Good morning ,
The Struggle is not real! This fitspo inspiration is dumb – “The struggle is real”, especially using it in the context of dieting. Don’t get me wrong, I do use the phrase in funny situations or if something is challenging, like getting up at 5:00 am. However, the word (struggle) itself shouldn’t go hand in hand with food. Ya
feels me?! Same goes for guilt and punishing yourself with exercise and deprivation from sweets until your birthday. Been there and done that, right?
Your dang straight the struggle is real when you’re dieting. We keep struggling because we believe every single time we start a new diet “That. This. Is. It.” That this time, it will be sustainable. Nope, not today, and not ever.
I’ve been there, I’ve struggled, trying diets. The internal struggle, oiling the willpower to nth degree. No carbs, no fat. Try that one for measure, and let me know how you feel by the end of the week. I don’t even know what you call that diet (maybe Paleo-ish, paleo wasn’t even a thing back then) – it was veggies, protein mostly, and a grapefruit for pre workout. Thinking about it as I write this email, I could just die now. How in the world did I do this? I don’t know,
and I don’t want this for you.
The struggle happens because dieting and eliminating foods is a struggle. We are literally fighting the body when we diet and restrict. Every time I see this in my newsfeed, it gets me fired up like nobody’s business. My favorite is “I just started the Whole30 and I want to quit!” You want to quit because it is a struggle to avoid foods that you love or like. It takes
a lot of freakin will power to keep up with that diet plan. It’s unsustainable. Whole30 is the same as any other diet, just spruced up a bit with those fancy food pictures they chose to use and their statement of “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.” Bologna! Don’t be fooled.
Sure, you’ll get results. If you follow any diet and do it what it says, and yes you will lose the weight. You know what
though? The biggest struggle will be keeping it off – that’s your real struggle when you lose weight fast and through unsustainable measures.
The sad thing is folks feel proud saying it – “The struggle is real”, like it’s a badge of honor to be struggling or something. It’s not. That’s why we are still overweight year after year, losing the same weight over and over.
The thing is, we know what to do to have sustainable weight loss, but we keep glancing at those shiny new diets and fancy marketing ploys that prey on every insecurity we have about our bodies.
So, that struggle thing can end, right? Yada yada, I know, you’ve heard me time and time before about ending the diet cycle, but
have you?
Fear is what is holding us back from quitting the diet cycle, the fear of trying something new. The fear that you will gain all the weight and some. Maybe you will, but maybe you won’t. If you’re in the midst of a diet at this very moment, I have a solution for you.
I would say don’t quit cold turkey, if you are afraid of a bit of weight regain, however it may good for you because you have been dieting so long. The body needs the adequate intake of food, for long term health, happiness, and function. What you can do is slowly increase your calories back up to maintenance mode, also known as reverse dieting. Maintenance calories is taking your current bodyweight and multiplying it by
13-15 to get an estimate of where you should be calorically. It’s where you can maintain your weight after dieting.
See, this where diets let us down. We lose all the weight and then what? We gain it back or we try to keep dieting, which can cause us to get fatter. The body is smarter than us and it will outwit us.
Lastly, to finish this email up - Thank you for reading, if you made it this far! ;-) To stop struggling and to stop dieting year after year. This is my suggestion that I can stand behind. There are no secrets, but there are fast fixes that keep us struggling. So let’s get of the struggle train today.
- If you are trying to lose fat. Lose it slowly, do not eliminate
any macro nutrients groups.
- Work on changing habits. Work on something that you can implement that doesn’t hinder your life - it should enhance your life. If that’s frozen veggies instead of canned ones, then so be it. It’s a start!
- Do not go on a diet. If it has an expiration date, it’s a diet and it will not be sustainable.
- The grand slam of them all is to Lift
The Things on the regulars for many reasons! Why? Because lifting is good for the mental and physical aspect. You really want to see long lasting body change, then the iron is the answer.
Thank for reading as always! Have a wonderful weekend.
Yours in Health and
Strength, Candace
P.S. Do me a favor, hit reply, and tell me what your BIGGEST obstacle is right now keeping you from being consistent with nutrition or fitness.
P.S.S. If you have another quick moment? Would you be so
kind to fill out a one question anonymous survey? Thank you, if you have already filled it out, it's anonymous so I was unable to see who answered it. It has been a tremendous help - I have something exciting coming for my followers. You'll be the first to know about it. Thank you again!
Link to the
questionnaire --> http://bit.ly/HolidayQuestionnaire
Favorite Fitness Reads of the Week:
|
|
|
