The Problem with Diets of the Past

It's a sad fact that most people reading this right now are not on their first diet. Most probably aren't on their second, third or even fourth diet, either. You're probably used to the merry go round of dieting, and each year, your weight creeps up higher and higher and you're breaking the wrong sort of records.

It's not your fault unless you find out how to fix this problem and ignore the advice, choosing instead to get back on the same harmful, discouraging path you were before.

What's wrong with the diets you've previously been on? A lot.

They Concentrated Heavily on Numbers

Most diets require you to have a strong background in math to properly understand and master them. From the calorie counting to the number of pounds it's okay to lose in a week to the inches you gained in muscle and lost in fat - numbers swirling in your head can get overwhelming.

Some diets go even further than simple calories and have you performing math equations on every single meal you eat. Did you get the right number of carbs? Is the ratio of carbs to protein in the right vicinity?

What happens when you're having to be a mathematician for each meal is that you get annoyed. You don't feel like counting and dividing and comparing and crunching numbers - so you just fly by the seat of your pants, do it all wrong, and wonder why you failed.

That or you get exhausted spending 10 minutes on math when you only have a 30-minute lunch break. Your diet should be focused on your well-being and how you're feeling, not on whether or not you got your math facts right.

They Focused on Extremes

Diets in your past probably went from one end of the spectrum to the other. Elimination diets where they have an all or nothing mentality aren't feasible - and they aren't enjoyable.

You need to learn how to eat for life, not for 30 days or six months. In some diets, you have to eliminate whole food groups - sometimes surviving solely on fattening meats and foregoing healthy fruits and vegetables.

Now does that sound like a smart thing to do to your body? They're setting you up for failure because they're not doable for the long-term. If you look at a diet and start tallying up how many days you'll "have to do it" to lose a certain number of pounds, then it's not a good diet to be on.

You Develop a Diet Mindset

A diet mindset is crippling. If you become someone who is always thinking about dieting talking about dieting and planning your life around dieting, then it's not leading a pleasant life.

Life should be about enjoying the time you spend with friends and family, about relishing the time you get to indulge in your favorite hobbies, about pursuing success and satisfaction in your career.

It shouldn't be an obsession with your body's faults and how you can take drastic measures to change the way you look. It should be about pursuing things that make you feel better - habits that deliver total wellness, including mental happiness - and a diet mindset isn't what that's about.

People with a diet mindset tend to do some of the following things:

·         They constantly announce their diet progress to their friends and family - what they're planning to do, what they're doing, what they did and where they failed.

·         They don't realize it, but they often become critical of friends and family who aren't following the same regimen that they are - always verbally nitpicking on other people's actions to force them to change.

·         They continually beat themselves up whenever they have slipups - always focusing on what they did wrong.

Instead of propping yourself up for yet another failure, and even more pounds packed onto your frame - make a commitment to change the way you diet starting now!