The Slimming Pool Weight Loss Blog: Hey, I was Eating That!
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Rule Based Living - How to Lose the Rules
I read a lot - including diet, fitness, exercise, and weight related books and 9 times out of 10 I find myself disagreeing with the author. So often I read about how I "should" do this, and will never be allowed to eat that again. "Who says," is what I think to myself. I don't like being told what to do, even when I'm the one doing the telling. I think it's ridiculous to live with such a restrictive noose around your neck. That's why the so called "diet failure rate" is so high. Who can live without a slip now and then?
A diet is how you choose to eat - it doesn't have to mean a reduction plan. We all have a diet. The word has come to be associated with reducing, but you can ask a person of average weight, "What diet are you on," and they'll likely give you an answer; i.e., low-fat, balanced, healthy or some other title, and you'd still be left wondering what they eat. A more accurate question would be, "What do you eat?"
We all slip and slide through life - sometimes doing well, sometimes falling down. I want to suggest you loosen the noose. Think about it: If you plan to eat a healthy diet by adding more fresh foods and breaking the fast food habit, and then you stop at McDonalds one day (despite the plan), what has occurred? You've eaten better six days out of seven. You've made a 86% improvement.
Another way to look at it: If you've decided that from now on you'll eat healthy just on Mondays - one little day of the week - you've still made a 14% improvement. Won't that affect your weight? It certainly will. Any tiny improvement you make, if it is consistent, will result in a long-term change. It may take longer to see results if it's only a one day a week change, but the beauty is you aren't restricting yourself so severely that you could never live with it.
Restrictive diets that you eventually plan to quit are good only for weekend pool parties or photo shoots. What's the point? Sure you can reduce pounds and inches, but they just come back. Experts agree that yo-yo dieting is the worst overall for your health - frankly, you're better off carrying 20 extra pounds full-time than dropping them and gaining them over and over. Start today to find one thing in your regular habits that you can change, and when you slip, just get right back up. Pretend you planned it - works for me.
Suggestions for getting over the lapses
"Even though I ate _____, I deeply and completely accept myself."
"Even though I couldn't help it, I deeply and completely accept myself."
"Even though I didn't want to eat, I deeply and completely accept myself."
Give yourself credit for what you do right, and use EFT whenever you find yourself berating yourself for some small lapse.
