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Have you ever embarked on a diet? Do you know what dieting actually involves? While there are positive things to come from dieting do you understand the negative things that come with being in diet phase?
As with any choice in life, there comes positives and negatives.
Those "negative" things are also just a perception, you do not have to choose to view them as a negative and having dieted myself a few times I truly believe the most successful diet comes with two big shifts in mindset.
1 - first being truly aware of the downfalls that come with dieting
2- choosing to view those downfalls not in a negative light but just as part of the challenge.
With that being said - for those who are not aware of what a diet involves let me summarise.......
A diet requires you to be in an energy deficiency - meaning you are consuming less calories than you are expending and with this comes things like.....
Having to me more restrictive with food choices. You will need to track and/or weigh your food - this is the only way to ensure your are in an energy deficiency.
Times of hunger.
Your energy levels will decrease.
You may have less patience and mental clarity.
Your sleep may be affected - some people find they have trouble sleeping, others want to sleep all the time. You might find you want to go to bed earlier.
Your sex drive will go down and possibly become non-existent.
For women - you may lose your menstrual cycle depending on the aggressiveness of the diet.
Why does all this happen?
Because your body is using more energy than it is getting fuelled with.
Why do will I likely lose my sex drive and maybe my cycle?
Because all these actions use energy and your body wants to survive so when you are consuming less energy than you are expending, functions that aren't needed first and foremost for your survival are shutdown.
Before you embark on a true diet (when I say true, I mean eating 1200 calories each day of the week and then binging on the weekend is not your answer. A true diet is structured , everything is tracked, data is measured and I highly encourage its done with the support of a professional to ensure you can maintain the best health possible) you need to be aware of all these above factors.
You need to weigh up the pros vs cons. You need to be prepared to have to work on your mindset too.
You need to be ready to embrace those effects and be prepared to deal with them in the most positive light possible.
And this is why I say "lets not diet over summer"
Summer generally means longer days, more social activities and more energy expended doing things.
Summer could mean....
early or late horse rides to beat the heat
bbqs with friends
less sleep hours
days fishing
early starts to shift stock before its too hot
picnics with your kids
horse treks
lots of swimming
jobs around the section/farm
hiking/camping
As I mentioned above all of this generally leads to more energy expended, so do you really want to be battling to have the energy to do those things?
Do you really want to be feeling like you need to go to bed at 8.30pm?
Do you want to be super restrictive at BBQs?
Do you want to be needing to track and weigh all the food you eat at social occasions?
I had a discussion with a client recently about a structured fat loss phase for her. We had initially thought the end of January we would start one but before we locked in the plan, I asked her "what have you got on over Feb/March, event wise?"
She explained she had a few social things and horse treks but would be okay managing food around them.
I told her to take some time to reflect on everything I have said above, "do you really want to be less energetic, possibly feeling weaker and more restricted with your food choices during these times?" After a couple of days the answer was no, for which I am extremely proud.
Why feel restricted in times like that when there is no set date or time frame that you need to lose X amount of weight?
Do not just make a rash new years resolution of going on a diet and losing x amount of weight.
You need to make an informed and intuitive decision on when you choose to start a diet that the timing of works for you based on whats going on in your life.
And remember this.....
You are beautiful no matter what size or weight you are.
If you can do the internal work to realise that and learn to love yourself regardless, your life will be far more fulfilling
Eljay x
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