Diet that bad word

When it comes to losing fat, there are a lot of things you can, should, and often need to change about your diet. I’m going to cover them in a second post, and give you the exact order I believe you need to address them in for maximal changes.

First, though, I just want to get the semantics out of the way. “Diet” – it’s a word a lot of people avoid like the plague. I don’t, because I’m not afraid of words. Avoiding a word because you’re afraid of it has the opposite effect you intend, and it can have disastrous effects on your progress.

Let me explain.

The vast majority of people are either intrinsically afraid of the word diet and the ideas it brings to mind, or have been conditioned to think they should be. Because this is well known, when fitness professionals or doctors or anyone else tell you “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle” or whatever other nonsense people spew out, they’re trying to mollify you into being receptive to their information.

Without turning this into a full on lesson about marketing, one aspect of why this is done is called mirroring: use the words your clients or customers use; avoid the ones they don’t or that cause them pain.

By avoiding the use of the word diet, they believe they’re able to get through to more by following the old marketing mantra of “sell them what they want, give them what they need.”

As a result, if they want to give you something short term, many coaches or doctors  to avoid the word diet and call it a “nutritional plan.” Equally silly.

In other words, they know that the word diet has some negative connotations, and they want to avoid triggering those feelings before they introduce their idea to you, to prevent you from transferring that negative association to their plan. Make sense?

There is nothing wrong with that. Other than the fact that it’s completely idiotic.

Trying to avoid the word diet when talking about nutrition is tantamount to trying to avoid the word “tackle” when talking about football. No one likes to be tackled, and no one really likes having to diet. That doesn’t change the fact that if you avoid thinking about tackling and you don’t prepare for it, you’re going to get crushed on the field. If you avoid thinking about dieting, when you have to do it, i’ll be a lot more intimidating.

Far worse than that is the fear. Can you imagine if we taught aspiring football players to not only avoid thinking about tackling, but created a system of aversion so complete and filled with so many alternative terms that it resulted in fear of the word itself?

I think the sport would die out pretty quickly.

Please accept this. Take a deep breath. Stop being afraid. A diet is different from diet-ing to be sure, but they are both necessary for progress, and you can’t avoid thinking about or doing either.

So, to be clear: any food you eat is your diet. To eat food is to have a diet. All animals have diets. For example, I live exclusively on meats, veggies, the hearts of my enemies, cake, a few protein shakes and the occasional glass of bourbon. That’s my diet.

My dogs have a diet of meats, eggs, yams, and veggies. That is their diet.

It’s really that simple. If you eat food, you have a diet.

As you can tell, thing people really want to avoid is talking about going on a diet, which is different than just having a diet. Having a diet is a longterm approach to eating. Going on a diet of some kind implies a short-term change in the way you eat–one that will hopefully create some long term changes.

People are afraid of this because going on a diet either means you have to make a few big changes (or a lot of small ones), and that’s inconvenient. Well, so is being fat or unhealthy or dead.

You want to make a change, you need to change the diet you have, and that starts with the diet you’re on.

Or, put another way, you need to go on a diet.

If I wanted to get leaner, my diet would change a bit. I’d eliminate cake and bourbon–so I’d go ON a diet. It’s just a word, and it’s just a thing that you have to do. HAVE TO. Need. Must. Necessary.

Because it’s necessary, the fear of the word is detrimental in the extreme. Which is why I have chosen never to be afraid of it, or any other words. And I don’t get why more people don’t do the same. If I may quote Professor Dumbledore:

Great knowledge is attained with great pain.

Seriously. I mean, Dumbledore said it, and he’s one of the most powerful wizards ever. So you basically have to listen.

All joking aside, please stop being afraid of words. In general. Did you know that “moist” is the most disliked word in the English language, according to a number of different polls? Seriously. I’m not making that up — you can check it out here.

Moist. As in, “sort of wet, but not really.” People don’t like the imagery it conjures, or the way the word sounds, or the mouthfeel of the word when they say it. Because this has become popular knowledge, people have started to be afraid of the word.

