eating and exercise habits to do so.

 

  1. The studies are clear. Approximately 95% – 97% of dieters eventually regain the weight they lost and up to 2/3rds gain back more weight than they initially lost.

 

  1. You will not find one study that shows that intentional weight loss leads to long-term weight loss.

 

  1. Rebound weight gain is defined as the regaining of weight you lost, plus more. This weight regain has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of willpower, discipline, or not following the rules you were told to follow! The fact of the matter is that your body was not programmed to be restricted. The more you restrict, the greater the rebound weight gain!

 

  1. Dieting causes your body to go into survival mode. When your body doesn’t get enough fuel, it thinks “Oh my! I need to go into survival mode. There is a threat, a famine is coming!” Your body will do anything it can to “survive” when it is not receiving the proper nutrients. When your body goes into survival mode, your metabolism decreases and you actually gain more weight!

 

Bottom Line:

The most predictable outcome of yo-yo dieting is weight cycling (losing and regaining the same weight over and over again).

Yo-yo dieting and weight cycling is detrimental to your physical and mental health!

Come join me in the 5 Day Challenge to END THE YO-YOING and learn how you can STOP the diet roller coaster once and for all!

What’s will you learn in the END THE YO-YOING Challenge?

 

CLICK HERE to learn more and register – for free!

 

We start February 1, 2021!

 

The 3 Biggest Mistakes that Keep You Yo-Yo Dieting

It’s really tough to stop dieting when you’ve been dieting for so long. Even if you intellectually know that the diets have never “worked” long term for you, you are still afraid to stop.

 

This isn’t your fault. The diet industry has you believing that you have failed the diets, yet it is the other way around. The diets have failed you.

 

The data is strong. Ninety-five to 98% of dieters regain the weight they lost within 1-5 years and 1/3-2/3’s regain even more. Are you included in this statistic?

 

Weight cycling (losing and gaining, losing and gaining) is more detrimental to your health than staying at a stable weight even if that weight is “higher” than what society deems “acceptable”.

 

Yet, you continue to diet.

 

There are 3 big mistakes that keep you yo-yo dieting.

 

Here they are:

 

Mistake #1: You are Stuck in Diet Mentality

Diets can be very tempting as they promise to help you see results quickly or with a magical ingredient that helps you lose weight without even trying. Even if you think you’ve given up dieting, keep in mind that the diet mentality is very sneaky and can show up in ways you wouldn’t have thought.

For example, if you skip carbs at dinner because you ate them for breakfast and lunch, you are still dieting. If you eat a smaller lunch because you ate a larger breakfast, you are still dieting. If you skip the cocktail hour at the wedding for fear you will overeat, you are still dieting. The list goes on and on.

See if you can identify the ways the diet mentality is sneaking up on you.

 

Mistake #2: You Put Your Self-Care on the Back Burner

In the hustle and bustle of day-to-day responsibilities, do you often forget to take the time to care for yourself? Do you feel guilty if you do take care of your own needs?

I get it. You have people that rely on you. But the problem is that when you tend to others needs and ignore your own, you are serving from an empty vessel. Instead, if you fill up your own cup first, you are serving others from a place of abundance.

It’s not being selfish to take care of yourself. Does it take practice? Yes, for some people more than others. But that’s okay. You have to start somewhere.

What is one act of self-care that you will start doing for yourself?

 

Mistake #3: You Don’t Trust Your Inner Wisdom

You were born knowing exactly how to eat. We all were. But over the years, you’ve moved away from listening to that inner wisdom and instead, allowed diets and gurus to tell you what, when and how much to eat. This caused you to lose trust in yourself.

But you know what? You can learn to trust again. It takes practice, support and accountability. And it takes someone who cares about you to guide the way.

 

Let’s stop making these mistakes. Start by popping your name and email in the boxes below to Break the Spell of Diets in 3 Days.

 

Let me know if you have any questions along the way.

 

 

I’m Dieting But I’m Still Gaining Weight

You’re standing in front of the mirror having changed your clothes three times already this morning.  Nothing seems to fit right.  You are discouraged and start with the negative self-talk you are all too familiar with.  “Why can’t I just stick to my diet”, you say to yourself.  “I am such a failure; I will never succeed at weight loss”.  “Tomorrow I will start my diet again”.

 

Does this sound familiar to you?  If you have been battling your weight for some time, then likely you have been on countless diets that have not worked long term and you have gotten very good at berating yourself for your failures.  The commercials all sound so promising!  The radio ads promise fat burning powers of the miracle pills you just bought at the health food store.  Why aren’t you able to lose weight?

 

The answer lies in the fact that you are dieting. 

 

Let me repeat that!

 

The answer lies in the fact that you are dieting. 

 

You see, nobody lives on a diet.  One goes on a diet but eventually goes off the diet.

 

The Stats You Know

 

Forty to 50% of American women are trying to lose weight and are on a diet at any point in time.  Half of pre-teen and teenage girls are on diets. However, 95% -97% of all dieters regain their lost weight and more within 1 to 5 years.

 

These are very alarming statistics because dieting clearly doesn’t work and repeated “yo-yo” dieting has been shown to have negative health effects, including an increased risk of heart disease and long-lasting effects on the metabolism.

