Did you know that at least 95% of dieters gain all their weight back? And in most cases, you gain it back with INTEREST… ie: worse off than you were before you started the diet!
I’m not even talking about your typical fad diets. I’m talking about meal plans, reasonable diets, clean eating, etc. Anything that tells you when to eat, or what to do and imposes certain rules can be considered a diet. (Yes… even my nutrition packages– although I try hard to keep ALL rules out of them and keep it about creating new habits around meal prep). If you lose 5-10% of your weight on it; you have an EXTREMELY SLIM chance of keeping it off long term. By long term, I mean for life. Not just 6 months, or a year, or 5 years. And isn’t that the point? When you aim to reach a certain goal, don’t you want to stay there?
Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough willpower, or motivation, or discipline to follow through with a healthy eating plan or a diet? Do you feel like there is something wrong with you? That you can’t stay consistent long term?
I’m here to tell you definitively that that is NOT the case. There is absolutely nothing wrong you, and EVERYTHING wrong with the “health” and fitness industry. This industry is worth billions of dollars because it’s designed to keep you coming back for more. Can you say that you have gone on ONE diet, met your goal, and then stayed there forever.. period? Do you know anything that has? Or have you lost and gained the weight over and over again trying new diets, exercise gadgets, fitness regimes.. etc?
I’ve been noticing more and more how prevalent failure is in the dieting industry, and I really want to change that. I know why we aren’t succeeding, because it’s where I still struggle too.
We don’t address our actual issues such as dependency on food for comfort, coping or emotional reasons.
If you experience any of the following issues with food, there is more going on than just “not being able to stick to a diet”:
-feel out of control around food
-feel guilt or shame around eating certain things
-have periods of binging or restricting
-have an obsession with clean or healthy eating
-have intense cravings for certain foods
-eat to numb out
-eat when you aren’t hungry
-eat past fullness the majority of the time
–restrict yourself when you are hungry
-eat when you are sad, bored, happy
-feel the need to “work off” food
-label foods “good” or “bad”
-count calories, macro’s or feel the need to control your intake of food
-constantly on a new diet or exercise regime
–never feel satisfied or happy with your current body
and many more.
Guess what. IT’S NOT ABOUT THE FOOD, OR THE DIET, OR YOUR EXERCISE. You aren’t failing because of lack of willpower, or because you aren’t on the right plan for you.
You are failing because you aren’t addressing the emotional reasons behind your eating.
I know the dieting industry will have you believe that if you just go vegan, or cut out dairy, or try whole30, or go paleo… You will lose all the sugar cravings! Never need to diet again! Lose weight effortlessly! Every new diet will fill you with hope and promise.
It’s simply. NOT. TRUE.
As much as you don’t want to hear it, you will gain the weight back if you don’t address what’s going on in the inside. That little voice inside your head is going to rebel at some point. When you go through a stressful time, when you go through a life transition, when you just can’t stand eating chicken and broccoli any more. Some people can last longer than others before their “Inner Rebel” starts getting louder and louder. Have you ever reached a certain breaking point on a diet/meal plan/etc where you just want to say FUCK THIS I’m tired of the arbitrary rules!? Then you finally go eat whatever you like and find yourself right back where you started?
This is so so normal. You are normal. You are human. We are not meant to tell our bodies when to eat, what not to eat, and let an app tell us how many calories we should be eating.
We are meant to enjoy and love food and our bodies.. and eat when we are hungry for food. It sound so simple, yet it’s the most difficult thing in the world. With hyper-palatable foods (ie: manufactured foods full of sugar, fat, anything addictive) increasing cravings and fake food everywhere we turn, it’s no wonder we are confused. We are bombarded with messaging EVERY SINGLE DAY, about how to change our bodies, what to cut out, the new “evil” food to avoid and what new exercise fad to try.
If we put all that time, attention and effort into figuring out WHY we are drawn to the food in the first place, and healing our relationship with food and body we would NEVER gain the weight back. We would finally have a healthy relationship with food. If we exercised for enjoyment instead of fat burn, we would all move way more often.
Have you experienced the yo-yo dieting cycle? Are you sick and tired of it? I am as well, which is why I’m working on an intuitive eating program to help heal your relationship with food- so please stay tuned! It will hopefully be launched for June!
Please let me know your thoughts on this topic, I am interested to hear!
Training by Tara Brunet 