Yes, dieting sucks for most
people. And that is a serious problem. Why? Because we all need a diet in
order to live, thrive, heal and reach our best health and wellness potential.
Wait, did I just say everyone needs to be on a diet? Well, in a sense, yes!
The Miriam
Webster definition of the word
diet is “1 : food and
drink regularly provided or consumed. 2 : habitual nourishment.” In
other words, dieting is simply our preferred manner of eating. But when we
typically think of “dieting,” we only think of a short term,
fragmented fix to try and change something we don’t like about our bodies. This
leads to an underwhelming experience or ultimate failure for most people who
try.

Dieting sucks
because you may be missing key points and going about it all
wrong.

Real “dieting” as defined above, should include some
substantive planning, vision, true prioritizing, and self reflection. It
should be something you can see yourself doing for the long haul, and it
should support not only your physical goals, but should support your mind,
body, and spirit as a whole, for many years to come. Your diet should get you
excited for the next meal, guilt-and-dread-free.

The thing is, our diets reflect much more about us and our
environment than we might realize. Personal lifestyle choices, day-to-day
challenges, our ethnic background, worldview, the quality of our food supply,
our sense of self worth, our drive to please our friends and family, and
personal tastes all have a bearing on our diet. And that is just a handful of
many factors. There are also all the physiological factors like our hormones,
metabolism, quality of sleep and stress levels. This is why when someone
decides to “go on a diet” in order to make a change in their
physical state, it’s usually an unpleasant experience, and eventually
fails.

Change is sometimes difficult, especially when it comes to
behavior change. And dietary changes can be one of the most difficult things
a person can go through. So it’s important to check in with yourself and make
sure you have some key factors squared away before you expect yourself to
move mountains and jump through dietary hoops.

Provided below are some words of wisdom that come from experience.
When I am helping my clients on their quests to improve their diets, I check
in and make sure all these factors are on the radar throughout the process.

Motivation & Willingness to Change

In order for meaningful change to occur, one needs to be motivated
enough to take some necessary action steps. If it takes 10 years to develop
poor health, it could take 10 months or more to see noticeable and
sustainable improvements. If you are entertaining a new diet that requires a
change in your eating habits, take one thing from the new diet that requires
changing your current habits. Ask yourself on a scale of 1-10 how willing you
are to make that change for longer than a month. If the answer is less than 5
you may want to evaluate your level of motivation, and revisit the diet at a
time when you have a better motivation for trying.

A Powerful “Why”

Change is not possible without a core, driving reason. It’s
essential to identify the core reason for the desired change, and keep that
reason front and center. The more powerful the “why,” the better it serves as
a motivational tool throughout the process of changing your diet. Numbers on
a scale, body fat %, and blood glucose markers will never motivate or move
you as effectively as a good “why.” For example, are you dieting to lose some
weight because you have a poor image of yourself? Or, do you have a dream of
standing up on a surfboard and riding a wave? Did your doctor tell you to
diet to improve your cholesterol levels? Or do you want to live to see your
grandchildren grow up? These reasons are all valid, but are very different
motivational drivers. In general, wanting to change in order to follow
instructions, change because you don’t like yourself, or to be more like
someone else, are not powerful enough reasons to carry you through to the
finish line. Be sure you are clear about your “why” and make sure
it truly serves you and not some version of you that is defined by some other
person, web site, or magazine. Write down your “why” and put it in
a place where you can refer to it whenever you are about to give up on your
diet commitments.

Personal Responsibility

Taking 100% responsibility for one’s nutrition decisions and
health outcomes is absolutely necessary for sustainable change. Blind faith
in a particular diet or process might yield favorable results in the short
term, but the overall lack of personal responsibility leaves you vulnerable
to future obstacles and setbacks. Make sure you take an inventory of all the
excuses that set you back, and figure out how you can change the
circumstances surrounding those excuses in order to support your commitments
to yourself and your diet.

Self Love & Acceptance

Accepting one’s own reality, unique body, metabolism signature,
and life challenges is key. Self loathing and constantly comparing yourself
to others will keep you in a perpetual state of failure and disappointment.
Creating a culture in your day-to-day life of self-love, acceptance, honesty,
achievable goals, and small successes will provide a more favorable long term
outcome. Allowing yourself to “fail” or “cheat” and being
able to forgive yourself and get back on track are absolutely essential to a
sustainable diet. All this will fuel your willpower and clear a path for
a more forgiving, graceful and positive journey.

Buy-In & Priorities

It takes some of my clients several weeks or months to realize
that they are not truly prioritizing their dietary objectives. Making your
diet a financial and scheduling priority over other expenses and commitments
creates a core context for true healing, and sets the stage for realistic
changes to start taking shape. When you have to make a financial and
scheduling sacrifice for something, you will value it more, and will be more
likely to create value for yourself from your investment.

If the time required to do the necessary shopping and preparing of
your meals is not in your calendar, you can’t exactly expect to actually get
the desired foods into your body. In the same light, if you aren’t willing to
make the investment to prioritize a superior diet over other things like
cocktails, movie popcorn, or sugary lattes, those other things will deliver
inferior nutrition to your body. Because that is what you communicate to
yourself when you don’t make healthful food a financial
priority.

Many of my clients say that “eating healthy is so
expensive.” To put things in perspective, consider the cost of dying of
heart disease. According
to this CDC Foundation article, in 2015 heart disease and stroke
cost Americans nearly $1 Billion a day in medical costs and lost productivity.
That is kind of staggering! Imagine if that money could be invested in
helping Americans be the healthiest humans on the planet. That is basically
your individual choice! When you decide to invest in your health by making
good nutrition a priority, you are creating a fast track to dietary
satisfaction and success, and freeing yourself from those grim
statistics.

So actually, dieting sucks only for people who fail to embrace
the process and enjoy the journey.

l would be willing to bet that if you implement these guidelines
on our next swing at improving your diet, you would have a much more
rewarding experience.

And, you wouldn’t have to do it all on your own. Sometimes you
just need someone who has your back and can help you find your way, however
that looks for you and your awesome, unique body and life. That is where
nutrition coaching comes in! If any of this resonates with you, even in a
scary way, why not schedule a complimentary phone consultation with me to see
if there is any way I can help you? It’s easy and you can schedule
it right here!

In the meantime, feel free to incorporate some of these principles
into your next attempt to go on a diet, and see if getting real with any of
this helps you out in any way. Let me know how you’re doing in the
comments!

For more insights into why dieting sucks for most people, check
out this article: Why Diets
Don’t Work