The Real Truth About Dieting: Five Alarming Ways Diets Keep You From the Body & Life You Want

I can tell you the real truth about dieting because I spent over twenty years on the diet-go-round, which is when you jump from one diet to the next to the next, hoping that this next one will be the answer. No diet ever was the answer. I could always lose the weight, no problem. I could never keep it off.

And I ended up gaining it all back plus usually more within a year. I ended up at 304 pounds by constantly failing at dieting.

So now I don’t diet anymore. I lost over 160 pounds without dieting. I’ve maintained that weight loss for 8 years without dieting. Knowing what I know now, I’ll never diet again.

If you’re one who believes in dieting or is thinking about going on a diet, here’s what dieting does to you, especially restrictive dieting where you have to avoid certain foods or entire food groups.

1. The real truth about dieting: it makes you afraid of food

If you diet long enough you’ll eventually give food all kinds of power over your life and you’ll start to be afraid to eat anything. You might even get to the point where you’re afraid to be in the same room with certain foods. That’s what happened to me. I was afraid to have any kinds of sweets in my house because I thought they had all the power and I had none.

2. The real truth about dieting: it leaves you terrified of making a mistake

I kept getting told that the reason I wasn’t losing weight while I was dieting was because I wasn’t following the rules or guidelines perfectly. So I got to the point where I was hyper-vigilant about everything, measuring food down to the ounce, writing down every morsel I ate, and that kind of thing. It left me full of anxiety all the time that I was going to screw it up, even the tiniest mistake.

3. The real truth about dieting: it traps you in all-or-nothing thinking

All-or-nothing thinking happens because of the whole perfectionism idea. Once you get terrified of making a mistake, the stakes are really high when you do. And instead of letting yourself screw up and learn from it, you end up beating yourself up and using it as an excuse to throw in the towel and completely give up on yourself.

4. The real truth about dieting: it makes you stop trusting yourself

You stop listening to your own wants and needs. You stop believing that you know yourself best. Instead, you start listening to the rules and guidelines that some diet dictates. You start listening to someone else tell you what you want and need.

5. The real truth about dieting: it makes you stop trusting your body

You stop listening to your own body. Your body will tell you what it wants and needs. But you have to trust yourself and trust your body in order to listen to it. Once you start obeying all the rules and guidelines that some diet dictates, you stop listening to your body.

So the point of this whole post is this: stop dieting, it doesn’t work and it does you more harm than good.

Get off the diet-go-round. Get on with your life.^®

Stop wishing, start doing.
Create your own weight loss before and after success story.

My weight loss transformation & how it can help you lose weight without dieting

You absolutely can break the diet cycle. I got free. Your life can be that way too.

I made my own path because I needed to get myself out of the crazy-making behavior I was having around food. I needed:

• no more dieting.
• no more restrictive eating.
• no weighing and measuring food.
• no off-limit foods.
• no more judgment around food.
• no more trying to figure out healthy eating or just what healthy foods to eat.
• no more judging my self-worth based on the scale.
• no more you’re-not-doing-it-perfectly diet rules that were only fueling my constant thinking about and obsession with food.

I needed to stop: searching for weight loss tips, wondering how to lose belly fat fast or how to lose weight fast, worrying about how to eat healthy or finding healthy snacks for weight loss, coming up with yet another healthy eating plan, trying to have quick weight loss, or forcing myself onto yet another weight loss diet. What I needed instead was to find, out of all the weight loss programs out there, the best weight loss program for me. Turns out, the best way to lose weight was to find out what works for me and do that.

• I’ve lost 160+ pounds naturally by simply trusting myself and listening to my intuition (mindful eating and eating intuitively).
• I have maintained that weight loss for 9 years and counting by trusting myself and listening to my intuition (mindful eating and intuitive eating).
• I no longer have any eating disorders, including bulimia (bulimia nervosa) and binge eating disorder (compulsive overeating).
• I no longer have a fear of food.

Just imagine what you could be doing with your life if you’d just commit to having your own before and after weight loss success story. You could be: following your own dreams and reaching your own goals, cultivating your own passions, and making both your inner and outer worlds a more blissful and peaceful place.

I got that for my life. I want it for yours. I will teach you how.

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Let today be the day you make peace with your body and with food.

For more information, check out the Start Where You Are Weight Loss^® page.