Is your diet making you fat? Probably!
First, let’s talk about what constitutes a diet.
Some possibilities: Eating according to a highly recommended meal plan rather than one of your own creation and choosing (i.e. any prepackaged meal system or plan outlined as part of a fitness craze); eating to the exclusion of certain foods (i.e. low-carbohydrate diet); eating to “cleanse” your body (i.e. detox diet); eating in a way that sucks the time, energy, and life out of your day (any diet.)
I stopped dieting a long time ago.
When I gained 50 pounds in my junior and senior years of college, and slowly took it off in the couple of years afterward, I simply started choosing food more wisely, and that’s also when I picked up running again. I haven’t felt like I’m on a diet because I enjoy eating well.
Although I stopped dieting a long time ago, I realized today that I’ve been putting myself through another kind of hell over the years. The pursuit of the perfect weight.
I hit my perfect weight for one single season of my adult life. It was in the spring semester of my sophomore year of college. I was 19 years old, 5’6” and 127 pounds.
And I stopped getting my period.
That alone should be an indication to me that my “perfect weight” is anything but perfect for me. In reality, that particular weight is utterly wrong for me. Completely unnatural. My body told me so in a clearly identifiable way.
And yet my mind, which is just as susceptible to ads of Victoria Secret models as the next woman, is stuck on 127. Or at least 129.
Next post: My wedding weight and Hell, Part 2.
Last week, Washington Post health columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget reported that some weight loss experts now recommend we evaluate our relationship with food rather than take up a new diet. It’s a great start, but woefully short-sighted.
For the first time ever, I felt moved to comment. Here’s what I wrote in response:
“I agree that it’s time we shifted our perspective to include a look at internal factors. However, I think we are doing more harm than good by continuing to focus on eating, dieting, what we should and shouldn’t be “DOing.” It’s as if we’re putting the cart before the horse.
I have found in my coaching practice that when you start engaging in your life in new ways that fulfill your deepest longings (i.e. start writing that book you’ve put off, practice daily giving to your spouse), you’ll not only want to now take better care of yourself, you’ll also be too busy and feel too good to obsess over a brownie craving! Instead of solving the diet “problem ” and looking for what needs to be corrected, it is much more inspiring and effective to help someone create a compelling vision that launches forward the person he or she wants to “BE.” i.e. “Who do you get to be to have the full life you want?”
Once you can answer that, you’ll do whatever it takes to achieve your dream–be it taking the time to write your book 20 minutes a day OR taking a zumba class with a friend in order to experience how joyful it feels to move your body at the same time you connect with others.”
{Posted by Sarah under the username truce1.}
What do YOU think?
