Diets don’t work ... but there is another way!
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Diets don’t work ... but there is another way!
What the diet industry does not tell you is that 95% of us who lose weight will put it all back on again and more. Even if you lose weight with one of the most reputable weight loss companies you are 85% more likely to be fatter in two years than before you tried to lose weight[i].
Diets don’t work
This is shocking
Dieting does not work!
- What happens when you put the weight back on?
- Do you feel like a failure and judge yourself to be too weak to make the changes you need in your life to be happy, successful and slim?
- A lot of people do feel like this.
- So, what if we are told we need to diet when we are overweight, and so we do, only to find that we cannot keep the weight off and then we feel like we have failed?
Why is it that diets do not work?
If we want to lose the excess weight we carry, then wouldn’t this be really important for us to find out?
What if the problem is that dieting assumes you can stick to a restricted diet by force of will alone? The use of willpower will not work in the long term because we have failed to approach the reason for being overweight in the first place.
Is it possible that dieting places the focus on the food, and not on the PERSON choosing the food?
And because of this, is it possible that it has missed an essential piece in the puzzle – the relationship a person has with their own body and themselves?
"Women need to be true to their bodies. And if they were, few if any food and diet companies would get away with their marketing ploys."
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings and Revelations, p 547
Consider the possibility that ...
Dieting does not work because the underlying reasons for carrying excess weight remain unresolved, and actually are not because of food.
Why diets don’t work
Is it possible to accept that it is very unlikely that we will achieve permanent weight loss by dieting? We need to consider that our weight may not permanently change unless we understand what is going on to create us holding excess weight in the first place.
It is a protective layer – what if carrying weight can be used like a shield of armour – you can’t get to the real me, the very sensitive core, if there is a big barrier between me and you.
It serves to store a lot of hurt – what if a layer of excess weight actually helps us numb things that we do not want to feel?
It is being used to hide the incredible beauty that lies within – what if underneath the weight, we are truly beautiful but somewhat sensitive to that beauty or the true us actually being seen?
It reflects a big investment in protection – what if we can keep weight on to hide, not be seen and therefore think we are safe (like hiding underneath a big cover)?
It fills a need or emptiness – what if we use food (sometimes literally stuffing food down) to fill a feeling of emptiness (which of course food can never fill) and hence, we keep eating as the ‘hunger’ (which is not actually hunger at all) is never really satisfied?
You may or may not be able to relate to the above possibilities. They are offered as possibilities only – there may be many reasons why a person does not keep weight off, or just keeps putting it on. The point is ... if there are underlying reasons why the weight is there, then, no number of diets is ever going to resolve it, as the food is merely the cover. Food, in itself, is not actually the underlying cause of the problem.
Wouldn’t it be worthwhile finding out more about why we carry weight in the first place ... and then aim to heal that?
If the underlying reasons for being overweight or overeating are not resolved, then doesn’t it make sense that the weight will simply return, over and over again, despite however many diets we may go on?
This is where we need to be really honest.
Is it possible that, if we experience something that disturbs us, or hurts us, that one of our very first reactions might be to reach for something to eat or drink? When we do this, can we feel the possibility – just a possibility – that we are putting food in, in order to not feel what has just happened (i.e. something that has made us upset)?
If this is the case, then eating in those circumstances actually stops us from feeling the disturbing situation so that we do not have to face it, and deal with it. But the question is ... does the hurt, discomfort or disturbance actually go away by us eating? Or is it simply buried, meaning we are going to have to return to deal with it at some point down the track?
If we actually know that we sometimes eat when we are not hungry, or when we have actually had enough, is it worth stopping and asking the question:
Why are we eating?
We have all experienced eating when we are not hungry. What if looking underneath why this actually occurs may provide an answer to why we carry excess weight?
Isn’t it then worth us asking this question, and exploring honestly the answer (even if it might be a bit uncomfortable – at least to start with)?
Addressing why we eat in the way we do may help us much more than forcing ourselves to follow a strict diet for a short period of time, which may drop the kilos in the short term but, usually fails us in the long term as the kilos inevitably creep back on.
So, if we accept that diets don’t work and that we eat not because of hunger, but to cover up problems, fill a need, or other reasons, then what can we do to address this? Is there another way?
References:
Filed under
Body awareness, Feelings, Over eating
