Fitness Friday: The Pitfalls of Dieting

Why is it so incredibly hard to lose weight and maintain our healthy lifestyle goals?  We try and we try….and many, many of us derail ourselves time and time again.  Maybe its time we look a little deeper… our habits, our lifestyles…what pitfalls could we avoid that we don’t even see coming?

Originally I was looking for the “not so obvious” pitfalls….because we all know the major culprits, right? NO!  Silly me!  What an assumption to make.  Some people don’t know…or haven’t been exposed to the information that some of us (ahem…me) obsess over regularly.  So I’m going to lay it out here…some of the old…and a couple of new things that I hadn’t ever thought about before.

Fad Diets

Any diet that drastically restricts your caloric intake or the types of foods you are eating for a long period of time is going to ultimately derail you.  Notice I said “for a long period of time”.  Sarah did a carb/sugar purge that is actually very beneficial to break down addictions and clean out your system.  It is not a long term restriction.  Much different.  Diets that eliminate portions of the food pyramid indefinitely can leave you craving those foods…and binging on them down the road.  You can also risk damage to your organs by overloading your system with too much of one type of nutrient.  For example, a diet that focuses mainly on proteins is going to overload your kidneys and your liver.

The other problem with fad diets…or very loosely planned diets is skipping meals…ultimately back loading all of your calories into the end of the day when you just can’t take it anymore.

The solution? What some of us have been saying all along: eat in moderation.  Eat a variety of foods…cover ALL of the food group requirements and eat throughout the day.  Don’t restrict yourself from the foods that you love..just eat them in moderation.  Julie will tell you time and again: Put what you want on your plate….then put half of it away for another time.

Social Situations

Work in an office? I bet you have a “snack room” or a “lunch room” where yummy, calorie laden food magically appears.  Every day you dutifully bring your carefully planned sack lunch to work…so why are you not losing weight?  Maybe because when you are tired, or stuck on a particular work point….you need to break up your mental monotony … so you stretch your legs…and end up in the snack room…only to see that Rich down the hall brought in donuts.  Eating just half of a donut won’t hurt, right?  Well what about later when you come back and eat another half…or “just a small piece” of the birthday cake they brought in for your boss?  What if you are craving some caffeine but the only soda left in the fridge is non-diet?

Stay at home with your kids? My biggest diet fail is inconsistency.  I’m so busy taking care of the kids half of the time that I realize its 3 and I haven’t eaten yet…so I sit down for some lunch.  What I fail to take into account is that I ate the little bit of eggs that Lilli left on her plate at breakfast…and half of B’s grilled cheese from lunch…and I grabbed a muffin on our way out the door to class…and, and, and…..

The Solution? Hold yourself accountable.  Put it in writing.  Just like our bank accounts…those “little” expenses add up to be a big deficit if there are too many of them.  The most successful program I’ve followed is Weight Watchers.  Why? Because you journal each and every thing you put in your mouth and you assign it a points value.  You can eat whatever you want to…but YOU have to plan it…YOU have to write it down and YOU have to look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day.  If we become brutally aware of what we are eating…we are less likely to eat what is uneccesary.  If you have a daily caloric goal (points, whatever)…you are going to make yourself more aware of what you are eating.  I can crave a Blizzard from Dairy Queen until I look up the points value…is it worth it to put 16 of my daily 35 points into this ONE treat? Nope.

Relaxing

What?  Am I saying don’t relax? NO!!!  Actually…make SURE you relax.  Not sleeping and resting enough can cause your body to go into hibernation mode…and save every last calorie that you put into your body for a “rainy day”…or hibernation.

What I AM saying is watch how you relax.  Again…hold yourself accountable.  Families who spend a large amount of time watching television have substantially more weight and health issues than families who spend their free time in other ways.  Why?  Its not the sitting around part that is the problem, oddly enough…its the advertising and the fact that you aren’t paying attention when you do eat.  Children and adults who watch television are subjected to advertising which can subconsciously cause you to wander to the kitchen in search of a snack…even when you aren’t hungry.  Eating while you are watching television may cause you to eat without thinking….empty calories and too many of them!

The solution?

Plan activities for you and your family that don’t involve the television.  Pick a literary series and read them out loud to each other…plan one night a week for family game night.  Plan a healthy snack before you begin and prepare it so you don’t eat mindlessly.

So what can we do to help you avoid these pitfalls?  We can help you hold yourself accountable….and you can do the same for us!

Planning menus and journaling your food intake will drastically cut down on overeating, binging and general unhappiness with what you are eating.  We are opening a section of our forum where you can come and share what you ate for the day…share your goals, your outcomes…and get/receive encouragement from the rest of us!