Dieting has become a way of life. We have started to replace the standard ‘How are you?’ with ‘How is your diet going?’ The constant obsession of managing our weight and achieving our perfect body size has taken over the way we approach eating.
It has been proven that people all across the world have reached an all-time high when it comes to dieting. Aging has become something we all dread to think about, and as a result, we are starving ourselves and following fad diet after fad diet in the hopes of staying young forever.
Why Is Dieting A Bad Approach To Weight-Loss?
Dieting is mainly followed for the sole purpose of losing weight. It goes hand-in-hand with vigorous exercise and constant weigh-ins and measuring, and always has an expiration date; when we reach our weight-loss goal, we go back to eating as we did before the diet.
We are approaching dieting and weight-loss in such a wrong way! Dieting shouldn’t be a meal plan that you follow a few weeks or months to see quick changes in your body’s weight.
Most diets include foods that are a bit more expensive and foods that you’d never buy for your own household. While the rest of your family indulges in cheese sauce over steak, you will have a plate with nothing but green vegetables in it. In effect, dieting is an impossible thing to maintain. Before you know it, you’ve fallen off the wagon and are back to the bad eating habits.
Dieting can be extremely unhealthy. Some diet plans follow a very strict calorie intake that deprives individuals of much-needed nutrients and vitamins. Some diets even involve drinking chemicals and other harmful supplements that can speed up weight loss and fat burning.
The fact is, diets aren’t maintainable. Eating meals that are entirely out of your family’s usual routine, and that needs a lot of prepping isn’t an effective way of losing weight or maintaining it. Not to mention depriving yourself of foods you love, which only makes you crave them all the more.
What Is The Non-Diet Approach
A non-diet approach is an excellent way of managing and maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. This revolutionary approach supports body positivity and higher self-esteem.
It’s all about finding a balance in your diet without following a strict and constricted meal plan. Following a non-diet lifestyle will eliminate unhealthy associations with eating. This is vital, for it can reduce the chance of developing eating disorders like fasting, skipping meals, taking laxatives, or binging and vomiting.
The non-diet approach is all about honoring your body and loving it from the inside out. It’s about mindful eating and taking on healthy eating habits that are maintainable and efficient.
People who follow the non-diet approach are more focused on healthy eating and less about weight control and weight loss. When you adopt healthy eating habits, you will be able to maintain a balanced weight and a healthy body.
How To Shift Your Thinking Into A Non-Diet Approach
MINDFUL EATING – Be more conscious of what you eat. When you’re eating, be as present as possible, try to notice the flavor, the texture, and how the food is making you feel physical. In time, you’ll start to notice that too much sugar doesn’t really taste that good. You’ll be more aware of the aftereffect of certain foods, and this will make you change your choices for the right reason. It will also reduce your cravings for foods that are bad for you and make healthy foods more appealing: you will start associating the specific food to the way it makes you feel.
HUNGER LEVEL- Be aware of your hunger level. Only eat when you are truly hungry and stop eating when you feel full.
ACCEPT YOUR BODY – Wanting to make a change for the better doesn’t necessarily mean you hate your current situation. Embracing your figure before you start losing weight will bring you peace of mind and will allow you to concentrate on changing your eating habits.
EXERCISE – It doesn’t have to be a vigorous physical activity. The point is to stay active and make sure your exercise is enjoyable. When exercise feels like it’s a burden and forced, then you are doing the wrong kind of workout.
A healthy weight that is sustainable over time can’t be obtained by a strict diet you keep wishing to get rid of. The non-diet approach allows you to change your lifestyle for good – it may take more time, but the results will be permanent.
