Getting started with a lifestyle change (yes, lifestyle change, you can't do this in 6 weeks and forget about it - more on that later) you would think that the 1000's of diet and fitness plans would make your job easy, right? Wrong. Just look through the section on Health and Diet at the local bookstore and no wonder you're overwhelmed. Vegan, vegetarian, protein, carb, micro-biotic, low fat, energy diets; what is the best way?
When it was time to get serious and get this fat avoidance plan started (I get so tired of saying "diet") I looked back at my experience with a high protein and low carb diet from a few years before. Obviously, if I'm looking back and I'm not where I should be weight and fitness wise, then there is something wrong with that method; at least for me. Sticking to highly restrictive diets even if it's just for 6 weeks and then you "graduate" to other foods are nearly impossible to stay on - and that's the key.
When you're looking for your method for losing weight you have to keep in mind it's not a short term relationship. This is something you have stick to as your way of picking groceries, recipes; and of course, entrees off a menu. Of course if somewhere down the road you get sick of the vegetarian diet you started - don't give up. Try something else but, never just go back to mindlessly eating what's easy or in front of you. I've seen people around me do that time and time again.
For instance, several women at work decided to join a diet program that held meetings at lunch time every week (I'm sure you may know the one). Everyone was enthusiastic and starting making changes right away. They started seeing results and were even buying new clothes. They bought the processed food under that label (easier to count points when it's on the package). Everyone knew how many points each morsel of food possessed and made sure those around them knew. Even the chocolates, that the office gets tons of at Christmas time, were assigned numbers. Choices on whether to eat one or to factor it in to their daily points were discussed at some length. Are you picking up that I did not participate?
A few months go by and it's time to pay for another few months. Purse strings were being tightened because of the economy and membership dropped as dramatically as the pounds came back on. The "rah, rah" support and the tedious point counting seemed like distant memory, short order. Also note, none of the participants started an exercise routine, walking, swimming, or anything else, to burn off calories or to at least increase their fitness and benefit their health in general.
Granted you can't continue to indefinitely pay for a "program" but, you need to take what you've learned and apply it to everyday food and activity. You don't go to school forever so you can remember how to read or do math, right? No, you take bits and pieces of what you've learned and apply it to your everyday life. If that program doesn't fit your life you're going to fight it, hate it, and give up on it.
So what did I do? Well, I found the perfect plan and it magically changed my life! NOT!
The plan didn't change my life; I did.
