Why Weight?
Diets Don’t Work
You can’t turn on the TV, drive down
the road or go to a party without being confronted with America’s hottest
obsession: weight. Diets are a billion-dollar industry; companies spend
millions and millions luring you to try the latest diet (low carb, high
protein, low fat, no fat, you name it) with promises that this will (finally!)
be the solution—your shortcut to a thinner body. Advertising efforts also
deeply affect our children, who develop distorted body images and are often on
diets as early as nine or 10 years of age.
Our culture touts diet pills, celebrity
workouts, convenience foods and trendy diets to help us achieve our desired
weight, but these quick-fix solutions have backfired. America’s populace has
reached its highest weight in history. About half of Americans are overweight;
one-third are obese. Diets steer us away from our common sense and dip deeply
into our pocketbooks while eliciting few, if any, lasting results. Why?
- Diets
don’t work because each person is unique, with different needs based on
gender, age, ancestry and lifestyle; how could one diet be right for
everyone?
- Diets
don’t work because they are extreme solutions. As in physics, if a
pendulum swings to one extreme, it has to swing equally to the other. A
diet might work for a short amount of time, but research shows that almost
all diets result in a 10-pound gain once off the diet.
- Diets
don’t work because they are too restrictive. People who fail on diet plans
are not flawed or weak. Diets by nature require discipline and restriction
at levels that are unsustainable by a healthy human body.
- Most
people are disconnected from why they gain weight and see diet as the only
culprit. For example, ignoring or discounting emotions is often the first
thing to cause weight imbalances.
In our fast-paced world, we have lost
sight of many aspects of life that truly nourish and balance our bodies, such
as slowing down, eating a home-cooked meal and spending quality time with
loving people. Eating consciously and making simple lifestyle changes will
create positive results and release you from the endless cycle of dieting.
Given half a chance, your body will
balance out by itself, but this is only
possible by getting out of the diet mentality and
listening to what you truly need. Imagine taking all of the outward energy you
expend on diets, fads and gimmicks and turning it inward, so that you
can listen to your heart and inner wisdom. There is no such thing as a quick
fix; you already have everything you need within you. With careful thought and
loving reflection, you can feed yourself in a nourishing way. Working with your
body rather than against it will bring you increased energy, stabilized weight
and sustainable health.