 

The Side Effects of Dieting

 

Dieting makes you preoccupied with food; what you ate yesterday, this morning, 1 hour ago, and what you will eat later and tomorrow.  Dieting makes food the enemy and causes guilty feelings when you don’t eat diet-type foods.

 

When you go on a diet, you are in essence putting your body into a short-term starvation state.  When given the first opportunity to really eat what you desire, you will often experience a feeling of such intensity that any initial thoughts of wanting to be thin fly out the window.  You feel out of control, guilty, and view yourself as having no willpower.

 

However, listen up!

 

This type of eating in response to semi-starvation is actually normal.  It has nothing to do with willpower!  When you are underfed, you will obsess about food.  Period!

 

The best solution to achieving peace with food and your body is to embrace an intuitive eating approach to food.  Intuitive eating is eating based on your physiological hunger and satiety cues not based on situations or emotional cues.  So, that means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied or comfortably full.

 

Now, I recognize that for the chronic yo-yo dieter, this is not necessarily easy.  It requires you to explore how you got to where you are today in your eating habits and understand deeply what it means to become an intuitive eater.  During this process, it is important for you to begin to get rid of the diet mentality that you have, and to truly believe that you will never diet again.  If you continue to think there is “just one more diet, this time I’ll be good”, then you won’t be able to move forward to becoming an intuitive eater.   You will continue to have foods that are “good” and “bad” and you will continue to think of yourself as being “on” or “off”.

 

To help you get started on the path of intuitive eating, commit to the following 3 steps:

 

  1. Throw out all the diet books and pre-printed menus from magazines that you have tried over the years. Make a commitment to yourself that you will no longer be tempted by new diets that come out because you are committed to learning to listen to your body.

 

  1. Get rid of the bathroom scale. Do you weigh yourself every morning or even several times per day?  Does the number on the scale influence your mood for the day?  Most likely it does, even if you don’t consciously realize it.  Your weight fluctuates day to day and is a measure of more than just fat.  It includes your bones, organs, muscle and substances such as water, food and waste that pass through your system.  Begin to measure your success by other factors other than the scale such as improved blood work, blood pressure, mood, energy level and overall satisfaction with your progress toward becoming an intuitive eater.

 

  1. Seek out caring support to help you on your journey. Becoming an intuitive eater is a process and the amount of time it takes will depend on how long you have been dieting, how strong your diet mentality is, how long you have been using food to cope with your emotions and how willing you are to trust yourself.  It is very important for you to surround yourself with like-minded people who can provide positive feedback and support.

 

You were born with the natural instinct to eat when hungry and stop when full.  Chances are you lost this ability due to all the diets you tried and the media exposure to quick-fixes.  You can reclaim what you were born with and achieve guilt-free eating, a body you love and a life free of dieting.   Intuitive eating is the answer you have been looking for.

 

Reach out to me if you are interested in going from Dieter to Intuitive Eater! There’s no shame in asking for help!

 

Are You a Yo-Yo Dieter? Find out now!

It’s the same story with every diet you start: “this time it’s going to work, this time I’m going to be stronger, this time I’m going to stay committed”.  However, the unfortunate truth of dieting is that it will never help you achieve your long term weight loss goals.  In fact, statistics show that 46% of people who make a weight loss resolution never make it past 6 months.  So, if dieting doesn’t work you may be wondering how you will ever reach your weight loss goals.  The key for weight loss success is not to follow a diet, but rather to understand what is really sabotaging your weight loss.
Here are two questions you need to answer to get started:

 

Question #1: Am I a Yo-Yo Dieter?

Yo-yo dieting is a term you are likely familiar with.  It is a process that results in what is commonly known as weight cycling and it involves going on and off diets and constantly losing and regaining weight along the way.  You may be thinking that yo-yo dieting is the perfect description of your life.  The cycle of yo-yo dieting is crippling mentally, emotionally and physically.  Not only does it lead to an emotional rollercoaster of successes and failures, but weight cycling has also been shown to impose adverse health effects.  Does this sound like you?  If it does, move on to question #2.

 

Question #2: Have I Hit Diet Bottom?

Hitting diet bottom happens when you simply do not have it in you to go on another diet.   You have hit diet bottom when you’ve been dieting your whole life and you no longer have the energy or inner strength to worry about the number on the scale, count any more calories or deprive yourself of foods that you love.  The negative emotions and feelings of guilt that come along with overeating are tormenting you and something that you cannot endure any longer.  Hitting diet bottom is the first step you need to catapult you into a diet-free life.

If you have succumbed to the yo-yo cycle of dieting for many years and still haven’t reached your weight loss goals, consider if you are at the point where you have hit diet bottom.  Figuring out for yourself if you are at this point takes self-reflection into your personal diet patterns and being honest with yourself as to how dieting has affected you throughout your life.  Then, and only then, can you move to the next step of discovering the biggest mistakes you’ve made at dieting.

 

To help you on this discovery journey, please accept my Hitting Diet Bottom Blueprint as my gift to you. Find out if you have hit diet bottom, and learn what you can do to end the yo-yo dieting cycle.