Are you focused on just weight loss??

There is now a trend towards changing the way we look at weight loss, how we do it, and more importantly, why we do it.

Many women have spent most of their adult years purely focused on reducing weight at all costs. Only the number on the scales matters.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, many women are quitting the diet game.

You may ask why?

The answer is simple. “The psychological burden that comes with constantly trying to restrict, to calorie count, to pursue a thinner you is utterly draining”, according to an article that appeared in the women’s health magazine in December 2017.

We need to take a break from the toxic relationship between food and the restrict-binge cycle that comes with it. It is doing your head in. It causes stress, unhappiness, yo-yo dieting, and the stress it puts on your body is huge.

I’m sure many of you have been on a restrictive diet, lost some weight, and 6 months later that weight is all back plus extra.

Its time to change our thinking.

We need to focus more on eating healthy food that feeds and nourishes our body, and remove the word ”diet” from our vocabulary altogether.

We need to embrace a new lifestyle that allows us to love our bodies.

Stop focusing on the number on the scale, and letting it rule your life.

If necessary, throw your scales away.

At the end of the day, that number tells you nothing. It doesn’t tell you how healthy you are, weather you are eating well, weather or not your clothes fit well.

Why should some magazine tell you that you need to be a size “x” to be perfect? That this is the only focus you should have, and if you don’t get that number you are a failure.

Who has decided that your body should look a particular way and until it does you are not acceptable?

This way of thinking has been drummed into us since early childhood: we have been brainwashed into thinking a particular way.

Its time to break this cycle, and start to accept that all bodies are different, that what works for one, doesn’t work for another.

Calories in vs calories out is “out”.

There are so many extenuating factors that affect how your body works, that it is impossible to calculate a number that will tell you how much to eat and how much to exercise.

The mental pressure on women particularly is huge, and this will more often than not inhibit your body’s ability to function well.

So, here are some things that you can do to help you move towards a healthier body and mind, and perhaps become lighter along the way if that is your goal.

1. Food is food. It is not a number, a gram a point or anything else. It is simply food. It either nourishes you or it doesn’t. You can learn about portion size and what works for you, but at the end of the day it is still just food.
2. Listen to your body. It is the best teacher you can have. Pay attention to signals. Are you hungry, are you full, how did that food make you feel: bloated, full of energy, sluggish, tired. Your body will teach you which foods work well and which ones don’t. It is the best way to learn to eat to feed your body. Throw out the rule book about dos and do nots, and listen to your body.
3. Don’t ignore entire food groups. Unless you are vegan, vegetarian or food intolerant, your body needs nutrients from all types of food, some more, some less. Occasionally have that treat you have avoided because it belongs to a “forbidden” food group. Enjoy it, savor it and don’t feel guilty. If you constantly try to avoid certain foods, you end up wanting to have it more than ever. This leads to stress, unhappiness, resentment and misery, and is more likely to lead to overeating/binging of said food.
4. Put the scale in perspective. The scale will give you a number, but it doesn’t tell you the whole truth. Have you lost fat and gained muscle? How do your jeans fit this week compared to two weeks ago? Do you have more energy, do you feel better, happier and love life. Are you less stressed, how has your relationship with food changed?

There are so many other ways to see if you are moving towards your goal. It is a good start, but should not be the only way you assess how you are doing.

5. Give your body the fuel it needs. Many studies show that if you eat less than your body needs, this strategy will eventually backfire. Your body will go into panic mode if you don’t give it enough food, and will in fact hold onto any weight is has rather than let it go. Very restrictive diets endanger your health and make you more susceptible to illness. It will also affect your mental state, as extreme denial of food leads to all sorts of issues.

Ultimately, you can end up gaining weight rather than reducing as you may have hoped. So, feed your body what it needs, and stop when you are full.

Ultimately, it is best to take your focus off losing weight, and change it to I will make my body healthy. Focus on your general well being, not your appearance. Focus on making your body strong, feeling good in your skin and being happy with what you think you should be. Don’t listen to somebody elses opinion on what you should look like.

Live your life for you, not somebody else. Be happy in your skin, feed and nourish your body and soul, and view the world through eyes that love life.

Source for this article:
Women’s Health Magazine, December 27, 2017