Petra @newmiboPeople will try up to “126 fad diets in lifetime.”
And they don’t last longer than 6 days, a survey of 2000 people found.
More than half of those people were confused about which diet is sustainable and which is not. January was unsurprisingly voted as the dreaded month when most people go on a diet but the majority will not sustain it.
The survey uncovered the extreme lengths people are willing to go to lose weight quickly, for example 16 people said they would drink 12 glasses of lemon juice a day if it helped them lose weight. The most shocking revelation, at least for me, was that 1 in 20 people would consider ingesting a tapeworm to help them burn calories.
HOW MANY FAD DIETS DOES IT TAKE?
The reason I mention this survey is not for entertainment but as a realisation and confirmation that trying this and that diet approach, quick fix, extreme measures in order to lose weight does NOT work.
Think or even better, write down all the extreme diets you’ve tried just to lose weight. Observe the pattern;
You decide to lose weight. Quickly. You look up a diet. You cut out the majority of foods, you have a list of rules to follow, you start exercising, only 4 days later you feel deprived, hungry, tired, craving all the foods from your “banned” list. You give in, you indulge, you stop exercising, you gain more weight, you feel like a failure, demotivated and desperate, thinking nothing works for you. Few weeks go past and the cycle starts again. You decide to try again, this diet is going to work. Only it doesn’t. And so on and so on for decades.
Always on a diet yet each year you end up a little heavier.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” Albert Einstein
It’s time to shut the door on that part of your life and never to return. Stop repeating what you know doesn’t work. Let the dieting mindset go!
FASTING TO THE RESCUE
Intermittent fasting can help you change the game. And WIN!
Why? Fasting does not dictate what to eat. This is a crucial distinction between dieting and fasting, among other advantages.
As ironic as it may sound, intermittent fasting comes with food freedom.
It is precisely what has attracted me to this lifestyle in the first place. The fact that I do not need to follow a diet or cut out any food group or foods that I enjoy. All I need to commit to is reducing my eating time.
It may be difficult at the beginning but unlike other diets which will wear out your willpower and make you feel deprived and craving the foods you cut out, intermittent fasting becomes easier. The longer you practice the easier it becomes.
If you practice skipping breakfast, after a few weeks of doing so, you will no longer have the need for eating early in the morning. Skipping breakfast is going to feel natural and that is the key to a long term success. Your choices have to feel natural not forced.
REMAIN FLEXIBLE
Furthermore, fasting is totally flexible. You can move, extend or shorten your eating window as you please. You can alternate various fasts throughout the week.
Unlike dieting which inevitably becomes harder as time goes on, fasting becomes easier.
I have not changed my diet until about a year into my fasting lifestyle, after I had lost the weight I wanted to lose. The reason I decided to gradually change my diet was to become healthier, not thinner. Same reason I took up exercising. I exercise to boost my mental health, confidence and to help my body age with grace.
Hitting a plateau doesn’t mean fasting has stopped working for you, it usually means your body got used to the routine.
There are countless possibilities to alter your fasting routine;
change of frequency (how often do you fast)
length (how long are your fasts)
the type of fast you’re doing (what do you drink during a fast)
how do you break your fast
extended fasting (are you challenging yourself)
you will never run out of options with fasting.
So please throw away all the silly diet rules and diet books, they never worked and never will, stay focused on healthy gradual changes using intermittent fasting as your baseline.
You will succeed xox
