The Dirty "D" word
Did you know I started dieting at 14 years old?!?!
I will NEVER forget wanting to buy a black sparkly dress for my 8th grade dance and my mom telling me that if I lost 10lbs she would buy me the dress...
She just wanted me to be healthy... but what it did was set in motion a pattern of events that left me with 16 years of crash diets, fad diets, deprivation, binge eating, weight loss, weight gain... all culminating in a 30 year old woman who had resigned herself to just being "the big girl".
So deciding to change my lifestyle in 2014 to a more whole food based diet ignited a fire in me to educate myself (and then others) on living unbounded by diets. To sink into sustainable nutrition choices that keep my body in a state of nourishment. A diet by nature is a temporary thing. So any dietary choices you’re making that are for a temporary solution (lose weight, fit into a dress, etc) is already setting you up for an “after” after you aren’t really wanting. Diets are also typically one size fits all. Now I realize not EVERY diet is that way, but the vast majority of fad diets limit you to this specific number of whatever macronutrient is the devil this decade. Our bodies are all different shapes and sizes, we all have different activity levels and age. So when a diet says you need to cut back to 20g of carbs a day, but you’re 275lbs it’s no wonder you’re going to lose weight. You’re eating the amount of carbs 4 year old should eat. Research shows that when someone stops a specific weight loss diet they are almost guaranteed to not only gain back the weight they lost but also gain 10-15% more weight in addition. - UCLA, Wolpert. Repeat a few cycles of dieting and you’ll wind up MUCH MUCH heavier than you anticipated. Any diet that restricts a specific nutrient; fat, carbohydrates or protein will always lead to a binge cycle. The guilt & shame spiral begin and we’re back to where you started.
While there are 1,000s of ways to lose weight. Everything from taking diet pills, eating baby food, green smoothies daily or cutting your daily carb intake back to 20g a day. Losing weight isn’t the problem. The point of contention is what happens when you STOP eating in that restrictive way. What happens when your birthday, anniversary & memorial day weekend all butt up together? What then on Tuesday morning is that plan? Settling into the stark reality that dieting isn’t going to work, what do you do? Enter actual sustainable mindfulness eating. When bread isn’t the enemy you can begin to understand what nutrients do for your body and adjusting your daily intake according to your body’s needs.
I understand that it’s more work. We’re all looking for the easy button. But life just isn’t that way. And if anything or anyone tells you that it is, you need to expect there to be a bigger picture consequence. So drinking your “fat burning” coffee, cutting your carbs so low that a 6 year old can’t develop properly, or eating only fat free, sugar free chemically manufactured nonsense is not going to leave you with the body you want for very long.
That's what attracted me to changing our lifestyle 4 years ago and going to graduate school to study nutrition....
Breaking the cycle of failing at weight watchers, diets, binging/deprivation, weight gain/weight loss has been the primary goal of not own journey but my nutrition counseling practice.
I am SO excited I get to offer the UN-DIET, a mindset shift for those who:
* Anyone who wants to lose weight and keep it off for good!
* Those frustrated with the deprivation of traditional diets.
* People overwhelmed with all the weight-loss products out there.
* Anyone challenged by junk-food cravings.
* Those for whom other diets have not been successful in the past.
* Anyone trying to QUIT the counting, QUIT the container-ing.
