Don't Say You're on a Diet

"Health requires healthy food." - Roger Williams

A diet alone won't help you lose weight. It may even make things worse for you. People who diet for a certain period of time, only to revert to their former eating habits once the diet is over, will put on even more weight than they've lost. Restricting your food intake slows your metabolism. As you deprive your body of calories and nutrients, it goes into starvation mode. You're setting yourself up for more weight gain: this is the 'rebound' effect. 

A diet should not be a temporary thing, something you do to lose a few kilograms or pounds, over a period of time. Much better and more effecting is a change of lifestyle. The word 'diet' actually means 'way of life'. It encompasses every aspect of eating, exercising, sleeping, as well as smoking and drinking. To have a healthy body within the normal weight range, you need to nourish it with healthy food. You are what you eat, so choose wisely what you decide to put into your body. If you eat junk food, you will become junk!

Exercise regularly, but don't do anything that you can't stick with long term. Choose a form of exercise that is moderate and that you find enjoyable. Your new habit needs to be sustainable. If you know you won't be able to go to the gym five days a week, then don't fool yourself into believing that you will do it. Be realistic about what you can do. It's better to walk for half an hour a day at your own pace, rather than pushing yourself too hard, and put yourself off exercising altogether.

A lifestyle is something you do for the rest of your life. An easy and sensible easy way to improve your diet is to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. Drink eight to twelve glasses of filtered water a day. Sleep at for at least seven to eight hours a night. If you don't sleep enough, your metabolism will become sluggish. You will be moody, volatile and less likely to resist temptation. 

Have a wholesome breakfast that includes complex carbohydrates, protein and fruit. Oat porridge with banana, nuts and seeds for instance, or poached eggs with tomato and parsley on wholemeal toast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because it kickstarts your metabolism. Instead of three big meals a day, make it a habit to have five or six smaller ones. This will stabilise your blood sugar levels and give you sustained energy until bedtime. 

Avoid refined sugar and anything with hidden sugar in it, like muesli bars or even fruit juice. Sugar comes in a lot of disguises and has many different names. Just because you choose honey doesn't mean you don't eat sugar! It's the same thing. Honey may be more natural, but it is still sugar. Fructose and high fructose corn syrup are just as bad. Watch for names that end in 'ose' like maltose or dextrose: they all mean sugar.

Change can be frightening, so implement changes progressively. It works better to do things step by step, rather than trying to stick with drastic changes overnight. It took you a long time to develop unhealthy habits, so it will take you a while to undo them and replace them with healthy ones. But does it really matter? As long as you actually make these changes, there is no rush. 

This is your body, your health, your journey. Only you decide how you will do it, and how long it will take you to transform yourself. Start with one little thing, like eating an apple instead of an ice-cream. This will lead to the next thing and to the next, until you replace all your negative habits with positive ones!

With love,

Bella

Painting: 'Red Bell with Vase' by Debra Sisson

Why is it so Difficult to Lose Weight?

Dieting is not a piece of cake! Your body has ingrained habits, and so does your mind. 

You're used to carrying a certain amount of fat and when you try to lose it, alarm bells go off immediately: you feel ravenous, and your body goes into starvation mode. 

As you reduce your caloric intake, hoping to burn fat, your metabolism slows down, adjusting to the amount of fuel it is given. You might lose some weight initially, but then you quickly hit a "plateau": your weight stops moving. You get discouraged and give up your diet. You go back to your old eating pattern and a few weeks or months later, you regain all the weight you've so painfully lost. 

Psychologically, it's hard to change a pattern of behaviour. It takes a bit of work and persistence, and above all: time. You can't rush it, as you can't change overnight! Today you are the sum total of your habits, and you need to undo them one by one, peeling them away like the layers of an onion. 

Motivation is not always strong. It comes and goes, and on some days you feel enthusiastic about your goal, while on others, your determination weakens. You're tempted to give in to your cravings and can't resist the urge to have a chocolate bar of a piece of cake! Just because you didn't stick to your eating plan, you think you've failed. You decide to binge on the foods that you've denied yourself for the last few days or weeks. The next day, you feel awful and decide either to punish yourself by going on an even more restrictive diet, which will slow your metabolism even further, or give up your intention to lose weight altogether.  

Weight loss works if you're sensible about it. There is no instant recipe, and secret number one is to lose weight slowly and gradually. It doesn't matter how long it takes! 

Examine your excuses, e.g., "I don't have any willpower", or "I don't have time to exercise". Willpower begins with little things, like eating more fruit and vegetables instead of pies and biscuits. Or like getting up a few minutes earlier than usual to do a few stretches and prepare a nutritious breakfast.

Be patient and gentle with yourself! Secret number two is to be flexible. If you can't go to the gym, why not take a power walk for ten or twenty minutes? Wanting to do everything perfectly will set you up for failure, because no one can be perfect, and you'll slip up and make mistakes, no matter how hard you try to do things by the book.

You probably already know what you should eat, but you're confused about carbohydrates, fat and protein. I will explain how to balance these macronutrients in your diet for the best weight loss effect, and for maximum health and energy. You will never go hungry again, as you'll have plenty of satisfying food to eat! And you won't feel miserable and deprived...

Losing weight can be an exciting journey, if you're doing it right, and if you're playful about it.  My new book, "The Magic of Sensible Weight Loss" won't disappoint you. It may not be easy to lose weight, but you can achieve it in a rational way that appeals to your intelligence. I will give you all the tools to do this, and much more. The result will be magical!

With love,
Bella

"The Magic of Sensible Dieting: Healthy Weight Loss without Hunger and without Deprivation" will soon be available at Balboa Press and Amazon.com!