Diet, a four letter word! No wonder all the brand name diets are saying ‘diet’s don’t work’. My opinion: A rose by any other name is still the same. And a diet by any other name is still a diet. A weight loss, or even weight gain, diet consists of more than what you eat. It also encompasses your exercise level, your self-image, your self-talk, and your attitude.
How many times have you heard: it’s not how much you eat, but what you eat. Boy is that true! Some foods are loaded with calories, fats, and sugars. One bite of them can take up the quota for one meal. I have even seen treats that give you the whole days quota of fats in one ’serving’.
And that brings up servings. I look at one bag of chips and it says it is 100 calories per serving. Great! But the small bag contains 5 servings! So it is really 500 calories. Then you look at the fats, sugars, and carbs. What appears to be a healthy choice by the wrappings turns out to be just as bad by the servings.
Portion control is an elusive concept to me. Not as a concept, but in putting it into practice. It includes total calories, balance nutrients, and timing of your eating. One type of person can fix the foods, and measure the portions to make their own ‘frozen dinners.’ I am not that type. I would binge while preparing the various dishes and put a little more in each portion. That’s how I became overweight.
Then there is the exercising. One way is to used a pedometer to count your steps. That is good if you want to ensure that you walk your healthy 10,000 steps a day. To be quite honest, that doesn’t count as exercise. The walk you talk for exercise, the time on the bike, or in the gym is exercise. If you count every step you take during the day, you are including your normal activities. Exercise doesn’t count unless it is extra – that is, you do your normal activities plus exercise.
Then there is the way you see yourself and you talk to yourself. If you are continuously downgrading yourself or calling yourself names, you have no chance of success. You need to realize that you – that every individual – deserves to be a healthy weight. Give yourself a break. Instead of being down on yourself for over eating, figure out why you are overeating.
I don’t know how others lose weight, but I have to D I E T.
D – dinner and all other meals and snacks by portion control
I – my self-image and self-talk – how I see and treat myself
E – exercise above and beyond normal daily activites
T – timing of my meals and snacks to be every 3 hours using portion control.
Do you DIET? Leave a comment.
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Tags: binge, diets, Exercise Level, health, Overeating, portion control, self-image, Weight Gain Diet, Weight Loss
Diet is really what you typically eat. You could have a “diet” that consists of eating mostly fast-food.
It’s somewhat true that it doesn’t matter how much you eat. If you only eat a small amount of junk food (a candy bar a week) then that’s fine. You’re eating junk food but it’s such a small amount it’s not going to make or break you.
Unfortunately, I’m a yo-yo dieter. Right now I’m off the wagon, and usually join Weight Watchers. I need to get motivated!
Visiting from MBC & fav’d you to Technorati!
I lift weights. Every pound of muscle you put on burns 40 calories per day. Doing nothing. Put on 10 pounds of muscle, and you burn 400 extra calories PER DAY.
You do have to take in a lot of protein. But if you do, you won’t be hungry for junk anymore.
The downside is, you don’t get to drink. It makes building muscle and losing fat hard.
Which is why I’m still 20 pounds overweight.
Great at giving advice, lousy at taking it.
Damn (oops, is this a family blog??? I meant darn)
Hey! Nice blog. I like the clear design and the posts of course! Actually I don’t diet. I did a diet a few years back when I came back from the US as I had taken over 25 pounds! Now I replaced bad snacks for healthy snacks in my diet and it does the trick. I’m not skinny but I feel good this way. I’m just afraid if I get on a diet I will gain more weight when I stop it because of frustration.
Since I love chocolate, I found a good chocolate cookie with a lot of fibers and only 120 calories. This was my appetite is satisfied and I get my chocolate every day. It’s easy and there’s no frustration. The apple snack wasn’t satisfying enough…
Great post. I think that portion control is definitely where it’s at. It takes more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to use up your daily calories but many people do and more and think they are healthy but are overweight. I do it by going to the store every couple of days for what I need so I don’t have a ton of food in the house and then I have a nine inch dinner plate and follow the age old rule–half of it is reserved for veggies, 1/4 for grains and 1/4 for protein.
jen
I’ve also been tricked with those serving sizes. Portion control is sensible, but it’s easier said than done. Good point about how put downs are a set up for more failure.
I’m not on a “diet”, I’m on a “way of life”. Needless to say, it isn’t the way of life that I really want, but I am holding to it for my health.