You Say Tomato

Change your thoughts and you change your world. -Norman Vincent Peale

I knew this guy once. He was overweight and suffered from some minor health issues. He went on a diet and lost a lot of the weight. Then he stopped dieting and gained the weight back. Several years passed and the minor health issues became major health issues. The doctor told him he was going to have to make some changes in the way he ate and exercised if he wanted to avoid medication. He told the doctor that he had gone on diets before but they (and the weight loss) just didn’t seem to last. And the doctor told him that he didn’t need to go on a diet, he needed to make lifestyle changes. He made the same food and exercise changes he did before, but he also changed the way he thought about things, and that has made all the difference. My dad lost nearly 40 pounds and has kept it off for almost a year now.

My dad did not go on a diet. He made lifestyle changes. But really, is there a difference? YES!

When I think about a diet, I automatically think of a temporary situation. Most people say “I’m going on a diet”, which implies at some point that they will be going off that diet, too. When you are on a diet, once you reach your goal, you give yourself permission to go back to they way you used to eat because, well, you’re “done with your diet”. There are lots of reasons to go on a diet: class reunions, family pictures, or (gasp) swimsuit season, are a few examples. But the reunion will end, the pictures will be taken and cold weather will return. So where does that put you?

What we need to do is make lifestyle changes. Thinking about changing the way you live your life automatically gives it a sense of permanence. If you change the way you live your life, what are the chances that you will look back and say “You know, I was so much happier when my eating was out of control and I sat around all day”? I would venture to guess pretty slim.

If you make even a few changes in the way you live your life, you will never have to “diet” again. Eating healthy will become second nature, and BEING healthy will become the norm.

So which are you doing? Are you dieting? Or are you changing your life?

Comments

[JanB]

But it's so much easier to type diet than Lifestyle Changes!! Waaa, I am such a baby. You're right, of course.

[mamasutra]

I'm delurking because this so apt for me right now. I have done Weight Watchers three or four times, and as soon as I hit goal, and only go once a month, I start sliding back to my old habits. I spent 11 months trying to lose baby weight (35 lbs down!), got to my goal, maintained it for five months. Felt pretty good about it, thought I could cut some corners. Gained 10 lbs in 2 months. I was almost crying at the scales yesterday when I finally went back to weigh in. Anyway, since I don't want to go back to my Big Clothes, I need to take charge of my lifestyle issues, regardless of how often I go weigh in at WW, and it is very hard, frustrating, discouraging...but I know I've done it before!! I'm not giving up yet!

[MamaBearJune]

Oh, I've tried to tell people this so many times! You are right on the money! And when we "diet" we feel so deprived of our favorite things and then get mad and rebellious and say "Heck with it, I'm eating this whole cake!" and totally sabotage ourselves. If we make healthy choices every day, we can afford that occasional piece of cake. :-D

(Keeps telling me my weight loss blog is not a valid URL when I copied it directly from the browser. ????)

[Michelle]

Ah you are so right. That's what I am working on. I feel like I've made several lifestyle changes over the past few years....and now need to make a few more. A trainer once told me that it takes 21 days to make a new habit. Some days it feels like 21 years!!

[Melissa]

How true this is! I do not necessarily think of my being on a diet for Weight Watchers because there isn't really anything I CAN'T eat, I just have to balance it out. I believe (or at least hope) that my eating habits are changing. I love buying smaller clothes and feel so much better about myself, not to mention so much healthier. I am not gaining my weight back...I refuse!!
Mel

[Gretchen]

This is so true. I'm making lifestyle changes little by little! Diet= Die with a t. I prefer to live. :)

[Tishia Lee]

You hit it right on the nose about 'diet' versus 'lifestyle changes'. I've been on a GAZILLION diets over the past 10 years and this time is different - way different! It finally dawned on me that dieting was just a temporary solution and that I had to learn things that would become lifestyle changes.

So although I'm doing Weight Watchers (which is considered a diet) I'm not dieting. I'm becoming equipped with tools that will help me carry out good lifestyle changes for the rest of my life :-)