Avoid Dieting and Make Positive Changes Instead

 

Why is it that merely mentioning the word "diet" brings immediate thoughts of failure to the minds of many men and women around the world? Could it be that we have all learned through trial and error that diets simply do not work? I know many of you are sitting back with jaws dropped at the moment. After all, this is an article about dieting, right? It is and it isn't. Dieting is the kiss of death for many, while a new phase in your life or a lifestyle adjustment may be just the thing that will lead to success for you and your fitness and health goals.

For some, eating is an addiction. Unfortunately, you can't give up eating altogether like a smoker can give up cigarettes. I'm not suggesting that giving up cigarettes is easy, but how much more difficult would it be if you were forced to have three a day? At that point, you may as well enjoy them every time the urge hits, right? The same holds true for food. You must eat in order to survive. You cannot live without eating. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier way of viewing food.

Isn't this where diets generally come in handy? The short answer is no. This is where diets often fail. Diets do very little to change how we view food. In fact, most diets only serve to tell us which foods are good, which foods are bad, and which foods (typically the ones we enjoy the most) are strictly taboo. Diets begin by forcing people to feel deprived or punished, and no one likes to feel either of these things.

Even worse, however, is that we punish ourselves further when we slip along the straight and narrow path that our diets place us on. This means that we wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up altogether and decide to overindulge once again, ignoring the guilt altogether.

In order to achieve real success, you must make a lifestyle change. This is the only way that you will be able to shed those unwanted pounds without experiencing the horrible guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets. Set goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, weight loss, and incorporating new healthy foods into your diet. Even if your goal is as simple as eating 5 servings of vegetables a day, it is a great place to start.

Change your way of eating. Then change your way of viewing food, and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and even your fitness level. As the first pounds begin to drop, you will start to feel more energetic and experience less pain when exercising. This should help keep you motivated to do even more as time goes by.

Do not think that long-term weight loss goals will be as easy to achieve as the first five or ten pounds. Consistency is vitally important when making these lifestyle changes. Take each day as it comes and start fresh the very next day. This means that even if you completely "fall off the wagon" today, you can start over tomorrow. The trick is to stay on track more often than not and learn moderation and balance when it comes to deviating from the straight and narrow.

There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting, and I know people who have failed in almost every way imaginable. However, there is no way to fail when you are making positive changes in your life that are yielding positive results. It may take weeks, months, or even years to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing many great things for your health and well-being.