How to Stop Dieting

December 28, 2020

Healthy weight loss that lasts

Are you going about weight loss the wrong way?

Is it possible you’ve been thinking about weight loss all wrong? Here's how to stop dieting and start feeling great! We all know that dieting doesn’t equal sustainable weight loss. In fact, most of us would agree that dieting makes us feel like our weight is a yo yo – it goes up and down, then up and down again.

Dieting equals frustration. But, it doesn’t have too! You can lose weight successfully and sustain it. Stop dieting. Focus on making small, easy lifestyle changes and enjoy successful weight loss! No more counting calories or feeling deprived of food. A healthy, holistic lifestyle not only helps you lose weight safely, it also promotes energy, a sense of well-being, improves cognition and heart health. Here’s how to stop dieting, and start feeling healthy today using a holistic healthy lifestyle.

How to lose weight fast

Quick and rapid weight loss is never healthy, nor is it easy to maintain. Yet, there are many popular and trendy diets that help you lose weight fast. These diets involve drastic or restrictive changes in your food intake that can be really hard to maintain. Hence, after some time you end up going back to your old eating habits, and the weight comes back. When your weight loss plan is focused on restricting or cutting back on certain foods, you are derived which leads to depressive feelings. Even worse, some diets can be dangerous if the food restrictions cause nutritional deficiencies. Stop dieting and lose weight in a healthy, sustainable way. Here’s how…

What’s the best food to eat?

We’re all unique. It’s not just your hair colour, eye colour or personality that makes you different. You are unique because of the recipes inside your cells which us science geeks call DNA. Give your DNA the right ingredients and it will whip up the best version of you! The ingredients your cells need goes beyond the calories, vitamins and minerals you find on your fork. The DNA in your cells responds to lifestyle factors: exercise, stress, sleep, emotions. Are these factors holding you back from reaching your weight loss goals?

Certain foods are known to support weight loss when consumed as part of a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise, a positive mindset, and plenty of foods that are whole and nourishing. Green tea is one of the healthiest drinks, besides water, as it contains antioxidants known for their outstanding health benefits. Green tea has also been found to offer some significant benefits to those trying to achieve weight loss, including effects on thermogenesis (how many calories you burn). Ginger is well-known for it's ability to support cardiovascular health, and prevent diabetes, as well as reduce weight gain through beneficial changes to your appetite, as well as the way your body uses sugar and fat.

 

How to successfully lose weight

Consistently, evidence points to a healthy holistic lifestyle for successful long-term weight loss. A healthy holistic lifestyle includes eating healthy whole foods (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes). Researched benefits to eating healthy foods include: weight loss, longer life expectancy and lower rates of chronic diseases (cardiovascular, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease).

 

Does weight loss have to include exercise?

A healthy lifestyle also includes physical activity. Yet, if you have negative feelings about exercise, your mindset may be inhibiting your weight loss. If you’re saying to yourself while reading this, “I hate exercise”, it’s possible you’re looking at it the wrong way. When an activity is fun, it’s hard to get you not to do it. Now, can you start thinking about exercise as not being a gym workout, but a physical activity that you love. Great! Now, go do it. Ditch the gym if it doesn’t motivate you. There are no one-size-fits-all exercise classes. Instead, go find a way to move and sweat that you can’t get enough of. You’ll never have a hard time fitting exercise in when it’s an activity you can’t wait to go and do. Maybe it’s a walk in the woods with your dog or a zumba class with a friend. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to learn how to scuba dive – jump in!

The Secret to Weight Loss

Be sure to set exercise goals that are unrealistic. If you set your goals too high, you will fail. A marathon next month is not realistic. However, realistic and attainable goals, such as going for a jog a few days this week, or aiming to fit in more steps per day, are both goals you can reach and feel successful about. These smaller, sustainable goals get you closer to the marathon, but in a way that you can stay positive and motivated. A positive mindset is key to reaching weight loss success. At the University of Alberta, 273 sedentary adults participated in a study that involved 3 one-hour exercise sessions per week. One year later, despite noting positive outcomes, such as having more energy, improved sleep and less stress, some quit exercising. They quit largely because they were disillusioned about meeting preconceived unrealistic weight loss or body changes. Set smaller, achievable goals to stay motivated and maintain a healthy mindset.

 

Why can’t I lose weight?

Stop dieting and lose weight – most often it’s not just your diet that is the problem. Does your body want to put on weight because of your stress-levels, sleep habits, food choices or your exercise strategy? Or could the reason your body is putting on weight be an underlying imbalance in your microbiome or hormones? The body is a complicated machine with many factors influencing how it works. If you have tried diets and still gain weight, consider stopping the diets, focusing on a well balanced food plan and considering things beyond your plate.

Here are 7 ways to lose weight:

1. Set a bed time – studies show sleep deprivation causes weight gain
2. Drink more water – sometimes thirst is disguised as hunger.
3. Sweat daily – when you love an activity it’s hard not to exercise.
4. Call a friend – it’s easier to stay with a healthy change with support.
5. Raise your roof – involve those you live with to make healthy changes easier.
6. Eat more plants – full of nutrients and low calorie density, plants are the best weight loss food.
7. Set small goals – each time you reach a goal it’s motivating, set small ones.

 

You need a sustainable plan that’s realistic. Call me if you’d like help with a personalized holistic weight loss plan that fits into your unique life and food preferences. Find a lifestyle that gives your body all of the ingredients it needs to be the best version of you! 

 

By Allison Tannis MSc RHN is an author of five nutrition books including Aging Bites: how the foods you’re eating may be making you age faster. Read more of her articles on her popular blog www.allisontannis.com or on social media @deliciouslygeeky

References

Changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men. N Engl J Med. 2011 Jun 23;364(25):2392-404. 

Effects of popular diets on weight loss outcomes

Can we say what diet is best for health? Ann Rev Pub Health 2014; 35(1):83-103.

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