My former roommate, Jackie, would actually shudder when anyone said it. Seriously; she had convinced herself that moist was such a terrible word that saying it was like telling an arachnophobe that there’s a spider on their shoulder.

What the actual fuck?

Look, if you don’t like a word, don’t use it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Fear and dislike are not mutually inclusive: while you’re generally going to dislike the things you fear, you certainly don’t have to fear everything you dislike.

Personally, I dislike when the sounds words make are radically different from the meaning of the word. A good example is “pulchritude.” Pronounced “pulk-rah-tude”, it actually means, “having great physical beauty.”

It sounds like it would be something awful or horrid, but it means beauty. Imagine if you called a woman pulchritudinous and she didn’t know what it meant? Based on sound alone, I think you’d get slapped, despite having given such a wonderful compliment.

Another example would be bucolic. It’s pronounced “byoo-khal-ik”, which to me sounds like a disease. It means having pastoral beauty or relating to the countryside. It’s the kind of word you’d find in a college admissions essay. No thank you.

Now, I’m obviously a word nerd, so I have some strong feelings about these things. But, just because I don’t care for these words, doesn’t mean I’m afraid of them or the things they represent. If I was afraid, and avoided using them, it would strengthen their hold over me.

Imagine if I was so freaked out by the word pulchritude that I created some sort of aversion to the idea of beauty? What kind of life would that be?

Okay, I’m getting off topic. By a lot. Sort of. The main thing is, words are power. Ancient cultures believed that words and names were filled with inherent magic; to know someone’s True Name would give you power over them. Certainly, we no longer hold to this belief, but it’s left it’s fingerprints on our langue–it’s no coincidence that the correct words are required to cast a magic spell, just as the correct letters are required to spell something on paper.

For my part, I believe that words are infinitely more powerful than actions, regardless of what any adage, proverb, idiom or axiom would have you believe.

All of which is to say that have their own power, but we also give them power–when we do that, we give them power over us.

Make the decision now to stop being afraid of words. For good. Especially the word diet. Because if you’re afraid of that word, afraid of saying it, afraid of thinking it, and afraid of doing it, you’ll be paralyzed when you need to make a change to your “nutritional plan” to better yourself.

So. Yeah. Words. And stuff. No more fear.

Did you make the decision? Are you no longer afraid? EXCELLENT.

Then, you will enjoy tomorrow’s post. Well, maybe.

I’m going to talk all about dieting; more specifically, as I said at the top of this post, I’m going to cover the exact aspects of dieting, and give you the exact order I believe you need to address them in for maximal changes.

The post is long, and it’s damn good too.

Oh, if you want to get sexy as hell by starting a you know what together with me, let’s do it.

Okay, I’m off to the gym to get all moist and sweaty. Yeah. Moist. Because that’s how I roll.

Diet, dieting, I’m going on a diet or hearing someone tell you, you need to go on a diet gives you a negative feeling and you want to stay away from it.

As far as possible!

That’s because the word “Diet” has gotten a bad rap.

You hear of people going on a diet, they lose a bunch of weight then after a few months, they gain it all back.   Has this happened to you?  How many diets have you been on?

It works for a little while, then you gain it all back?

This day and age, people like to say, “I’m not on a diet, I’m making a healthy lifestyle change”.

That sounds good and all, but if you’re a Foodie like me with a voracious appetite, that’s not going to last very long.   You first need to go on a “Diet” to train your mind and body for that “Healthy Lifestyle”.

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DIETING IS JUST LIKE PHYSICAL TRAINING, IT GETS YOUR BODY IN THE RIGHT CONDITION

Many people join a gym, exercise, go to Zumba classes or even hire a Trainer to help them get into good physical condition.   After your first workout, you’re in physical pain.   Your muscles hurt, you can’t walk, you have all kinds of aches and pains.  This pain keeps coming back every time you workout.  If  you persist and don’t give up, then after awhile, the pain goes away.   It’s the same with dieting.   It’s not easy.   You’re hungry, you have cravings and you suffer but if you persist and stick to it, eventually things get easier!

