If you’ve been trying to lose weight for awhile (meaning years rather than months), you’ve likely tried a lot of “diets,” that is, televised or advertised programs that promise success. I don’t blame you if you have. Millions of people every year are lured in to trying programs they likely wouldn’t were it not for media. We’ve all seen the ads where an overweight woman is shown stuffing food into her mouth (Lovely, isn’t it? Why don’t they show her enjoying her life instead of promoting a stereotype that if you’re overweight you MUST be stuffing yourself). Or worse, they show a woman in a bikini when she obviously shouldn’t be. THEN comes the “after” shot, where the brunette overweight woman has sudden gone bleached blonde, and that bikini she was wearing in the last photo is suddenly the perfect size.
Trust me—after one too many disappointments on the scale, those ads are appealing to just about anyone.
The problem with these diets is that they often don’t prepare you for real life. And even if they do—even if the company sponsoring the diet has a created plan that allows you to slowly wean into “real life” eating, most people don’t stick with the diet long enough to get that far. The result? No change on the scale or weight gain.
This year, try to make a solid choice when you decide to lose weight. If you’re going to opt for a program that has you eat their food, for instance, make sure you choose one you’re willing to stick it out with. If you crave sandwiches, don’t try a protein diet. You’ll quickly go off of it and gain back the weight you lost. And resist the urge to buy into the “30 pounds in 30 days” gimmick. Yes, it’s possible. But it’s likely unhealthy and a short-term fix to a long-term problem.
Diets are just that—diets. To really lose weight and keep it off, you’ve got to make changes you’re willing to stick to for a very long time. My advice? Start small. Make a few changes then increase it each week. The weight may come off slower but it’ll stay off.