Latest posts by Lianda Ludwig (see all)
- Has Dieting Made You Temporarily Crazy and Permanently Heavy? - May 4, 2013
- Is Your Weight Problem Caused By Abuse? - April 26, 2013
- Are You Addicted To Carbs? - February 3, 2013
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You are not a number!
Have you spent your life on a chronic diet? If you’re like me, you can look back at your life and remember the time when you first decided you were fat, and “had to” diet. Looking back at those photos I think that I wasn’t overweight, but insane! I was 126 pounds, 5’6″, and athletic. My problem was not my weight, but my mindset: I wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t good enough the way I was.
It takes some women a long time to understand the life lesson and realize that you “have a body”. You may like it, or hate it, but it is yours for the duration of this lifetime! For women, this can become a lifetime struggle, until you finally wake up and realize: You are fine the way you are, and how you look is not the most important thing in the world – except to you!
Low self-esteem got me started on the slippery slope to “diet prison”. Each time I dieted my metabolism slowed down because I was starving myself. I got angry and frustrated at my body. Here I was, sad, stressed, starving. I’d ask myself, why am I continuing to do this?? I’m not losing weight anyway, and then I’d stop the diet. And gradually my body would start to bring my weight back to where I began.
After each diet I’d gain an additional pound or so, something I call “diet punishment pounds“. Then, I’d get disgusted with my weight again, and find yet another diet plan, that promised, that THIS time would get me to my weight goal. But it never did. And I’d go through the same yo-yo process again, putting on additional punishment pounds each times.
The Definition of Insanity: When you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
This process has been called Yo-Yo dieting. You go down, you go up. The diet industry blames the dieter for not staying on that miserable tasteless diet for the rest of their lives, and says that’s the reason why the dieter failed. (and, why is my thin friends ate anything they wanted, but I had to eat rabbit food?) The poor dieter, who only went on the diet because of feeling lousy about themselves in the first place, is all too willing to feel guilty, and take the blame on themselves INSTEAD of the fact that diets don’t work.
It’s time that you understand, you didn’t gain the weight back because of your lack of discipline, or that you ate a cookie and “broke” your diet. You regained the weight because you have a healthy, normal body!
95% of all dieters gain back the weight within a few months to a couple of years.
Dieting actually making you GAIN weight! It took me a long time to finally realize that I was not unusual, but in that 95% who regain the weight.
The bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed.
Much of the “Common Wisdom” accepted as about dieting is totally false! Diet myth-information has been repeated so many times, that people take it for being the truth without questioning it. When people all you have to do to lose weight is “eat less and exercise more“ they are completely wrong! It’s actually a combination of the worst things you can do if you want to lose weight!
Why Diets Don’t Work
Your body has a natural set point that is inherited, just like your other physical characteristics. If you eat “normally” when you are hungry, and don’t use “comfort food” like a drug when you are stressed, your weight will stay within a 2-3 pound range by itself. Your body is a very sophisticated system, like a thermostat. If you eat fewer calories, your body automatically slows down your metabolism, and makes you feel lethargic. If you exercise too much, it makes you extra hungry and makes you crave carbs!
This is a healthy body’s reaction to “eat less and exercise more”! Furthermore, dieting puts your body into a stressful state, which changes your physiology and makes losing weight almost impossible! I call it a “waist of dieting”, because stress puts on belly fat!
The number one important thing to lose weight is to lose the stress. It’s been estimated that 80% of overweight is created by stress eating, and the effects of stress on your physiology. Eating because of stress provides only temporary comfort at best, and will just make you feel worse about yourself after you stop eating!
Your mindset must be transformed so that you believe you deserve to eat and enjoy your food. Nurture yourself with good food. And that means having an occasional treat! Eat mindfully, paying attention to enjoying and experiencing your food. You’ll then notice when you are full, and stop eating. Essentially, eat like a two – year old: eat what you want, when you are hungry, and stop when you’re full. But please don’t smush the food all over your face like a two year old, it’s very unattractive!
Seriously, de-stress, enjoy your life, and your weight will adjust! It’s time you stop stressing and blaming yourself for your diet not working. Focus your life on being meaningful, grateful and happy, and watch your weight adjust almost by magic: without dieting!
