This Diet Is Killing Me

Ok boys and girls let’s take a tongue-in-cheek look at diets…… actually lets completely ban the word diet and call it sensible eating. Now there is no big secret to this, even though the world is full of crazy diets and people willing to take your money with the next big fad. You simply have to choose to eat better & in moderation.

Let’s face it, we all have a choice of what we put into our shopping carts & in our mouths for that matter. There’s no mysterious force driving you to make poor choices, it’s just good old you. If you choose to buy & live on a diet of cakes, pies, alcohol, fizzy drinks, takeaways & quick frozen meals covered in cheese, your chances of increasing your waistline are extremely high, as these food sources are high in fats & sugars. But you already know that right?

Now I’m not telling you to cut these things out altogether

By all means treat yourself occasionally. Just don’t live on them. When you enter the supermarket, right in front of you, you’ll find what are referred to as perishable goods, (don’t let the description fool you, this is the good stuff), this is the fruit & veg section. In this section you’ll also find nuts & dried fruits. Close by will be the meat sections. To start with, make sure 85% of your shopping is done in these sections & then you can spend the remaining 15% in the packaged and process sections if you really must. Try spreading your 15% over 3 cheat meals, where you eat what you like and do it shamelessly, but make sure 85% is the good stuff.

Food really is a choice. I know it’s funny to laugh with your friends about the chocolate & the wine being life support systems, but let me ask you…when you’re standing in front of the mirror, does it make you laugh then? So next time you’re sat on the sofa in front of the TV with your second bag of crisps, chocolate bar and half empty bottle of wine, just remember who’s making the choices here & what the outcome is going to be. You want to look a certain way, make the right choice & enjoy the outcome. You may never look like a supermodel or hunky film star but you can choose to make the best of yourself & as far as I’m concerned that’s good enough.

I’ll start a diet tomorrow

It never ceases to amaze me what a human being will put themselves through when it comes to food. Let’s have a small look at what I like to refer to as the Einstein selection, due to the pure intelligence behind them? I remember this one from many moons ago…. The Cabbage soup diet, yeah brilliant idea that, gas alert anyone. Maybe a modern disaster like, “I know, ’I’m just going to eat salad” mmm! That’ll do it. Maybe you can put on a large pair of ears and hop around the dinner table too. What about a fruit juice diet because someone at the yoga studio tried it & now they are fully detoxed (whatever that means) & whilst you’re at it you may as well get rid of your teeth too, the stupid chewing things. Seriously though, why would you do these things to yourself? Unless of course, you are unlucky enough to be living in poverty, in which case, this would equate to survival or even worst, you’re a prisoner on rations.

OK, so we can rule out dieting as not being sensible eating, but before we move on, I’d like to tackle one of my personal favourites. That’s right, it’s the hidden biscuit tin, every dieter’s best friend. “I`ll just have 1 biscuit” you say to yourself with a little jolt of excitement, adding “no one will ever know”. Well done……. you’ve now developed food schizophrenia. Let me put it to you … no one cares if you have that biscuit or a whole packet of them & let’s face it, no one stops at one biscuit. You are in fact hiding them from yourself. What are you doing, hmmm? You’ve brought some biscuits to go with your diet, which you’ve hidden in a tin, so you can accidently find them twice a day and have an argument with yourself. And the diets not working right?

Knowledge is power

No doubt you’ve probably tried the above well-trodden paths with varying success, possibly joined weight watchers & gone up and down 4-6 lb’s for the last year or so. You’ve possibly tried hand wringing, crying and feeling sorry for yourself whist confessing to your best friend that you have a problem with biscuits, although they already know because they’ve been around every day eating them with you, whilst you both discussed loosing weight over a glass of wine. In a final fling to grab yourself some happiness you’ve turned to, that’s right……. Your favourite tipple and a chocolate biscuit. The circle is complete.

Let me ask you something. In the midst of all this madness, have you ever truly tried to educate yourself on what food is & why you need it? Do you even know what a calorie is? I bet you know you have to control calories right? But honestly how do you control something you know nothing or very little about? If information is power, then why not empower yourself to do this right, once and for all? The choice is yours, it always has been.

This Diet Is Killing Me