Term Time Diets Are Ruining Your Progress
What’s the worst thing about dieting?
Eating boring food? Feeling hungry all the time? Or maybe it’s the fact that it makes you feel grumpy and miserable because you can no longer enjoy life?
Well if your diet is making you unhappy then it’s probably not for you.
If you can’t see yourself eating the way that you do day in day out for the rest of your life then it’s probably too extreme.
Unless you are dieting for a photo shoot, wedding or sports competition your day to day nutrition shouldn’t feel like a chore or a punishment.
Here’s what I have seen from working with a lot of Mum’s on their nutrition.
All Or Nothing – On Or Off
Such is the ultra busy nature of all Mum’s daily lives that they often adapt their diet to match.
Each client is different of course but the basic patterns are the same. When they are super busy doing school runs, going to work, tidying the house, organising everyone they eat pretty well and portion sizes are good, even a little small in some cases.
But when things ease up, whether that is in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed, at weekends when out as a family or during school holidays, things change. Dramatically!
Evenings often involve relaxing and unwinding from a crazy day with a glass of wine and \ or whatever snacks \ treats the cupboard has to offer.
Weekends are a great time to spend time as a whole family which very often results in a meal (or two) out.
School holidays mean eating out almost daily and family holidays become a free for all.
Now there’s nothing wrong with eating out, in fact I absolutely love it and recommend it to clients as a way to keep their diet interesting. But all too often, the common sense guidelines you would normally follow at home are thrown out of the window. At home it would be ‘Let’s have potatoes instead of chips’ whereas eating out or on holidays etc becomes ‘might as well enjoy it, I’ll have a starter, the huge meal with chips AND garlic bread, oh and some onions rings and I might as well have the huge dessert that I can barely manage’.
Weekends, holidays and special occasions can all too often totally undo any progress that has been made in your weight loss efforts so far.
I would never recommend not enjoying yourself but certainly making smarter choices whilst still eating things you enjoy would seem a smart thing to do.
The Rebound
Gaining weight when on holiday is normal and to be expected. Trying to eat in an over restrictive manner at any time is going to be counter productive and miserable.
In an attempt to atone for their ‘sins’ while away, it is common for people to go too far the other way and cut their calories right back when they get home or when school holidays finish and their routine returns to ‘normal’.
In doing so they re-start the cycle I mentioned earlier of feeling tired, miserable and fed up with their ‘diet’ which ultimately leads to more binge or mindless eating at some stage.
A Lifestyle, NOT
A Diet
There is no reason why you can’t or shouldn’t enjoy your food every day.
Looking at your diet as something you have to endure or get to the end of will nearly always lead to your weight yo-yoing up and down.
Learning to balance sensible food choices, portion control and enjoying the occasional ‘treat’ (I hate that term) is the key to your long term progress.
Whether your ‘thing’ is cake, biscuits, crisps, sweets, chocolate or anything else you should be able to eat it REGULARLY (not the same things as daily) whilst still losing weight.
It’s simply a case of reducing the amount or frequency of these things you eat when your weight loss stalls.
By allowing yourself to eat all of your favourite things you can enjoy your ‘diet’ every day of the year, continue to lose weight and learn to love what’s on your plate as well as what you see in the mirror.
If you want a few recipes to help you make your mealtimes more interesting then click the button below for the 5 recipes my clients voted as the most family friendly.
Click Here For Free Fat Loss Recipes
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