Never go on a diet again!

If you take nothing else from this, read that sentence and apply it!

“Diet.”

It’s a small, seemingly innocuous word, but what do you think it means? When people want to lose weight, “I’m on a diet” is the common phrase used. And that’s the exact reason most people fail. And here’s why.

I put that question to my Facebook fans recently and here’s the responses I got:

 

What do you notice?

They’re practically all negative.

Strong words like depression, miserable, deprivation.

I particularly love this one:

Jenni Bowden said a diet is, “A fight for something I’ll never achieve!”

Almost without exception, anyone who goes on a diet has already committed to failing. As Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right“

So how exactly are you supposed to succeed when you’ve already decided to fail?

How do we get past this negative outcome?

Well first you have to understand, diet refers to everything you eat all the time. You could live on fish and chips six times per day, and you’d be on a diet.

You’re not just on a diet when you’re working towards losing weight, you’re on a diet every single day of your life… From the moment you feel the cold air on the top of your head for the very first time, right until the reaper has the final say. A “Diet” is NOT temporary.

When I was online Fitness Editor for Men’s Health, I probably answered thousands of questions from readers. In all of those, one really stood out and I’ve never forgotten it:

“I see what you’re doing, but what will happen when I go back to eating normally again?”

Before I get to this quote, I’ll just give you a bit of back story behind it. I used to take small groups of readers and coach them into awesome shape in periods of 6 weeks or 3 months or similar. They’d learn how to eat and workout effectively, how to change their lifestyle for good, and document it all for the other readers so they can do the same.

It’d start with an application process, and we’d have to go through hundreds of deserving (and not so deserving!) stories to pick out the 4-6 people I’d take on.

And we had some real heart wrenchers too!

• We had people who’s wives don’t find them attractive any more and feel trapped.
• We had guys who were bullied all through school, and now in their 20s and 30s are still being treated as second class citizens.
• We had guys who suffer from depression purely because of their weight.
• We had guys who had been in actual accidents or physical situations where they’ve had to completely rebuild their lives.

Not just mental scars, but in some cases physical ones too. And believe me, it was difficult picking just a handful of people out of the hundreds.

So back to the question, “I see what you’re doing, but what will happen when I go back to eating normally again?” The man that asked me that question asked me during a Q&A session during one of our challenges. He wasn’t one of our challengers, he was someone playing along at home.

Can you see what’s immediately wrong with the question?

“When I go back to eating NORMALLY again”

All the awesome guys going through our challenges were eating tasty, wholesome, healthy, and portion controlled food.

However, not only did the gentleman asking the question first see what they were eating as temporary, but considered eating good, tasty, wholesome food as abnormal!

Sounds insane doesn’t it? But thinking like that is the norm.

I recently began offering the same service I did for the national mags here in Sussex, and one of my Worthing Weight Loss Intensive Coaching group members Vicki said something very insightful, “I’m not on a diet, because being on a diet implies I’m on something that I’ll be getting off of.”

She GETS it.

And that’s why she’s lost 2 stone so far and shows no sign of stopping!

Uber success, and now minor celebrity Kevin said in one of our coaching sessions, “I now understand food and appreciate how it affects my body and energy levels.”

Note two key words there: Understand and Appreciate.

If you’ve been hiding under a rock the past few months and not seen Kev’s many appearances in the local press, he’s lost just under 6 stone now and has changed his life completely!

Seriously. The guy’s a powerhouse, full of limitless energy. He is the absolute epitome of living life to the full now.

How has he managed such a massive turnaround?

He GETS it.

It’s not about eating boring food, being restricted, being hungry, or fighting for something you’ll never achieve. If you learn and understand how the food you eat affects your body, you’ll never have to worry about being overweight or out of shape again.

It’s like picking up a pencil. You learn how to do it, you practice it, and then you never have to think about it again. It’s ingrained.

So if you want to succeed… If you want to lose the extra fat, get in fantastic shape, and absolutely most importantly STAY that way…

NEVER go on a diet again!

Here’s how to never diet again.

In the beginning, follow a sensible eating plan that’s targeted to the right amount of calories for you, and includes a wide range of foods and food groups. Stick to the plan for just 21 days, which is enough time to form new habits so you never have to put any real thought into eating again.

Learn to read food labels. It’s a really simple skill, takes no time at all, and will make your shopping a whole load easier when you’ll know whether to buy something or not almost instantly!

Get educated. Seriously. How would you drive a car if you didn’t learn how? You’d get in it and one of about 3 things would happen.

• You wouldn’t get off the starting blocks
• You would, but you’d stall very quickly
• You’d get moving, but you’d be erratic, far from smooth, and would crash very quickly

Sounds a lot like “Dieting” doesn’t it!

Think about it. You learn to drive for a reason. So you can do it safely, on autopilot, and improve your quality of life by giving you extra freedom.

You invest hours in hands on training, hundreds of pounds, because it’s important to you.

So put the time in to learn.

• Learn how to eat properly
• Learn good food choices
• Learn proper portion sizes
• Learn so you can do all this on autopilot all the time!

And one last time…

What’s the wackiest diet you’ve ever tried? Comment below.