The Most Flexible Dieter Succeeds

I have to say I have had a "bad" week. I am leaving my job in a few weeks and have auditors all over my work and the world is crashing around me. The funny thing is, however much my team and I are being pulled to bits by the auditors I know we have done, and are doing, a good job. I don't know it because I can show them a bottom line result on a finance spreadsheet, but I know it because I can feel it inside that we are.

The reason I mention this is that ultimately being slim and healthy is actually about how you feel and not the actual weight itself. Therefore, if you feel slim and healthy then don't let anyone tell you that the weight result is the thing that counts, because it isn't.

This week's article came out following a 1-2-1 counselling session last summer which I was reminded of at the last Weight Management Course. This follows the NLP finding that the person who is the most flexible in their behaviours is the one that controls the situation. This is very true in both diet terms, and also other areas of life. Hopefully by using this example you will understand what I mean.

Before I go, it was reported in the media this week that a report from the New England Journal has stated that the only proven way to reduce weight is to restrict the amount of calories you eat! They have said that the diet itself doesn't matter and that all that matters is the calories in / calories out calculation. Whether or not you have a low carb / high protein / low fat / diet then the result is the same -if you eat too many calories you get bigger, if you eat less then you get smaller.

Abstract Of New England Journal

What fascinated me was that we didn't all know that already! I rarely meet a dieter ever who doesn't know that to reduce weight you need to eat less fuel! Therefore, although a useful study in terms of it's results I would love a study that said

"Why do we all know that we need to eat less to reduce our weight and yet we still don't do it?"

Now that to me is what it is really about! Nobody I have ever met who is obese and is being 100% honest doesn't admit to eating for more reason than just to stop hunger / give nutrition. The more the world concentrates on the "diet" being the problem, the worse the problem is getting.

Anyway off my soapbox!!

Have a fantastic week and see you next Saturday

Mike :-)

The Most Flexible Dieter Succeeds?

Do You Really Have To "Blow" The Diet?

As a general observation, many dieters tend to polarise their diet, they are either "on" or "off" it, there is no middle ground and no moderation so the switch is either on "LOSE WEIGHT" or they are eating and the switch is over on "GAIN WEIGHT". The key to not dieting forever is to break the switch and forget about it but, for now, lets just pretend we can be more flexible with the switch and that it also has "MAINTAIN WEIGHT" right in the middle of the other two extremes.

Now you can't have stopped yourself picturing that switch, if I said it looked a bit like an old fashioned switch that Tom and Jerry would use to electrocute each other then you can't stop yourself thinking of what that might look like!

How flexible are you being with your thinking? Imagine Tom and Jerry chasing each other and a large blue fish appears.....your mind is fantastic! It can't stop this good stuff :-)

So you have the ability to be very flexible with your mind and come up with some fantastic results...(Ok stop thinking of Tom and Jerry now...)

Therefore with all that amazing mind how flexible are you when thinking about your weight and what you can and can't do?.....

Most dieters tend to fall off diets because they have an event or a reason to stop the diet, and when they stop the diet they tend to take a while to get back on it and keep flicking the switch.

I had a lady this week Facebook me to ask for some advice. She said the problem is that every Monday she starts a diet and then every Wednesday she fails the diet. Therefore I asked her "Why not start the diet on Saturday instead?"