1. THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL!
If you are a living breathing female human being you've tried at least one fad diet in your life. And chances are you've tried dozens. There’s no shame in starting a diet! The fact that you want to get in shape and get healthy is awesome. The problem lies with the very definition of dieting. Diets have a tendency to make ridiculous claims while expecting you to follow through with an impossible way of eating. By eliminating entire food groups from your diet, and severely slashing calories, you will surely lose weight… but how long are you going to keep eating like that? Not long! After just a week or two your body will cave from the physical and emotional stress, and once you resume your “normal” way of eating all the weight will come right back. Stop dieting already!
2. THEY DON'T WORK.
Nobody can live on tofu and egg whites for the rest of their life. Dieting is stressful and incredibly difficult. It wreaks havoc on your metabolism and your mental and emotional health suffers. Having to think about and calculate every single calorie or every gram of fat or carb will literally drive you insane. And be honest: the more you're told you can't have something, the more you want it.
3. THEY'RE MISERABLE.
You may feel like you're doing everything right, but it's exhausting. You constantly think about all of the foods you can never have again, you spend three hours at the gym every day, you count calories, you measure all of your food, you eat only salad, and you weigh yourself every hour. Before you know it, your entire life is consumed by your diet.
4. EVERY BODY IS DIFFERENT.
There are cleanses, liquid diets, juices, sugar-free, carb-free, meat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, low-calorie. There's Paleo, Atkins, Cabbage Soup, pills, and fasting. And they all promise instant results. But with dieting there is no one-size fits all. Everyone has different eating habits and taste buds. The diet that helped your cousin lose 20 pounds may not work for you.
5. IT'S ADDICTING.
We all hate it, but it's easy to get wrapped up in a yo-yo way of eating. Somehow we got it stuck in our heads that this is the only way to lose weight. The truth is, the more you diet, the more you screw up your body's natural fat-burning abilities. It's a gigantic waste of time, and you'll only end up fatter in the end.
Let me know if this post resonated with you and if you have any questions or tips I haven't already covered!
Sima Cohen
