There is so much information out there – all claiming to be the ideal plan, yet if our fingerprints and irises can be used for identification, it would seem our nutrition plan should be individual as well. Yet every week on the cover of magazines, there’s the newest and greatest plan, exercise routine, or weight loss pill. “I did it, you can, too,” the model says, and she looks GREAT. Surely this one will work.
Whoa there – take a deep breath.
You may try it, and it seems to be working, but then there’s a dinner or a restaurant or a family event or holiday or trip, and we can’t get back on it, or we get bored with it and conclude: “I just CAN’T stick to Low Carb/ Low Fat/ Calorie Restriction/ Newest and Greatest Ever plan” – fill in your blank.
We get Diet Fatigue and blame ourselves. As capable women, we know we can handle everything else in our lives, but our weight? Pfft! We just can’t get a handle on it.
Yet it’s that very blame and shame that makes it harder to get that grip on it. Blame leads to a need for comfort, so where do we go for that? Yep – food works in the moment. So we stuff down our feelings of shame/blame/guilt/not-whatever-enough and following it with a food chaser.
It’s not the diet.
It’s how we mishandle our feelings.
We dismiss them. We say they don’t matter – we just need to suck it up and just follow the plan.
Years ago, I taught high school English. One of my classes was challenged, and they had taken a test in which they had to identify all the nouns on the page. No one passed. We went over the test in class, and I told them to study it. I gave them the same test paper the next day thinking memory alone would help them identify them. Two passed. I needed a Diet Coke to face them for several weeks after.
Just giving them more of the same was not working. I had to find a way to make it work for them.
As do we have to try a different way to make any nutritional plan work for us. It may not be the latest or the one everyone else is doing.
Pick your plan. What part of it works for you? What isn’t working? How do you adjust it so it will work? If it leaves you too hungry, either choose a different plan or make adjustments. It might slow your weight loss, but as long as you’re going in the right direction . . . slow and steady works.
