Stop thinking about dieting

I find the whole diet industry puzzling.  Largely it focuses the mind on restriction, which is counter to my position of what to include.  Diets work for many people but ultimately do you want to be on a restrictive diet all your life?

Healthy diet – YES!

We are all different, right?  Which is why I believe that what we eat – or how we ’diet’ needs to be specific to us.  Factors such as age, activity, weight, health all need to be considered and a reason (I suspect) so many off the shelf diets fail!  We simply give up because its too hard, too restrictive, makes us feel crap, gives us no energy…. The list goes on.  My approach with health coaching is always to look at the individual, what they want to achieve and then help them work out a best approach.

What’s right for me?

There are millions of diets out there, and what do they all have in common?  They generally claim to “be scientifically proven to work” – so how come, for the most – they don’t?  Simple, they often do not look at the individual; rather prescribe a mixture of limiting, balancing or timing of key food groups.  Nor, and more importantly, do they focus on why the person wants to follow the diet, and potentially, why they are not achieving what they want with what they are doing.

So, whilst I don’t want to diet bash or say diets are a waste of time, I will point out that there are plenty of people who are forever on a diets, move from one to another seeking the holy grail of success, so clearly there is sometime missing!

So, try stuff, but listen to your body and importantly, take the time to figure out what that diet is trying to fix!

• When you are eating – recognise how food makes you feel – does it give you energy? Try and limit the foods that sap your energy.
• Recognise how sustaining that food is – are you still hungry after eating/ does it fill you up?
• Write a diary and recognise what balance of food you are eating
• Acknowledge your relationship with food – is food a comfort, or a stress release – if so what can you replace it with to give you that release?