Do you HATE your diet?
If so you’re doing it wrong.
I don’t think I have ever talked to someone over the age of 20 that hasn’t tried and failed a diet at some point.
Maybe I’m hanging around with the wrong crowd, I don’t know. But it is a cycle so well known that only a few of you will have scoffed at that first comment.
The way it normally goes is:
1) We decide we want to make a change
2) We start a new diet
3) We maybe see some success to start off with
4) But then the cons start to outweigh the pros, you get hungry, or sick of boring food, or simply forget why you started
5) You give up
6) The weight starts to creep back to the point it was before or worse
Before you know it, you’re back at 1 ready to start all over again.
Now before we get started, a couple of things need to be clarified:
First up, when I say diet I’m referring to any change to what you are normally eating. It doesn’t have to be named after someone or some cool place for it to be a diet.
The second thing is that, sadly, you are going to have to be a little uncomfortable and hungry during a diet.
Forget these FAD diets that tell you that you can literally eat everything you want and expect to lose weight. It just doesn’t work like that.
Losing body fat is a tough road but there are ways we can make it easier.
This blog post is to lay a few of these out to help you along.
This framework was introduced by Alan Aragon this year. He is one of the top nutritionists in the world and he recognises the need for you to have a life, even though you are on a mission to lose body fat.
It works like this:
- Set up a very basic structure and work the rest out from there.
- You only need to get this right MOST of the time to see results.
- The main issue I see is that people try to be too strict and end up crashing with their diet after a few weeks.
- So lesson number one is to get it right 80% of the time. You can be more strict and succeed for sure but why would you want to?
- This means that you can be lax 20% of the time and get away with it.
- This structure should serve as a backbone for what you do for the long term
- The actual specifics of your fat loss plan will change over time, such as when you lose a significant amount of weight and if your daily routine changes etc!
We can cover the structure in 2 simple steps:
Step 1 – Lifestyle
You should make time for exercise – at least 3 times a week for 40-60 mins
You should go out and play whenever possible (time with family, walks in the park with the dog etc)
You need to plan and prepare your food and drink. This means:
- Taking time out to prepare healthy snacks to have to hand.
- Batch cook food that you can freeze and refrigerate.
- Have go-to meals that you can rely upon in periods when you are short of time.
- Invest in a company that prepares and delivers meals that meet your requirements.
Doing things like this will ensure you can have a life whilst still maintaining healthy eating.
If you allow the fat loss eating to take over your life, you will eventually find it miserable as it takes you away from what you enjoy doing the most.
Too many people overlook this part and concentrate on their diet, or increasing the amount of exercise they do, but if you hate what you’re doing, the motivation will leave you and the diet WILL fail.
Step 2 – Diet
So, you’re living your life, having fun, time to start shedding some weight. There are so many different approaches you can take to losing weight, but if you stick to this basic framework then you know you will always be heading in the right direction:
- 80% of the time you should aim to eat minimally processed food
- 10% of the time you can eat semi junk food like chicken nuggets, diet coke etc.
- 10% of the time just eat what you want
Again, a completely restrictive diet will make you resent it first, and then give up completely.
No food is inherently bad, and you can eat your junk food and treats, just try to make them that: treats.
Look to eat minimally processed foods for the majority of your meals and allow yourself a treat here and there.
No feeling guilty for eating, no avoiding meals out with your friends.
Just recognise that it is going to be a 10% moment, and you can rectify it at the very next meal….just don’t leave it until MONDAY.
Speak soon,
Gaz
p.s. don’t feel guilty when you have something you feel you shouldn’t have. Just enjoy it, get over it and move on with the minimally processed foods.
The issue comes when you make it more complicated than that. But that is the topic of a future article.