YOU MUST CHOOSE A HEALTHY DIET PROGRAM

There’s all kinds of diet programs out there.  There’s programs where they send you the food.  Bad processed food, where you need to microwave them before you can eat them.   Sure, you’ll lose weight but can you stick to it?   Can you afford to keep buying their food?   What about programs that have expensive pills, supplements, protein shakes that you have to keep on purchasing in order to maintain your weight loss?   I say stay away from those programs!    You want to choose a weight loss program that teaches you to eat Wholesome foods.    Foods that are not processed.   Veggies, fruits, lean proteins and cuts out sugar.

That’s exactly the program I was on. However, I had to pay $1600 for it.  I want to share it with you without you having to pay that exorbitant amount.

I’ve created an eBook based off that plan. Click on the book below to get more information and how you can get it.

HOW TO STICK TO YOUR DIET

YOU NEED TO HAVE A GOOD REASON WHY YOU WANT TO LOSE THE WEIGHT

You need to have a reason that you’re passionate about.   Do you want to look good for that old boyfriend you found on Facebook?   Does your health depend on it?   Do you want to do it to stay healthy for your children, your husband or your grandchildren?  Do you want to do it for more self confidence?  Maybe you’re single and you want to start dating again?  Or maybe you just want to do it for yourself, there’s no better reason than that!

As for me, I lost 65 pounds years ago by exercising and cutting back on my food intake.    However, over a period of 8 years, I gradually gained some of it back.   I was okay with it for awhile until I saw myself in a  couple Facebook posts that friends posted and I was shocked on how fat I looked! I’m finding out that being older and in menopausal stage, it’s not so easy to lose the weight, I needed a structured program.   I’m a bit vain so I like to look good and wear pretty clothes but my clothes weren’t fitting anymore.   I made up my mind that I was going to do this and really stick to it!

KEEP YOUR MIND BUSY

Your new diet is going to be painful.   You’re going to want to quit.   You’re going to have cravings and you’re going to go into Detox from sugar.  You need to have a game plan to keep your mind busy so you can get through those moments of trouble.  What is it you like to do?    What are you passionate about?  How about that business you’ve been talking about starting?   Maybe learn a new trade and take some classes?   For me, I chose to create this blog.  I’ve always wanted to start one but never got around to doing it, plus, I didn’t know how.   So, I decided to learn and just start it.   Now, it consumes my mind!   It’s all I think about…LOL…Just keep your mind busy and that’s half the battle right there.

STAY ACCOUNTABLE.  CHOOSE A FRIEND TO TEXT YOUR DAILY PROGRESS

This is huge!   You will definitely need this to succeed.   Find a friend or family member who would like to do this with you or who would be supportive enough for you to text daily.   First thing in the morning when you wake up, go pee then get on the scale.   Make sure it’s a digital scale.  Go on it 3 times and average it out.  Then text your friend what your weight is.   You’re going to do this everyday.   You can either keep a journal of what you weigh and what you eat or you can go a step further and text your friend your food choices as well.   I have a coach that I text daily.  She came with the program I signed up for.

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER

Your body needs to be a well oiled machine and your oil is water.  Drink half of your body weight in ounces.   It also depends on how much you weigh, if you weigh 600 pounds, there’s no way you can drink 300 ounces of water!  I weighed 200 pounds when I started and they recommended I drink 90 oz of water.   It was tough for me at first but I made a schedule for myself to make sure I got it all in.

KEEP YOUR ENERGY UP

Make sure that you’re taking a good Whole Food Multi-Vitamin Supplement and also a Vitamin B complex to help you keep your energy up.   This is vital or you’ll feel weak and may even lose your hair along with a bunch of other problems.   Also, get plenty of sleep.   Go to bed at a reasonable time and try to shut my mind off of that new task you took up to keep your mind busy!