Does anyone actually still believe it is good to starve yourself to lose weight? I guess maybe being health conscious and educated in good practices and nutrition makes me think that no one can really think that anymore.
Great article! I totally agree about losing the stress. Weight gain is such a vicious cycle sometimes: feel stress … gain weight … feel stress about gaining weight … an on and on. I find that exercise, besides burning calories, has really helped me deal with stress.
Thanks again for the article!
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Hi Jason,
Thanks for your comment. I can see that you understand the cycle, and the fact that stress is part of it! Exercise, the RIGHT kind, can relieve stress; but the wrong kind can create it, and make things worse. If your body temperature goes down after exercise, you’ve stressed yourself! The best approach is moderation in all things: enjoy your life & nurture yourself! Then nature will take care of the rest.
Best of luck,
Lianda
Lianda Ludwig recently posted..Avoid This Big Mistake When Eating Healthy
Twitter: alvinchua91
Other than losing the stress, I believe one has to understand that if he/she wants to achieve effective long term weight loss, then he/she needs to go on a diet which they can imagine themselves following for the REST of their lives, rather than for a short period of time (eg. yo yo dieting/crash dieting).
Alvin recently posted..Weight Loss Without Counting Calories
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Hey Linda,
Nice post and Thanks for sharing this post with us. Yes, overweight is one of the big problem facing by approximately everyone and I am totally agree with you that for removing weight first we have to remove stress.
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Oh Linda you are spot on! I can remember weight 108 and thinking i was just disgustingly fat. Now I think I’m pretty hot at 128! How things change as we grow up and get a little smarter!
Strass is such a huge factor in our weight loss and gain! I’m thankful I found my balance and that I realized my resting BMR was only 1200 calories a day. That was tough, however once I learned that, it was easy to add some protein and some muscle. Now my BMR is is up around 2200 and I have the energy I was lacking!
hai Lianda Ludwig,,,along with this we can always have a 10-30 min yoga to destress ourself and have a healthy lifestyle….How things change as we grow up and get a little smarter!The best approach is moderation in all things: enjoy your life
Have everything in moderation. When you go on a diet and deprive yourself with foods you like, it gets to a point that you start craving all the time. Then you go totally bonkers and eat too much in one sitting.
Twitter: KnowingHeart
You are so correct. If you don’t deprive yourself of anything, then you don’t end up binging on it!
Lianda Ludwig recently posted..Re-Boot Your Mindset
My opinion about diets are that you should not diet.
Your body has a memory, turns of your digestion when you repeatedly diet sho when you are finished with your diet and going to eat in the ‘normal’ way, you regain weight. I tried some diets, and they were good. but in the short term, after a few months i were more heavy than I was before.
My formula, eat varied and take more visits at the gym
What is your opinion about diet products with aspartame in it?
I have read an article about aspartame with the possible side effects, i was shocked.
Thanks and keep up the good blogs.
Twitter: KnowingHeart
I totally agree that you should NOT diet. Nature insures that your body will regain the weight; and that’s why 95% of dieters end up regaining the weight- not because they lack discipline! Eating a balanced diet, and NOT eating toxins – such as aspartame and genetically modified foods is most important. The one recommendation about a food not to eat is: Omega 6 vegetable oils. Definitely have fats (butter, Coconut, olive oil), but not vegetable oils (Canola, corn, soy, etc… ).
And enjoy yourself in the gym, but don’t overdo it – i t will increase your hunger and decrease your metabolism!
Lianda Ludwig recently posted..Re-Boot Your Mindset
Twitter: foodieforall
Lianda, I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said problem is not the weight, but the mindset. Often times people are stuck with weight, because they keep going on fad diets. But they can lose the weight only when they shift their mindset and start eating healthy as a lifestyle.
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Yes our diet is responsible for making us overweight. thanks for sharing this. This is really nice post.
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Diet is the important factor for deciding our weight. It can make us overweight also. Controlling our diet is most important.
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Its really true, overeating could be very dangerous to us. I did prefer being a vegetarian but I am not completely. Instead, I consume lots of fruits and exercise regularly.