Im going to try that diet, you think to yourself after your friend told you about how much weight shes lost, and how much energy shes gained.
And you have the best of intentions. But youve already tried this dieting thing before. Maybe it was the keto diet or intermittent fasting. Before that, it might have been paleo. Maybe it was Atkins, Bernstein, or Poon.
The name of the diet changes, but the results dont. Theyre consistent and predictable:
Step 1: start new diet.
Step 2: its going great! Look at all the weight youre dropping.
Step 3: you have 1 unplanned, bad meal.
Step 4: you think to yourself whats the point? I blew this meal, might as well, blow the entire day.
Step 5: you blow the entire day, and now you think to yourself Ill just eat normally the entire week, and re-start the diet on Monday.
Step 6: you never re-start the diet.
Step 7: Its November/December, you think you could lose a few pounds, so you set a new years resolution to lose weight. New years is still 2-8 weeks away. Theres no point in starting now.
Step 8: its January 1. You go on the 58th diet.
Step 9: repeat steps 2-8.
But the science behind the diet is so compelling!
- When you go into ketosis, youre burning fat for fuel, and not carbs.
- But Adele lost over 100 pounds on the Sirtfood diet
- If I cut out _______ and ________ foods that are causing inflammation in my body, Ill lose weight.
Yes, the science may (or very often, may not) be there. But the cycle repeats itself over and over again.
It seems like you already know what to eat. After all, youve lost weight in the past. So if youve done it before, why cant you do it again? Maybe your problem isnt nutritional. Maybe your problems are:
- Emotional eating
- Stress eating
- Mindless snacking
- Cravings
- Lack of planning
And we dont solve mental/emotional and logistical problems with nutritional solutions. We solve those by taking the effort to be more cognizant of our eating behaviors, how hungry we actually are, and what emotions we actually feel right before we eat.
Thats the approach that my students and I take in our End Emotional Eating online group coaching program. By the way, Im opening up enrollment on Wednesday, August 4. If you would like to be the first to know when registrations open (and get in at the lowest price), just sign up here (this is not a sign up for the program. This is just a sign up to be notified when the program opens).
Think about it this way: if youre trying to nail something into the wall, you use a nail not a screw. You use the right tool for the job.
Same thing here if youre trying to lose weight, on the surface, it seems like your problem is nutritional. You think you eat too much. And you do. But most people dont take things further they dont ask the even bigger question of WHY? Why do I eat too much?
Very rarely is that answer I dont know what to eat. After all, if youre older than the age of 5, you already know what to eat. Basically, what your mom told you to eat when you were 5:
- More vegetables
- More protein
- Less junk
It aint complicated. So for the majority of people, knowledge isnt the issue. What is it that prevents us from eating what we already know we should eat?
A few reasons:
- Emotional eating. Were sad, so we eat. Were anxious, so we eat. Were happy, so we eat. Were Jewish, so we eat
- Boredom. Were bored. We open up the fridge not out of hunger, but out of entertainment. And hey, while its open, we might as well grab something.
- Its that time of the month. We want chocolate (and by we, Im not including myself in that. I dont get that time of the month).
- Bad food just happens to be in our cupboards and fridge, so we might as well finish it. And after its done, lets get more.
- Lack of tools to deal with emotions, cravings, boredom, and stress.
And when those things strike, well, diet be damned. So if we really dig deep into it, we dont really have a hard time losing weight because we dont know what to eat. Rather, we gain weight because its underlying mental/emotional/logistical issues that are causing us to eat what we know we shouldnt, or when were not hungry.
This is also why for over 95% of people, just going on another diet doesnt work. Sure, you might have modified your nutrition, but typically, thats just temporary until the next time youre bored, anxious, upset, or whatever.
However, if you address the real underlying causes of weight gain (mental/emotional/logistical), you start to lose weight as a side effect of getting healthier emotionally. Oh, and as a bonus: you gain healthier tools to manage stress, boredom, cravings, and anxiety, without eating.
Of course, the downside to addressing emotional eating, stress eating, cravings, and mindless snacking is that it takes time and effort. Its not a crash diet. It takes regular mental/emotional exercises and check-ins to undo years of bad eating habits.
After all, if 58 diets havent worked for you, what makes you think that the 59th will? If you approach it in the way that youve approached all your previous diets, its destined to fail as well. But if you take a different approach, one that addresses the real underlying causes, fat loss is more permanent.
As I mentioned earlier, in August, Im launching the second group of the End Emotional Eating online group coaching program. If you want to be the first to get notified when registrations open, so you can enroll before all the spots fill up (there will be 20 spots, and about 7500 people are receiving this newsletter), just click here.
