Diet and Weight – A Series of Choices

I was invited to guest blog at Weight Loss Articles . This article was posted yesterday. I am posting it here again today for those of you who might have missed it.

: Image via Wikipedia

Before I get into the discussion about choices, I want to review what DIET actually is. Diet (noun) means the usual food and drink of a person or animal. That is what diet is. Now, we have modified it to also mean a regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss. Whether you pick the first definition or the second, your Diet is formed by the CHOICES you make.

In going through your day, you first chose to when eat. Then you will choose what to eat and how it will be cooked, and lastly you choose how much to eat, usually while you are eating. You choose to stop eating when your plate is empty, when you get full, when your second plateful is empty, etc, etc, etc.

You are quite happily skipping along down the road of life when you come to a bump in the road. Maybe you look in the mirror, or you have a health problem, or you can’t play with the kids like you used to. Whatever it was, you make the choice to lose weight.

What is the first thing you do? In going through your day, you first choose to when eat. Then you will choose what to eat and how it will be cooked, and lastly you choose how much to eat. See the pattern??? Our DIET is more about the CHOICES we make, rather than the food we eat. The food we eat depends on our choices.

The choice of what diet we will follow should come after studying the types of diet plans available.

There are fad diets which are supposed to act quickly, but are to be used for a short period of time. And usually the weight you lost comes back plus more after you quit.
There are pills supposed to make the weight melt off our bodies, again monitored by doctors so you don’t develop the bad side effects.
There are balanced diets which avoid too much of certain aspects – such as fats, sugars, and starches – aimed at continued weight loss.

I choose the third group. Since I have a hard time with portion control – which simply means do not eat too much – I choose a plan that decides the portions for me. Further, I find that I do not like to measure and count, so I choose a plan that puts the meal together for me. And I am more likely to eat outside the plan when I am hungry and have to wait for my food, so I choose a plan with a meal ready to go into the microwave. All of these are my choices, no one is telling me what to do.

When you choose your diet plan, and decide what day to start it, you have made your decision. Anytime after that point in time you set for yourself, you decision of whether to follow that diet plan or not is already made. You don’t have to make it every day. Whenever you ask yourself if you can take a rest or binge or whatever, remind yourself that the decision has already been made.

Does this mean you can never eat anything off your diet plan? No, what is means that if you choose to eat that marvelous pie that Aunt Dotty makes, it is your choice. Is it wrong or bad to choose to eat the pie? Neither. It is simply a choice. You can choose to do what will help you along your path to your goal or losing weight or you can choose to do what will turn you around to go the other way for however long you chose to travel that way. You can choose to eat a small piece in moderation, or the whole pie. And you choose to stick strictly to your diet for a couple days to offset the deviance, or to up your activity to compensate for the pie choice. And your next choice will be – return to your choice to lose weight, or give up. That is another CHOICE – you don’t have to quit the diet plan just because you had a piece of pie.

You have made your diet choice – you have another choice to make. You have to decide whether you are going to up your physical activity, knowing that to lose weight everyone has to up their physical activity. In my case, I don’t feel I have a choice of whether to up my activity or not – I don’t lose weight unless I also up my activity. I do, however, have to choose what type of activity, when I will do the activity, and to what extent.

Now remember – there are no GOOD or BAD CHOICES, but there are choices that will help you reach your goal, and there are other choices which will turn you in another direction. It is up to you, it is your choice, to Be the Weight You Want – and Stay There (or not). I hope this thought will help you on your journey to lose, or gain, weight.

What choices do you make? What changes in your choices do you need to make?

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