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The Seven Deadly Sins of Dieting
The summary of my research and personal experience in weight loss has led me to believe in avoiding these Seven Deadly Sins. But remember ladies, people come in all sorts of lovely shapes and sizes and happiness is the most important ingredient to a healthy life. It’s not what everybody wants to hear but if you’re wafer thin and miserable you are not doing anyone any favours, least of all yourself. If you are a tad obsessed with chowing down you might be too preoccupied with food to live your life to the full! Enjoying food in healthy quantities is an essential part of a happy lifestyle but if you need to shift a few pounds to get back to a healthy weight, avoiding these seven deadly sins should help!
1. Don’t think that dieting is easy. This is the most important of the Seven Deadly Sins. Dieting is not easy. It takes dedication and willpower just as much as anything that’s worthwhile does, and nothing is more worthwhile than looking after your health. If you are going to learn how to sew or how to fly, you have to understand the principles, learn to master it and practice. Dieting is the same. It should be seen as a goal and it needs to come from your own desire to be more healthy. Don’t take up a diet that doesn’t promote this key realisation.
2. Drinking fruit juice as part of your diet. Sugar is your enemy when you are dieting. If you are going to successfully loose weight you have to learn what foods contain sugar and how much is too much. Many people make the mistake of thinking that fruit juice is a healthy alternative to soda but the sugar content is comparable. Fruit juice is fruit with the all the fibre and goodness extracted. It is pure sugar and sugar is energy that the body converts to fat. There is a growing awareness of the negative effects of fructose which is found in most sugary foods but also in many breakfast cereals, muesli bars and health foods.
3. Over-exercising while dieting. Overcommitting to a fitness regime can have the negative effect of draining your energy reserves while your body is trying to cope with a sudden detox. A relaxed 20 minute walk per day is all you need whilst your getting to know your bodies true responses to food. Trust me, once you loose the weight you will feel like exercising. No need to push it on the uphill.
4. Dieting on low self esteem. If you try to begin a diet because you hate yourself and the way you look you will not succeed in reaching a healthy weight. Food can act as comfort from insecurity and to take that comfort away is very difficult. You must begin a diet with a vision for yourself of who you can be without your attachment to food. Include therapy as part of your diet if you need help with your vision, but to start a diet without a vision is one of the most deadly of the Seven Deadly Sins. Remember that people are attracted to confidence in another person and dedicating your energy to finding confidence in who you are far outweighs any diet.
5. Dieting after a break up. Similar to 4 in the list of Seven Deadly Sins, if you are dealing with a painful break-up, the death of a loved one or any kind of consuming trauma you are not in a position to take on a radical change in your eating habits. Give yourself time to heal, help yourself with the healing process by partaking in therapy. Be kind to yourself and give your new vision of yourself the space it needs to emerge. You will know when the time is right.
6. Throwing in the towel. Again, dieting is hard, you are going to have setbacks and re-lapses. Don’t throw in the towel because you spent the weekend working your way through the Krispy Kreme catalogue. If you are studying to become a doctor and you fail an exam, you don’t throw in your dream, you go back to the books.
7: Being unrealistic about weight loss. Seeing results on the scales is an important part of the motivation to loose weight but you have to be realistic. If you obsess over shed pounds rather than focusing on your deeper vision for yourself and if you set unrealistic weight loss goals and don’t achieve them, your self-esteem will suffer and you will find yourself searching for comfort in the form of food again.
These Seven Deadly Sins were the key elements for me in my journey to better health and I share them with you in the hope that they might make a difference to your journey. All the best in finding your healthier you!
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Author Bio
Sarah enjoys living a natural lifestyle. She recently read an essay about good vs evil at an interesting site: www.worldtransformation.com/good-vs-evil which in part inspired this article… along with her long-term relationship with food! After many years on the dieting roller coaster Sarah has finally found some peace and solace in her seven deadly sins – please feel free to comment and join a discussion about our dieting woes!
