I was recently asked to talk to a young group of women about nutrition. Anything I thought they needed to hear. With that, I asked myself, “What would I have wanted to know at their age about food and nutrition that would have made the most significant impact on my life? And one thing kept coming to my mind.
Diets to lose weight and change your body DO NOT work!
At any point in time, over ⅓ of Americans are on a diet. Yet over 40% of America is obese.
There seems to be something wrong with those numbers. If diets work, don’t you think that Americans would be a little bit healthier than they are right now?
And then here people are blaming the person.
That this person struggling with their weight doesn’t have enough self-control or willpower to eat “healthy” and that they are just letting themselves go.
When instead, maybe we should be blaming the diet and the world’s expectation to be constantly changing our bodies! The world is out to make money and get us addicted to products.
Why aren’t we blaming them?
There is nothing wrong with YOU.
All bodies are different, and you shouldn’t have to feel like you need to change your shape to be liked and accepted.
Research shows that 98% of people who start a diet end up gaining all their weight back plus more after six months. This is because diets cause you to lose the connection that helps you regulate your own body. You go on a diet and think you shouldn’t be hungry or crave certain foods, so you ignore those hunger cues your body is setting off. You start to disconnect. And in the end, you may become a chaotic eater because you are depriving yourself of what your body needs and no longer trusting that connection.
So if you are to remember anything,remember that your body is a fantastic machine. If you can reconnect with your body and start to listen to it instead of outside forces, you will be so much happier and healthier than going on any diet.
So love yourself just the way you are.
And if you don’t feel like you can love yourself or your body right now, then start by learning to be grateful for your body and all it does for you.
You have one body and one life. So don’t waste it by trying to change it to meet the world’s standards. Because we will never be able to meet them, they are unreachable. And if you don’t appreciate your body now, you definitely won’t enjoy it after you have lost 5 pounds or gone on some crazy restrictive diet.
Show appreciation for your body. Move yourself in a way that feels good. Eat to nourish your body and give it energy throughout the day. Focus on adding foods to your meals, not limiting them. You don’t need to make drastic and extreme changes to make a difference.
Look at each meal you eat and see if you can add anything to make it more balanced. Are you missing a protein? Would a fruit or vegetable freshen it up?
Below are a few examples of this:
Having tacos = tomatoes or avocado
Cereal = Banana
Oatmeal = Peanutbutter
Chips = cheese stick
Pizza = salad
Pasta = chicken or veggies
You are beautiful, strong, unique, and talented. I hope you remember that and treat yourself in a way that reflects that.