Dieting or NOT?

Or loving it?

I often hear friends going on different diets and believing that this one will work, will have to work...because everything else has failed. Most of us have been there, done that...

Hating it?

With every failure, we get depressed and more inclined to indulge in any sort of 'feeling good'
treats who give us some sweetness that would instantly wash off our bitterness. The truth is, dieting is an industry and it is supposed to make big money. It is estimated that Americans alone spend $35 billion a year on weight-loss products. This dieting fashion that's entangling us is not supposed to make us look like Hollywood stars, but rather make us believe you we found the 'recipe' to the 'Hollywoodism'. In fact, the 'recipe' doesn't work:  95% of all the people that lose weight by dieting regain it in one to five years.


And of course that The American National Institute of Health has the solution, while subtly blaming who has failed: "To lose weight, you need to use more calories than you eat. Portion control is the key. When trying to lose weight, you can still eat your favorite foods -as long as you pay attention to the total number of calories that you eat."
I don't know about how you, but I could never eat half of a Reese cupcake or half of a pie (even). If you're mastering the portion-control art, congratulations and I hope you know that you're a rare specimen. Common folks like me, have to carefully prepare my meals, making sure that eating as much as my tummy needs won't make me fat, but full and healthy - this is the secret of sparing myself the pain of counting calories and reducing my portions to some ghostly meal size.

As an avid reader of anything to do with health, nutrition and fitness, I have understood that the human body is designed to gain weight, keeping us ready for any emergencies that would need those extra pounds. The more we starve our bodies, the more our bodies believe there's an emergency happening, turning into our bodies into the 'survival mode' - when actually the body doesn't want to let go or any fat, and also turns into fat whatever food it gets. The secret is, again, in eating foods that keep you full and make you lose weight. 

On the other hand, I do sympathize with The Old Continent ( The New England Journal of Medicine) stating that "Diet without lifestyle change is not enough." 
I embrace this theory  because it approaches the person (me and you)  in a holistic way, taking into account the complex system that makes our lives and lifestyles. When you want to lose or gain weight, please take time to reflect on your health conditions, your exercise life, your eating habits, your stress and body inflammation levels. It is important to be kind to yourself and allow your soul, mind, body time to change. Change happens slowly, so be patient with yourself! 

I'm always hard on myself and hard and I had to learn to be gracious with my body. Getting married to a very gracious man has taught me what grace is. I have learnt to be happy with my faults, to allow myself time to recover and to even relax. I have learnt to admit my faults and cravings, to give in for an occasional, weekly treat or not to beat myself for a daily work I ditched. And I have magically become calmer, more content and more happy with myself in general. More balanced and reasonable, more understanding and more gracious.

Dieting is in the end a fight: the psychological drive is trying to control and suppress the biological drive of wanting and needing to eat. It should not be so as "There is no one solution for everyone, a one-size-fits-all wight loss strategy that works all the time for every person. It is about finding the right diet for you, based on your understanding the unique ways in which your genes and metabolism interact". There are many books and resources that try to explain what metabolism is and how you can turn a 'slow' metabolism into a 'fast' one. Well, just remember that metabolism is the sum of all the chemical reactions in your body, resulting in your health or sickness. The secret is to make your metabolism and body work for your benefit: by eating the right foods for you and by getting into the right exercise too.

Also, keep in mind that there's a parallel increase in inflammation and obesity, like they are connected. Inflammation in the body is the first sign that something is wrong out there - and inflammation should be taken seriously as it can cause auto immune diseases, cancer, obesity. I have experienced inflammation for many years, mistaking it for something else. For my own experience, I have seen how inflammation needs to be dealt with before anything else. The number one inflammatory trigger nowadays is modern wheat, which was genetically modified and simply can't be processed by our bodies. Keep an eye on this and google 'wheat belly' if you feel like wheat might be your enemy. 

My lessons I have learnt so far:

-Pay attention to your body! Recognize your symptoms and learn how to know what caused them! (start by eliminating any food you think might be guilty for making you fat/bloated etc)
- Do not skip any meals! Eating breakfast is like telling your body to wake up and start to burn more calories than it does into the 'sleeping mode'.
- Eat lots of vegetables, meat, and some fruit. If no weight loss is happening, cut on grains (wheat) and fruit.
-Clean your kitchen: bin all sources of sugar and refined food (bleached flour too). It is sugar that makes us fat. 
-Learn how to read labels! Any food package that has a long list of ingredients is a non buy, also any ingredients that you're not sure how you should pronounce are either preservatives, additives or MSGs, something that a good looking person will never buy - stay away!
-Drink plenty of water and hopefully daily lemon hot water (for detoxing your liver). Most people can't distinguish between thirst and hunger, so just to make things safe, they eat whenever they feel like they need anything.
-Work out every day. It has been proved that 30 minutes of exercise ....3-4 times a week can increase your metabolism. One hours of moderate exercise a day is just for keeping you at your present weight. If you are serious about losing weight, learn how to love weights in order to tone up. Muscles burn more calories than fat, so it will work in your advantage to have more muscle than fat.
-Even on your lazy day, give your metabolism a 'boost' by doing squats, going for a jog or just cleaning those windows fervently. 
-Last but not least, breathe in and breathe out every day! Be happy and do not let your happiness evolve around food. Learn how to make healthy treats for yourself, using real ingredients you find at the market (hopefully a locally grown market/farm). There are lots of websites around about clean eating, so why won't you give them a try?

I hope you enjoyed the article, I hope you got inspired towards a healthier and a better looking YOU! Please team up with friends for a 'gorgeous looking' transformation, or ask to join one of my fitness 'challenge' groups that are always up to something!



To anyone interested in understanding more about how you can lose weight and keep it off, I recommend:

'Ultra-Metabolism' by Mark Hyman - best book I have read about health, metabolism and losing weight (and I'm always reading on this subject)

 'The China Study' by Colin Campbell - great book about how certain foods have different nutritional value, about how food can either make you fat and sick, or healthy and fit.



Enjoy your healthy food today!