Earlier this week I posted the first of this now three part post on the very powerful pull towards dieting at new year. It’s a great idea to read that post here before launching into this second part.
It never fails to amaze me how pervasive the diet and weight loss industry machine is at this time of year. The television ads are screaming that we ‘need’ this fat blasting pill or weight loss program and all our dreams of happiness and success will come true. Even the morning tv shows are filled with outrageous stories on the need to go on a soup diet to shake that post Christmas eating. It’s insidious and designed to do nothing more than get people to spend a load of money on false promises that will harm their self esteem and relationship with food and exercise.Many of these diets and weight loss programs will be marketed to people in a disguised form, trying to give the impression they are not actually a diet, but rather a needed healthy lifestyle change or program. Please be very careful about these ‘traps.’ If in doubt or confused by the marketing hype, this is my personal list of things to be wary of. If any diet, program, health initiative, lifestyle change or fat loss product tries to get you to do any of the following – please be aware it is a fad, dangerous and harmful to your mental and physical health…
- Anything that involves an invasive short term procedure like this one
- Anything that attacks your self esteem and body image like this product
- Anything that involves you spending large sums of money
- Anything that involves you weighing and measuring every piece of food you eat
- Anything that involves you taking to a ‘consultant’ that has no psychological or nutritional qualifications
- Anything that is so nutritionally deficient you are required to take large amounts of supplements
- Anything that involves you exercising more than 30 mins on average per day
- Anything that requires you to eat large amounts of pre-packaged food
- Anything that involves the cutting out of entire food groups
- Anything that involves the replacement of a regular meal with a liquid shake, bar or the like
- Anything that is mostly liquid based, often disguised as a detox or cleanse
- Anything that warns you in advance you will feel hungry when you start it
- Anything that recommends you don’t eat three meals a day with snacks
- Anything that involves diet, weight loss or fat loss pills
Are you aware of any other things to look out for? I am certain there are more, so please leave a comment and share your wisdom with others.
Now that we are at the end of Part Two of this triple post I hear you asking – ‘But if dieting is not the answer – what is’ I’ll be posting Part Three to this series tomorrow and to give you a little heads up, it’s going to centre on the very powerful concept of BALANCE, involve doing radical things like sleeping well and encouraging you to get a manicure or a massage. WHAT? Yes – a manicure and a massage!
In the meantime though for anyone who truly believes in their heart they need or want to lose weight I have a question for you to ponder. Instead of asking yourself “how” can I lose weight, ask yourself ”why” do I want to lose weight? It is a much more soul searching and potentially life enhancing question to ponder. Who knows. The answer you find may just change your mind about your current weight loss desires all together.
See you all tomorrow.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Just a comment – I had gone on a low carb diet and was really excited to be seeing results. Then PMT hit with a vengence – my goodness I had never experienced anything like this, spiraling down into depression in an 'Alice thru the Looking Glass' way. Seems low carb can have this effect on PMT. So I ditched the diet – I'd rather be overweight!!
I suspect that part of the popularity of the low-carb diet is that there are a lot of folks out there with undiagnosed celiac disease. Its unfortunate that gluten-free became a fad for a while. I'd say if anything requires you to cut out a food group (unless you have an actual allergy) its bad for you.
I feel 100% better with being gluten-free (not that its helped lose weight, most g-f stuff is white rice and sugar) though. I still eat lots of carbs. It just amazes me how much we've lost a sense of balance and responsible eating.
My GYN, when I mentioned weight loss, gave me some advice that seems very wise: "Make no changes you can't view as permanent."
And I thought, yeah. More veggies, less fat, more whole grains, etc–I can see those as permanent changes.
CatherineMarie – My husband has recently gone almost totally gluten free due to years of tummy upsets and he feels better too. Allergy based reasons for a change in diet I think are sensible for our overall health – just not as you say when people do it only for weight loss.
Anonymous – Great advice there!
Thanks for this post! I've also seen a number of alarming ads with patterns that I can add to the list:
Anything that claims to give you "personal" meal plans and exercise routines, without you ever actually personally meeting with a practicioner who cares about you personally.
Anything advertised by "gurus" – like the trainer from The Biggest Loser. They're selling celebrity, not health.
Anything that focuses on calories.
Anything that promises weight loss without any changes to your "current lifestyle."
Anything that promotes behavior that could be considered eating disordered (i.e. chewing gum instead of eating).
Brilliant sayhealth! Thank you so much for sharing those with us.