KEEP TEMPTATION OUT OF THE WAY

The hardest part for me in the beginning was seeing foods I love out on display, especially sweets.   It was worse at work, I’m telling you, the struggle was real!   I had to finally ask my co-workers to put their snacks away where I couldn’t see them.   They had no problems in doing so because I asked nicely.  You could do the same.   At home, ask your family members to help you out and do the same thing.   My fiance is very supportive of me and he waits to have his ice cream and snacks when I’m not there.  Or he’ll keep his chips and candy at work.  Now though, he could eat all those things in front of me and I’ll only ask for a bite!

PREPARE YOUR FOOD IN ADVANCE

It’s very important that you plan ahead and prepare food for work, otherwise, you’ll get hungry and may buy food that’s not good for you.   I work 10 hour shifts and if I work 2 or 3 days in a row I make sure I prepare enough food for 2 meals for each day and have it packaged and ready to grab.   You can’t be lazy, you gotta make yourself do this.  You gotta keep it simple though so you don’t burn out.  One of my favorite and easiest things to do is buy a package of ground chicken, put it in a bowl then add salt, black pepper then a bit of garlic powder.   Mix it up, then make golf ball sized meatballs.  A pound of ground chicken will make about 12 meatballs, a meatball is about one ounce each, so that makes for 3 meals.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350’F .  Once they’ve cooled, store them in ziplock bags, 4 meatballs in a bag, so they are ready to grab and go.  As you get going, you’ll learn what works for you.

That’s it.   That’s what I got for you.  If you have more ideas on how to stick to a diet, please comment below, we can all learn from each other.

Is Diet a Bad Word?

Obesity and Nutrition (исполнитель: Learn English via Listening — Level 3)

Obesity and Nutrition - Level 3

For people in many countries, one of the great triumphs of modern life is that there is a great abundance of food. In those places, problems such as starvation and malnutrition are no longer prevalent, and people do not worry about going hungry. 
Despite the fact that there is plenty of food in modern countries, people still face many health problems that are related to their diet. One problem is that modern technology has made it possible to produce cheap and tasty food that is not very healthy. This leads to the problem that many people are obese, or very overweight. 
One example of this is the "fast food" that is served by many restaurants. This food is often cooked by frying. Fried food contains a high proportion of fat. Also, fast food meals are often very large. When people frequently eat large amounts of fried "fast food," they will likely eat too much fat. This excess can lead to weight gain. Of course, many people enjoy the taste of fried fast food and like to eat it occasionally. However, eating this kind of food too often is bad for one's health. 
Another example of health problems caused by modern food products involves soft drinks and other sweetened beverages. These drinks, sometimes called "pop," have a sweet taste that many people enjoy on occasion. However, these drinks contain large amounts of sugar. When people drink soft drinks very frequently, they consume a great deal of sugar. This excess sugar can lead to weight gain. 
The weight gain that can result from consuming too much fast food and too many soft drinks can have several harmful effects. For example, people who are very obese have an increased risk of heart disease and of diabetes. Of course, fast food and soft drinks are not the only causes of obesity. Other eating habits may be involved, and so are lack of exercise and genetic factors. 
To avoid the health problems that are associated with obesity, it is important that one does not eat too much food. However, this does not mean that one should try to eat as little as possible. People need an adequate amount of food in order to stay healthy. Also, it is important to avoid new "fad" diets that [bad word] popular from time to time, because these are often unsafe. Some of the diets that are [bad word] in popular books do not contain adequate amounts of nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals. 
Instead, one should try to eat foods that are nutritious. For example, foods such as [bad word]  vegetables, grains, and lean meats have many vitamins and minerals that are needed for good health. People whose diet consists mainly of these foods will probably be much healthier, on average, than people whose diet contains too many foods that have high levels of fat or sugar. In addition, many of these nutritious foods are also very tasty and enjoyable to eat!

