Friday, February 15, 2008

How to View Diets

Recently, I lunched with some friends of mine. One of them was scouring the menu for something healthy since she had just worked out and felt like she’d be flushing all of her good work down the toilet if she ate something fatty. I agreed with her and told her that I could relate to that feeling. She told me that I don’t need to think like that. After all, I am in great shape and she’s looking to lose weight.

That reminded me of something that I read on the internet. A woman on the internet who only goes by the username, “Bunklers”, once said that getting yourself healthy and celebrating by eating junk that you’re not supposed to eat is sort of like an ex-smoker celebrating the end of a cigarette addiction by lighting up a cigarette. People just have the wrong outlook on diet in general. You do yourself a disservice by placing an S on the end of the word diet. Diets are temporary changes in the way you eat. They don’t work because they’re temporary. If you want to get into shape, you have to take the S off the word and make any changes in your diet permanent. Unless you want to gain back your weight constantly, this is what happens when your diet changes are temporary.

That isn’t to say that I never eat things that I shouldn’t eat. I certainly do occasionally (maybe once or twice a week) but am certainly doing it consistently enough to maintain a healthy physique. If you look at healthy eating as something that you’ll eventually stop doing, then be prepared to eventually fail. This hard-nose approach is the only way to guarantee success in getting healthy. My friend hasn’t learned that yet. She ended up with hot turkey sandwich on white bread with gravy for lunch (oh, and a side of french fries).

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