Fighting Fad-Diets – They Don’t Work
I’m passionate about food and health, and I love helping people reach their health goals. So, any day I get to steer people away from fad-dieting is a glorious one 🙂
Once I posted a photo of my healthy breakfast on Facebook, and very promptly received this message from a follower:
“I’m trying extremely hard to lose the baby weight after my fourth bubba. Right now I am 10 days in, eating clean, but I find I’m fighting it everyday. I am feeling better in my body but I always feel starving and that it will only be a matter of time before my mental strength fails me. I was drooling over your eggs and bacon this morning and I basically would love to know how you eat that everyday and look amazing. Do you eat like a sparrow the rest of the day to counteract this? I’m curious and starving.”
I know exactly where this mum is at. What’s more, I receive similar messages like this regularly. As a health coach, I offered her a complimentary half hour chat to find out more. During that conversation, I learned that what she really wanted was to be able to lose weight, but not to starve herself in doing so. The thing is, most people think that deprivation is the only way to make this happen (possibly because that’s how diets are designed) and because they have set up goals based on an archaic goal-setting method, and not in a way that gives them purpose and joy (but that’s a story for another time).
But how long can this be sustained for? Sure, you will most likely lose weight on any diet you try, but only over a specific period (usually very short!). It’s unnatural, and hardly sustainable. The research shows that you will end up putting the weight back on , and then some.
During dieting we are often depriving the body of wholesome and nutritious food (your body’s fuel), which it then craves, causing binging post-diet. It’s madness, and it’s unhealthy. Placing stress on the body is the route to immune-system dysfunction and susceptibility to disease. Although in jest , this mum said herself, the hunger was making her feel a little aggressive.
What she needed was permission to let go of her clean-eating superfood diet and feed her hunger by enjoying the type of breakfast our ancestors would have eaten. Yes, the very same type of breakfast she was droolng over on my Facebook page. A delicious breakfast full of wonderful fats and protein sourced from healthy animals and farms, with carbohydrates in the form of lots of vegetables.
The point is that our diets need to be natural, nutritious and sustainable for our health to respond similarly.
The next morning after we spoke she messaged me, and sent me these photographs:
And after less than an hour of coaching this is how she is feeling today…
“Happy, content, satisfied, calm, nourished, relaxed and peace. These are all the feelings I have this week, which are total opposites to last week. I had to share with you what life changing tools you have given me. I’m a very satisfied Mumma. I haven’t weighed myself all week and part of me is still a little scared too. But I haven’t had any cravings for 2 days and can’t believe how amazing I already feel. So thank you”
If you are struggling to lose weight, or reverse your health issues, or simply want to know how to feed yourself in the most nutritious manner, then please take a look at my 28 day cleanse program, Break Through! To Feeling Fantastic in a Body You Love and learn which foods enrich and which foods to ditch, understand how your thinking plays a big role in your success, learn how to forgive yourself when you don’t make the best choice, stay motivated to keep on track, set yourself up for success, love yourself and your body, enjoy eating delicious, healthy foods and find all the support in the world with with this new amazing lifestyle.
Please share this blog post with anyone who you know who may be struggling with dieting and is ready to move to achieving their weight and health goals through a natural diet or are interested in moving their family to a nutritious and delicious real food way of life.
Bren x
Free Breakfast Recipe eBook
As far as breakfast cereal goes, I always say, “you may as well eat the box’, it’s probably more nutritious than what’s inside! Here are 5 things to think about before you reach for the boxed cereal in the supermarket.Download Now
Kristin
It took me a long time to learn this lesson, but gee I’m glad I did!
Brenda Janschek
It’s really not until the last few years Kristin that I have focused on nourishment rather than weight and it’s worked for me!
Tina
I am in my late 50s and for most of my life I have been quite slim and healthy, and a couple of extra kilos wasn’t something I ever worried about. In the last 10 years though, my weight has become a real struggle to control (hormones?) Numerous diets and as you said in this post, the weight comes back with a few extra kilos for good measure! My frustration comes from all the different information we receive now from all angles and all the testimonials saying ‘this diet is the one’! So confusion reigns. Eat fat, don’t eat fat, low or no carbs, wholefoods, suppliments and the list goes on! I like that you have an understanding about the difficulties faced by those of us trying to improve our health and weight, are no judgmental and have a no nonsense approach. I remain confused but thankyou. Warm regards, Tina
Brenda Janschek
Thanks for sharing Tina, the most important thing is to to tune in and listen to your body and listen to what it needs. There is so much more to say, but that would need a big old face to face convo : )