The Other Four-Letter Word

I dislike four-letter words. In recent years, I’ve learned to add one to the list: diet.

I’m not referring to diet in the sense of one’s general eating patterns – for example, the Mediterranean diet or my personal favorite, a whole-food plant-based diet. I’m talking instead about the temporary diets replete with calorie counting, weigh-ins, points, restrictions, and a whole lot of dread. These diets are generally not effective in the long term.

Let’s look at some common weight loss pitches:

1.       Right to Your Front Door

 Packaged food is conveniently shipped right to your door. But do you really want to pay for these meals every month for the rest of your life? As soon as you quit paying the company, the meals stop and you start to regain the weight.

 2.       Big on Bacon & Steak

High-protein diets mean high cholesterol. Weight may go down, but heart disease risk factors go up. In order to achieve a healthy state, your body needs the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals (“phyto” = “plant”) that are only found in fruits, veggies, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

3.       Fad of the Month

The stereotypical fad diet is probably the grapefruit diet, but there are plenty more around: the cabbage soup diet, the Hollywood diet, the chicken soup diet, etc. Have any of these ever been shown to work? If you’ve tried any of these diets, were they actually sustainable, and were you able to keep the weight off?

4.       Magic Pill

The “magic pill” approach is a million-dollar industry, which is unfortunate because it is neither effective nor healthy. Think of “fat burner” and “fat blocker” shakes, drops, pills, beverages, etc. The bottom line is that there are no shortcuts to a leaner, healthier body. The “proof” for these products is anecdotal and has no solid evidence base in the scientific community.

There is a better way – lifestyle change. This is not a temporary diet but a new mindset about choices we make every day. Favoring foods like fruits and veggies, whole grains, beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds, is sustainable, satisfying, healthy, easy, inexpensive, and it really works.

The Full Plate Diet and CHIP are both sustainable lifestyle solutions that facilitate weight loss in a healthy way. There are free info sessions for both classes coming up in November and December, with classes beginning in early 2022. Reach out here to sign up. Let’s start the new year with an honest-to-goodness truly healthy, effective, and sustainable approach to weight loss.