The food industry has lied to us. You really cannot be fat and healthy at the same time. That’s a story they market to us so that we will keep eating their products and still feel good about our growing (in width) bodies. Luckily, there are many ways to nourish yourself and become healthy, but when it comes to weight loss and reaching optimal health you need a good, clean diet.
Today, we’re going to talk about why you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet and then how you can actually start to move closer towards your health and weight loss goals.
What a diet isn’t
What comes to mind when you think of going on a diet? A lot of people think of water fasting, restricting and counting calories, and eating lots of vegetables and fruits that they don’t enjoy eating. That’s not a diet. That’s just suffering for no reason. In fact, research on the hit show, The Biggest Loser, showed that most people who go on these extreme diets will gain back 66% of what they lost. Some of them will even gain more weight than what they started with.
There’s two really big reasons why this happens. The first, is that these people do not have an identity shift. They force themselves to undergo an intense restriction diet while at the same time exercising like crazy. They never dig into their why (the reasons this is important), they don’t enjoy the process, and they don’t change their habits. The fact of the matter is, you can’t be a healthy person at a good weight if you aren’t actually being a healthy person who is at a good weight. Are you seeing what I’m saying.
These contestants were losing incredible amounts of weight while on the show, but as soon as they leave that environment, they go right back to their old habits. The same happens with those who try “traditional” diets. They think it’s a temporary thing that they only need to endure once. These are the people experiencing fat -> fit -> fat. In the traditional sense, diets just don’t work. They aren’t sustainable.
The real secret to losing weight
There is no way to make a short-term diet work. Unless you want to be suffering for the rest of your life counting your calories and eating foods you hate, a diet is not going to work for you. So what can you do?
- You need an identity shift
- You need to know your reasons
- You need to change your habits
I’ve wrote and researched a lot about why diets don’t work and a lack of these 3 factors is what leads someone to putting back on the pounds. It’s not about diet, it’s about lifestyle. It’s about becoming the type of person who is healthy and who stays at a healthy weight. That’s the secret. If you can behave and think like a healthy person, it’s only a matter of time before you become healthy yourself.
How to think and act like a healthy person
First, you need to spend some time with yourself figuring out your reasons. Why do you want to lose weight or be healthy in the first place? Are you not happy with your body? Do you looks detract from your self-confidence? Do you want to see your kids grow old? Do you have some medical condition you want to avoid/heal from? You need to find a deep motivation. It needs to make you angry and emotional.
There’s a quick exercise you can do where you keep asking yourself “Why?” until you get down to the juicy stuff. Here’s an example of me trying to find my intention:
I am living in abundance
in order too…
fully serve the community around me
in order too…
change the lives of people around me and globe
in order too…
revolutionize the way we think about health and ourselves
in order too…
create a world of health, joy, and compassion
in order too…
feel fulfilled and leave a lasting legacy
in order too…
live a purposeful life
in order too…
satisfy the hunger in me to make people smile at the depth of my being
in order too…
have that warm feeling and empowerment in connecting with others and doing good
in order too…
feel amazing every single day, full of love and joy and connection
in order too…
foster a deep spiritual connection and contentedness with my physical life
in order too…
have no regrets at my death bed ***
I am living in abundance so that I have no regrets at my death bed.
Lies you have been told about weight loss
Once you have that emotionally charged reason, you need to start becoming aware and knowledgeable about health. You need to keep an open mind and let your curiosity lead the way. Many of the things you think you know to be true are in fact, not. Like the idea that eating fat makes you fat. Many people (and scientific literature!) will tell you that eating more fat has helped them to lose weight easier, faster, and for good.
In fact, our brains are made of 60% fat, so it’s incredibly important you are getting a high quality source of fat in your diet. Another lie you may have been told is that all calories are created equal. They are not in fact. 200 calories worth of sugar is not going to do the same as 200 calories worth of a carrot.
In the case of sugar, those 200 calories are not only going to raise your blood sugar, contribute to insulin resistance, and rewire your brain and dopamine receptors, it also makes your fat cells hungry! Certain substances (and calories) will make your fat cells hungry… if you have hungry fat cells, you are screwed. Our bodies biology will beat our weight loss efforts any day. The quality of your calories is what matters, not necessarily the quantity.
Once you become aware and knowledgeable about general health principles, making the right choice will become the easy choice. It won’t be “Oh, I can’t eat this/that”, rather you will be able to say, “Oh, I choose not to eat this/that”.
Changing your habits
Often the most over-looked part to weight loss is the habits and learning how to make your lifestyle and dietary changes stick. Even with strong reasons and awareness of the food industry lies, it can be hard to keep making the right choice.
I suggest not going into anything cold-turkey. Take your time to modify your diet and your lifestyle and focus on adding things in, not cutting out. If you can just add one good thing into your life every single day, you’ll see crazy huge results in a month, 6 months, and into the years that follow.
Start small. Tomorrow, have a glass of water in the morning before anything else. The next day, put a lemon in it. The next day, make your bed and then drink your water. The next day, make your bed, drink your water, and look up an exercise to do (but don’t do it). The next day, make your bed, drink your water, and find your yoga mat, weights, or whatever you need for those exercises (still don’t need to do it). The next day, do it all and then you can actually do your workout! Just take small actions everyday to the point where you get so annoyed at not being able to do whatever it is you are building up to, that you get pulled into doing it.
A diet that keeps that weight off
I definitely preach against diets. However, as I’m sure you understand, the food you eat plays a huge role. Here’s some general guidelines for a diet that keeps the weight off:
- Eat real, whole foods.
- Eat organic when possible – chemicals in conventional foods mess with your hormones (potentially interrupting your ability to burn fat)
- Stay away from sugar and refined carbs that turn into sugar
- Drink more water. This has been shown to be a huge catalyst to make people feel better, perform better, and make better choices
- Eat good fats like avocado, salmon, egg yolks, coconut and olive oil
- Fill your plate with a good amount of vegetables – make the meat the side dishes of your meal
The best advice for what to eat is to go back to basics. Shop on the outskirts of the grocery store where all the real, unprocessed, unpackaged, only real foods are. When buying other items, the less ingredients there are, the better. Check back soon for my post on how to eat healthy on a budget as well!
Weight loss doesn’t stand a chance against a strong diet and lifestyle
Dr. Mark Hyman has a 10-day program in which he makes small shifts in his patients diets and lifestyle. Within those 10 days, not only are his patients losing weight, they also have on average a 62% reduction in ALL of their diseases. That’s the power of good food and a good lifestyle. 10. days.
You can work on your diet for 10 days. You can work on your lifestyle for 10 days. Find your reasons, make the commitment to yourself, shift your identity, improve your habits, and transform your life. I fully believe in you.
Wrap-Up
You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet and lifestyle. It’s not about the calories you burn, it’s about the quality. The food we eat is information and if we eat bad food, it’s like putting bad programming into a computer; it’s not going to work properly and if it hasn’t already, it’s going to malfunction.
The power to change your life and your health lies in your hands. It is your responsibility. Health and weight loss doesn’t happen in a doctors office. It happens in your home, in your kitchen, in the place that you live, and in your mind. Use this knowing that you get to make the decisions, you get to make the choices, to start making strides in your health!
Let me know how it goes in the comments.
