You don’t need a new diet, you need a new LIFESTYLE

Everyone I know who needs to shed some kilos is on a diet. Doesn’t matter what fancy name it has or how much it costs to be on it (books, videos, products etc.) many of my friends go blindly into them and suffer for that ‘dream weight’. And most of them, after the diet is over, regain their weight faster then they even dropped it. Does it sound familiar?

How my friend stopped dieting

Few years ago I was working at a friend’s firm. We were friends since college and, the moment we finished our schooling, she started her own small advertising firm. She’s a short woman and the past years mean she put on some weight. Not a lot, but she was clearly having problems with it and wanted to regain her ‘teenage’ appearance.

So she dieted. My god, how she dieted.

Can’t remember the name of all those diets, but she was onto them like nuts. She’d starve for 2-3 weeks, see some kilos vanish and then order fries and all kinds of junk. Of course she’d do this, she was famished. No matter what diet she tried, it was like this: she’d go with it restrict herself from whatever she had during the diet (she was actually stubborn enough, so she did obey all those rules), lose some kilos and then get them back.

It was funny at first and then just sad. She stopped being so relaxed (as she was months ago), seeing that NOTHING she did worked. Well, it worked, but not LONG TERM.

And this is where you need to stop and take it in: YOU WON’T CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE FOR 2 MONTHS, you should change it for LIFE.

Yep, that LIFE in lifestyle has a serious meaning here.

What’s wrong with a diet?

If you ask me the entire idea of a diet is wrong. Because it’s a TEMPORARY measure for you to lose weight. Yes, it works. You can drink only water for the next 2 weeks. Will you lose weight? Oh, yeah, you will. Will this kill you? Possible. If not, you’ll surely ruin your health nice enough to maybe not be able to eat like a normal person to soon. STARVATION IS STUPID and detrimental.

It’s one of the “rules” in our body: starve and your body will be smart enough to make sure you’re not playing this trick anymore. Yes, this is why many diets don’t work too much, because your body enters a “protection” mode and tries to make the most of it with the little food you’re giving it.

My friend was lucky not to end up in a hospital

Don’t know if it was pure luck or the fact she was 24 and perfectly healthy, but the diets could have caused a lot of damage. She was deprived of many nutrients because of all those extreme idiotic diets. For days she’d have no intake of various vitamins, calcium etc. Lucky for her she wasn’t working too much, or this could have caused serious issues.

No matter what diet she had, since she didn’t change anything in her lifestyle, she wasn’t able to keep the weight off. This is why you need to change your entire lifestyle, not get back to those bad choices that made you gain that weight. She did just that: kept her wrong style and just dieted from weeks to weeks. Nothing was working.

How did she become the “fox” she’s now?

My friend looks AMAZING now. She gave birth to her SECOND child months ago and it was impossible to see she actually carried 2 babies to term and gave birth. Not only she lost weight, but she lost the “baby weight’ so many women struggle with. Nothing worked when she was not a mom, looks like motherhood made a change.

No, it wasn’t the “hormones” that worked here. As soon as she gave birth she started making CHANGES.

Enough with that junk food

We’d order a lot of stuff at the office, since we were to lazy to prepare something nice and fresh from home. When she was on a diet, she’d eat fruits or whatever the diet would allow, but, as soon as the diet “was over”, she’d start eating that crappy food again.

After becoming a mom and starting feeding her kids with natural and healthy foods, my friend discovered a passion for veggies and fruits too. Not to mention she’d cook fresh and good meals for her and the entire family. No more fast-food, just good homemade delicious meals.

Start moving your bottom

She never liked to work out. Even in college, when I started karate, she was doing all she could to keep from exercising. Horrified that her “baby weight” would make her looks worse (looks were always important to her), my friend started some classes. Mainly aerobics, since she wasn’t into ‘manly’ sports like I was. She made friends there and started enjoying few hours for herself, while her mother-in-law would take care of the babies.

We both laughed about those years she tried to lose weight. Her ex was a soccer player and she was very self-conscious about how she looked. And no diet worked for her, until she decided to ditch them and make small adjustments to her life. Just by watching what she ate and not ordering fast-food as she used to and making some time for a bit of a physical effort helped a lot. She’s been like this for 4-5 years already and has NO problems with keeping heir weight off. She’s no longer on ANY diet, she’s just embraced a new better lifestyle.

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Cheryl Zhao
Cheryl Zhao

Cheryl Zhao, a financial expert, has been a part of our team for five years. After earning her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, she worked as a real estate broker before turning to blogging. Cheryl’s extensive knowledge of the housing market and trends, coupled with her passion for financial literacy, makes her blog posts an essential read for anyone considering becoming financially independent.

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3 Comments

  1. You make a lot of good points. I hate the majority of diets and I believe that you can eat anything in moderation. If you go about it right and make sure that you are doing regular exercises and not eating too much. Diets are stupid, they can be good for quick loss of weight for like a wedding or something but the risk is still high. You need to sit down and think about exercise and eating decent food in moderation for the LONG term.

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