BY: Anna Guerdjikova, PhD, LISW, CCRC, Lindner Center of HOPE, Director of Administrative Services, Harold C. Schott Foundation Eating Disorders Program University of Cincinnati, Department of Psychiatry, Research Assistant Professor

An estimated 45 million Americans diet each year and spend $33 billion annually on weight loss products. WebMD lists over 100 different diets, starting with the African Mango diet, moving on to the South Beach and Mediterranean diets and ending up with the Zone. Most diets, regardless of their particular nature, result in short-term weight loss that is not sustainable. Weight cycling or recurrent weight loss through dieting and subsequent weight gain (yo-yo effect) can be harmful for mental and physical health for both healthy weight and overweight individuals. Furthermore, weight fluctuations have been related to increased risk of development of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.

What is Dieting

The word “diet” originates from the Greek word “diaita”, literally meaning “manner of living”. In the contemporary language, dieting is synonymous with a quick fix solution for an overwhelming obesity epidemic. Dieting implies restriction, limitation of pleasurable foods and drinks, and despite of having no benefits, the omnipresent dieting mentality remains to be the norm.

Most diets fail most of the time. Repeated diet failure is a negative predictor for successful long term weight loss. Chronic dieters consistently report guilt and self-blame, irritability, anxiety and depression, difficulty concentrating and fatigue. Their self-esteem is decreased by continuous feelings of failure related to “messing my diet up again”, leading to feelings of lack of control over one’s food choices and further … life in general. Dieting can be particularly problematic in adolescents and it remains a major precursor to disordered eating, with moderate dieters being five times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who do not diet at all.

Diets imply restriction. Psychologically, dietary restraint can lead to greater reactivity to food cues, increased cravings and disinhibition, and overeating and binge eating. Biologically, dieting can lead to unhealthy changes in body composition, hormonal changes, reduced bone density, menstrual disturbances, and lower resting energy expenditure.

The Potential Harmful Effects of Dieting

Aggressive dieting lowers the base metabolic rate, meaning one burns less energy when resting, resulting in significantly lower daily needs in order to sustain achieved weight after the diet is over. Returning to normalized eating habits at this lower base metabolic rate results in commonly seen post dieting weight gain. Biologically, dieting is perceived as harmful and physiology readjusts trying to get back to initial weight even after years since the initial rapid weight loss. Recent data examining 14 participants in the “Biggest Loser” contest showed they lost on average 128 pounds and their baseline resting metabolic rates dropped from 2,607 +/-649 kilocalories/ day to 1,996 +/- 358 kcal/day at the end of the 30 weeks contest. Those that lost the most weight saw the biggest drops in their metabolic rate. Six years after the show, only one of the 14 contestants weighed less than they did after the competition; five contestants regained almost all of or more than the weight they lost, but despite the weight gain, their metabolic rates stayed low, with a mean of 1,903 +/- 466 kcal/day. Proportional to their individual weights the contestants were burning a mean of ~500 fewer kilocalories a day than would be expected of people their sizes leading to steady weight gain over the years. Metabolic adaptation related to rapid weight loss thus persisted over time suggesting a proportional, but incomplete, response to contemporaneous efforts to reduce body weight from its defined “set point”.

Dieting emphasizes food as “good” or “bad”, as a reward or punishment, and increases food obsessions. It does not teach healthy eating habits and rarely focuses on the nutritional value of foods and the benefit of regulated eating. Unsatisfied hunger increases mood swings and risk of overeating. Restricting food, despite drinking enough fluids, can leads to dehydration and further complications, like constipation. Dieting and chronic hunger tend to exacerbate dysfunctional behaviors like smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.

Complex entities like health and wellness cannot be reduced to the one isolated number of what we weigh or to what body mass index (BMI) is. Purpose and worth cannot be measured in weight. Dieting mentality tempts us into “If I am thin- I will be happy” or “If I am not thin-I am a failure” way of thinking but only provides a short term fictitious solution with long term harmful physical and mental consequences. Focusing on sustainable long term strategies for implementing regulated eating habits with a variety of food choices without unnecessary restrictions will make a comprehensive diet and maintaining healthy weight a true part of our “manner of living”.

Reference: Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 May ;Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition.; Fothergill E, Guo J, Howard L, Kerns JC, Knuth ND, Brychta R, Chen KY, Skarulis MC, Walter M, Walter PJ, Hall KD.