by Nicki Anderson. The word diet simply defines the food we ingest each day. But it has become a four-letter word or a badge of honor, sometimes even a badge of martyrdom. Dieting has become a national pastime, with everyone waiting in line for the next diet of the month, guaranteed to make us all fit and trim.
Diet -- A Four Letter Word!
 by Nicki Anderson
What Next?
Now go to the next clean page in
your journal and make a heading out of the habit you are currently working on.
Record your feelings about making this change. What is easy about making this
change? What is challenging? Is it easier than you thought or is it a really
hard habit to break? Closely tracking each change you're working on is a great
way to work through the behavior you're trying to modify. Yes, this is basically
behavior modification 101, but it works. You'll need plenty of room to write, so
be sure to create a new page for each change you're working toward. Here is an
example:
"LATE-NIGHT ICE
CREAM"
June 25: Instead of ice cream
I only had a yogurt. I still felt guilty, but I guess it's better than ice
cream.
June 27: Decided to replace an
old habit with a new one, so I bought a new book. Rather than eat ice cream,
I've started reading. It's a little hard not to think about ice cream, but I
feel better already not eating it late at night.
June 28: Went to a birthday
party and had ice cream late, but I didn't have any cake, so I felt pretty
good about that. I only had a small serving of the ice cream, and I didn't
feel guilty -- yay.
Again, let me remind you that
you're not keeping this record to see what little discipline you have; rather,
it's an opportunity to monitor your progress and to see where your greatest
challenges lie. You don't have to write something in it every day, but if it's
an everyday habit you're trying to break, it might be a good idea. Also, at the
top right-hand corner of each page, write the word diet. Next to it,
write your brief, revised, healthy definition so that you can begin to hold onto
your new ideas about what it means to eat well. Now, instead of going on a diet,
you are finding new ways to alter or improve your diet. Now you are
seeking healthful eating instead of riding the wave of trendy diets.
A Reality Check
Whenever a client tells me she
has started a diet, the first question I ask is, "Is it realistic for you
and is it something you can do for the rest of your life?" Generally, the
response is, "I never thought of it that way. I just wanted to lose the
weight." Remember: It is much better to aim for a healthy weight through
reasonable nutrition than it is to starve yourself for six months. If you use
the starvation approach, you know and I know you'll be back to where you started
within a year. Learning to eat well consistently is a step toward taking control
of your health, a preventative measure, a piece of the healthy-living puzzle. I
don't have trouble blaming much of the poor eating habits of this country on the
diet industry. We have come to accept that if we can't stick to a
thousand-calorie-a-day diet, we have no self-discipline. But underfeeding
ourselves has nothing to do with self-discipline and everything to do with false
information -- that is equating skinny with healthy. They're not the same thing!
Trial & Error
For fifteen years I went from
one diet to the next. Did I learn about eating well? No, but I certainly learned
the precise caloric value in a chocolate bar and in potato chips! You can eat
healthfully without counting calories, fat, or anything else. Eating well is
about making choices that work best for your body. It doesn't take a genius to
know that a fresh fruit salad is better for you than a candy bar. And you don't
have to be a rocket scientist to know that a double cheeseburger is really more
food than you need. Healthful eating means eating foods that make you feel good
and that fit your lifestyle. Yes, sometimes fast food will fit into the
equation, but do we really need a "biggie" to fuel our bodies
adequately?
So many of us have dieted for
years and are trying to figure out why none of the diets have worked. For too
long we have practiced deprivation or excess and nothing in between. Reality
Fitness is all about the in-between. Learning to eat well will take practice,
research, and trial and error, and that's fine. We all overindulge at times, but
it's not the end of the world. The problem is when overindulgence becomes the
norm. Sure, there will be times when you'll splurge on a sund' or a wonderful
piece of chocolate. That's okay! If you keep away from diets, no foods are off
limits.
What's important is that you
learn what foods fuel you well for your day-to-day performance and what foods
drag you down. You are now in a proactive position to make sound choices about
your nutrition. Begin to experiment with new and exciting foods, plan meals, be
creative. If you have children or a spouse, include them in making changes in
your nutrition. We need to take the responsibility by selecting foods that
strengthen and energize us and our loved ones.
Of course, most of us have spent
our entire lives developing our nutritional habits, so don't expect to change
them overnight. Also keep in mind that everyone's diet (and I mean it in the
healthy sense of the word) is different. Commercial diets are usually one size
fits all. How successful will anyone be on a generic program? If one client is a
working mom and another is a stay-at-home mom, my nutrition suggestions are
going to be much different because of the difference in daily schedules. And
certainly holidays, seasonal changes, and stressful events all affect how we
eat. That's one reason why you need to spend a good amount of time tracking
nutrition and experimenting before you find just what works for you. Don't worry
if you do overeat at Thanksgiving. It's not an everyday occurrence, and, also,
if you don't deprive yourself, you'll be less inclined to overeat generally.
Holidays are the time for celebration, so celebrate! It's when that celebration
goes on for 365 days a year that you need to reevaluate.
It all goes back to the
all-or-nothing syndrome. Eating well isn't about depriving yourself. It's about
ridding yourself of the diet mentality and instead acquiring good information
about fueling your body properly. When I realized that no diet in the world was
going to make me a different person, I became far more interested in finding
ways to make the most of who I am and what I have the potential to be. But it
took time and introspection. When we begin to make changes, we rarely think
about what obstacles lie ahead, and when we encounter them unprepared, we
sometimes revert to our old habits. So do yourself a favor, and spend a full
year making sure that the changes you've decided to make are realistic for you
and your lifestyle. It's exciting to rid yourself of the diet mentality and
finally understand that healthy eating no longer means not eating.
 This
article is excerpted from the book Reality
Fitness: Inspiration for your health and well-being, ? 2000, by Nicki
Anderson. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, New World Library/HJ
Kramer, Novato, CA 94949. www.newworldlibrary.com
For
more info or to order this book.
This
article was
excerpted from
"Reality Fitness : Inspiration for
Health and Well-Being"
by Nicki Anderson
For more info or to order this book.
About The
Author
NICKI
ANDERSON is a working mother of four children, president and owner of
Reality Fitness, Inc., a full-service personal training studio in
Naperville, Illinois. She can be reached at
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.
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