Dieting and lifestyle changes

Like many overweight people I have struggled with diets and trying to find one that works for me. I think the reason many diets fail is that people think of them as short term change rather than a lifestyle change. The whole "I'll go on this until I lose the amount I want to, then I can go back to eating things I like" mentality. People set themselves up for failure by making it seem like a chore.. something they HAVE to do. Of course if you go into it thinking it's going to be a burden you're going to more then likely fail... eventually you'll get tired of doing it and go back to your old ways. Another reason that diets fail is because people don't do their research and wind up doing things the wrong way.

Lets start with Atkins. There are people who get their information on Atkins through their friends and the media. The media portrays Atkins as a "no carb" diet.. basically the "all you can eat meat and bacon" diet. I can't tell you how often I have gotten into conversations with people on Atkins and they always use that as their defense.

First of all Atkins isn't a no carb diet. It is a low carb diet, and the amount of carbs you consume is dependent on the phase you are in. For instance when you do Atkins (by the book and not by what your friends or the media say) you start out in induction. Induction lasts two weeks, unless you choose to extend it.. and on induction you are allowed up to twenty carbs a day. You're supposed to get most of your carbs from vegetables listed in the book.. three cups of salad veggies, or two cups of salad veggies plus one cup of the other veggies. Also, if people read the book they would know that it's not an "all you can eat" diet. On Atkins you are supposed to eat until you are satisfied.. and you're supposed to eat when you get hungry. It's not a free pass to stuff your face until you feel stuffed like people do at Thanksgiving. I think you can also tell from my mention of vegetables that it's more then just a meat and cheese diet. If you're not going to take the time to research how the diet works, why it works, and how it should be done.. why bother doing it at all?

There are plenty of low carb diets out there to choose from. Atkins is the one that I know the best though, so I used it in my example. Often I run into people who have modified some low carb diet to fit their needs and they have had great success on it.. nothing wrong with that, it's just a pet peeve of mine when they claim to be doing "Atkins" or "Southbeach" and they aren't. Yeah.. I'm kind of anal like that, but then there are a lot of people like me out there who would say the same thing so I'm in good company. :)

Lets talk about dieting and lifestyle changes. Dieting is something people do in short term.. it's not something that they plan to do for the rest of their life, just long enough to lose the weight they want to lose. I know a lot of people who yo-yo on diets.. they do really good and then go off the diet and gain a lot of the weight back. If people thought of it more as a lifestyle change.. it might actually end the yo-yo'ing. A lifestyle change is something more permanent.. and unless you're doing a diet like the grapefruit diet or some other diet that requires you to practically starve yourself or eat fairly unhealthy.. perhaps it'd be better to make it a permanent change. Nothing wrong with getting healthy and staying that way right?

Instead of making it a chore.. make it a challenge. Make it fun and/or challenging for yourself, and it won't be something you dread doing.

Last.. but certainly not least... EXERCISE! I've found a lot of people will try dieting but not throw in exercise. This is a big part of weight loss.. it helps your heart, it helps your metabolism, and it helps burn the fat that you want to lose and gets your muscles back into shape. MOST diets worth a darn will tell you that is an important part of it all. :)

Anyhow.. I've rambled enough. Hopefully you'll find something useful in this post.. if you've got anything to add, feel free to leave a comment.