Defying the ‘die’ in diet

It’s all in the name. Think about it. They call it a DIET for a good reason. You DIE trying to get the results you want, never satisfied with what you’ve got, or you DIE trying to figure out a better way to do this.

Dieting is a never-ending cycle that sets us up for failure over and over again. Yet, somehow we fall for it over and over again as we desperately cling to improve our lot. I realised this week that one of the silent victims that suffer in this vicious cycle is someone we never pay any attention to; It’s the innocent victim inside each of us that I will call our metabolism. 

We starve it to the point that it sits in the “Time Out” corner trying to figure out what trouble it’s in all the while we suffer even more while it sits there, burning fewer calories than ever before. This is our story, and it’s a sad one because our metabolisms are shutting down due to the many years of exposing our bodies to unhealthy diets in the pursuit of fitting into skinny jeans.

What does it have to take for us to stop dieting and start eating for nutrition, energy, vitality and good mental health? What does it have to take before we starve our brain cells to the point where we are dizzy and can no longer think straight? 

Stripping the power away from food

This month, let’s take a stand and take the “desperate” and the “diet” out of our vocabulary — we are much stronger than we give ourselves credit for. 

We’re only desperate if we think we are, so my plea to all of us is to step into positivity and take back the power we lost along the way when the world convinced us that we needed to ‘go on a diet’.

We become consumed by what we focus on and hence our days are filled obsessing about forbidden foods we are trying to avoid. We can break this cycle of abuse by stripping the power away from food and treating it for what it is: It’s food. It’s fuel for the body, let’s take the emotions (both the guilty and excessive pleasure) out of the equation and go back to the basics of eating to live instead of living to eat. 

I am convinced that we can pull it off if we set our minds to it because I do not doubt that we are stronger than we think we are. You are stronger than your willpower has led you to believe. Many of us have chosen to give up due to not having a dream big and exciting enough to be passionate about and make us forget about food.

Resurrecting those dreams

I challenge every desperate dieter, myself included, to resurrect those bigger dreams that we’ve buried for so long. Hidden energy and excitement that you never realised you still had will overflow and you’ll get out of bed in the morning so excited to start your day to fulfil your new dream with the goals you’ve set for yourself.

You’ll stop obsessing about your breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and scales. The size of your dress will take second place to the size of something much bigger: what are you going to do today to make a real difference in the world you live in? What is the lasting legacy you are going to leave behind when your time on earth has expired? Will people remember you for the size of your heart or the size of your jeans?

These are the questions I want us to start asking ourselves because once we start thinking more about being kinder and more compassionate to ourselves and the world around us, the food part will take care of itself. Once we get off our sofas to make a difference in the world we live in, even if it’s just for a few hours a week, our metabolism will come out of that “time out” corner and start to burn more calories. 

More importantly, we will stop beating ourselves up and putting ourselves down and begin to respect ourselves with our heads help up high in gratitude for all our Creator has given us. Let us stop taking our lives for granted because every breath we take is a gift.

Sweet friend, let’s stop wasting our breath and start living the life we are meant to live. Not as obsessive, desperate dieters who are living to diet but as healthy, enlightened individuals who are blessed to live an abundant life, making better lifestyle choices without being enslaved to the process.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine