What's the key to weight loss?

Is it Weight Watchers?  If you "do" Weight Watchers, you measure food,  count points, either track online or attend meetings.  I have many clients who claim that Weight Watchers works great.  The only problem seems to be as soon as they go off Weight Watchers, the weight comes back on.

Is it Adkins?  If you follow the Adkins diet you cut out almost all carbohydrates.  You can eat unlimited protein and fat.  People lost weight when the went "on" Adkins, but as soon as they went off they gained that weight back.  Plus they had an unhealthy lipid profile to deal with from eating all the unhealthy fats.

Is it calorie counting?  To track calories you have to figure out how many you need, how many you burn, and how many you eat.  It requires a notebook and a calculator everywhere you go.  Many people lose weight at first when they start counting calories but either become obsessed with it to an unhealthy extreme or get burnt out quickly of all the counting, tracking and calculating.

Is it the Eat Clean Diet?  To eat clean you are asked to eat from a specific set of whole foods.  All the food is natural- straight from the earth.  No processed sugar, fats, flour, rice.  You eat five to six small meals a day to keep your body from ever feeling hungry.  It's wonderful until it's your birthday and you feel like you can't eat the cake your loved ones made for you, or have a slice of pizza at the Superbowl party.

Is it low fat?  Low carb?  Jenny Craig?  Nutrisystems?  The Special K challenge?  Slim Fast?  South Beach?  No, it is not.  No diet or plan has the answer.   What all of these things do is make you eat consciously while you are on them. 

Have you ever had a day of mindless eating?  You went into a restaurant and ordered whatever you felt like without having any idea how many calories it contained or the nutritional value of it.  Or I've done this many times - went to a social gathering and found myself hanging out by the chips and dip counter for too long chatting away.  Next thing I know my stomach is protesting and I realize I probably just ate my days worth of calories just munching away.  Mindless eating.

The opposite of mindless eating is conscious eating.  It is what Weight Watchers, Adkins, calorie counting, the Eat Clean diet and all the others have in common.  As soon as we go "on", we immediately become very conscious of what and how much we are eating.  We know it's the only way to lose weight.  But we don't believe we have what it takes to be conscious eaters on our own so we rely on this plan or program to do some of the work for us.

If only that worked.  The reason it doesn't is at some point we get sick of the restrictive nature of the program.  Whether it's points, carbs, calorie counting, or birthday cake- something triggers us to quit.  They just aren't sustainable.  I have said this a million times.  If you can go on it, you will go off it.  It just doesn't work.

You have to change.  You have to change, from somewhere deep within you that is sick and tired of this cycle of dieting, into a conscious eater.

You can use Weight Watchers, calorie counting, or Eating Clean as tools to help you.  All three have helped me become much more aware of what and how much I eat.  But they can't do it for you.  And they aren't permanent.  Only change from the inside is permanent.

The great news is that anyone can choose to become a conscious eater.  And that means no more counting, or restrictions, or the destructive cycle of dieting.  You have to be willing to take the time and make a commitment to stick with it.  Remember, if you get focused and organized, you only have to lose weight once.  Once!  If you learn how to eat right for your body and life, you will never have to do it again.

The hard part is realizing how much there is to learn and accepting that this will take time.  You have to be willing to look at your habits and challenge them.  This is not a diet you are going on, you are creating changes in your life.  If you got a new job, you'd make changes.  If you moved to a new city, you'd adapt.  If you got married, you'd create new habits.  We are all capable of this.  We change when we need to.  We change when it means enough to us.  If being overweight is keeping you from living your best life, then the time has come.  You deserve more than that, my friend.

Now get moving.   

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