This post is in response to some sad emails from those of you who’s head gets turned every time you pass the display counter at Starbucks, or a bag of Stacy’s pita chips, or cave when a bread basket wafts up your nose. “Good days” and “bad days” are going to be a thing of your past, because you can Change Your Brain Patterns – I promise! Repeat that to yourself out loud, because your brain believes what your mouth says. All Dieting has to stop, and healthy beliefs and facts need to be absorbed, if you want a different body.
The data consistently shows that Dieting Causes Weight Gain. It’s a sure-thing that if you try to restrict calories, there will be rebound binges.
Want a plan? Here you go:
Focus on changing your habits and thought patterns. Habits are the ONLY way to a lean, healthy body. Habits are what we do day after day after day, with very little effort. We develop healthy habits through planning, practice, and belief.
( If you believe that you can cancel out crappy food with starvation or heavy exercise, you’ll never keep your weight off. Ever. If you believe your body needs nutrient dense food to run well, you’ll be lean and healthy. )
Eat three meals a day. Don’t snack, at all. Make sure all your meals are at least moderate in size, bigger if you’re active. (Tiny diet meals cause snacking; let’s change this so you’re not high on blood sugar and insulin all day.) (Insulin is a “fat storage” hormone.)
Eat plenty of good fats, good proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy if you’re good with that.
Eat on a schedule ( morning, noon, and night). Skipping a meal because you’re not hungry, maybe trying to “eat intuitively”?….Ugh. Disaster waiting to happen! Hunger influences our choices; wait til you’re hungry, and there’s a good chance your choices will be BAD.
Don’t rely on Willpower to get you through the day; willpower is in very finite supply. Using willpower depletes the glucose stores in your brain and leaves you feeling weak and depleted; what psychologists call, “decision fatigue“. Disaster waiting to happen – again! Work on developing new Habits and Thought 
Patterns.
Quit living by the seat of your pants. Plan, Plan, Plan, and then sit down and Plan. If you Fail to Plan, then just Plan to Fail, because changing your thought patterns and your habits isn’t going to happen naturally.
Carry Out Your Plans. Shop, pack, freeze, cook, keep a running list though the week of meal ideas, lunch ideas, and grocery needs.
You think that you can’t do this because you’re too busy? Oh please! Get rid of that excuse! Tomorrow I’m posting a Success Story by my friend, Terry Kaye. She’s a mom of 3 boys, two of which have health issues, she works a few different jobs, she works out, and she cooks every day.
Who do you know who isn’t busy?? And don’t we want to teach our kids how to successfully handle normal, real life? Plan, Plan, Plan, and Plan.
Delete any thoughts of “making up for this later”, or starting over tomorrow/Sunday/Monday/the 1st etc. That’s ” Diet ” thinking, seriously. Diet thinking means you’re negotiating with yourself that if you eat crappy food now, you’ll starve yourself later; which would work if your body was a Calories In Calories Out system. It’s not. It’s a Chemistry Set. The chemistry you set in motion with lots of crappy carbs and toxic chemicals will NOT be balanced out with Starvation or Excessive Exercise. Ever.
Delete any thoughts that carby foods made with flour and sugar (muffins, donuts, cookies, etc) at Wegman’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s are Healthy because you bought them at Wegman’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s. Products made with grain flour and sugar are still products made with grain flour and sugar. They’ll spike your blood glucose, your insulin, and your cortisol, and put on belly fat. Junk food is junk food.
If you really want to change the way you habitually think about food, get in touch with me. The more you understand how your body works, the easier it is to make smart choices. Habits are the ONLY way to a lean, healthy body. Habits are what we do day after day after day, with very little thought or effort, and ZERO decision fatigue. Does it take a few months to change your habits? Yes. Looking back though, what’s a few months. Ask yourself, where do you want to be Next Year on This Date. Exactly where you are right now, doing the same old habits and patterns; or lean, healthy, and using newly instilled habits? Ask yourself this: how long have you been using the same old Diet methods to try and change your body? How many years? What’s the definition of Insanity? Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
Everyone is capable of change, but doing the same old thing will always bring about the same old results. Commit to Real Whole Food, and commit to changing your thoughts and habits, you can do this!
Man Post by Mark coming this weekend. 🙂
