One of the main reasons the vast majority of diets fail in the long run is that they are not created with real people in mind. If your nutrition requirements mess up with your schedule, the brutal truth is that they probably will not be sustainable.
Most of us are busy -if not stressed, have a life outside the gym (these quick fix approaches are unfair to expect everybody to have 10+ hours/week to dedicate to exercise and meal preparation), struggle to reach work-school-family balance and often have other people relying on them (growing kids, siblings, ageing parents).
It’s not your fault if you can’t stick to rigid meal plans
The initial excitement will wear off soon enough and constantly weighing your food will prove equally annoying and impossible, if not turning out obsessive. Would you consider putting a ban on eating out? Becoming mindful of what you eat should not mean giving up on your social life.
Avoiding gatherings with friends because you are afraid of not sticking to “the plan” definitely does not correspond to the definition of a healthy behavior. Feelings of anxiety around events because you want to avoid temptation sounds debilitating, unless you are a starving physique competitor preparing for a show in a few days and the slightest slip up could prevent you from being stage ready. For the vast majority of us, consistency will suffice to guarantee results.
Key takeaway: if your nutrition plan leads to weird withdrawn practices or generates new stress factors, I would dare say that this is not the right approach for you.
In the end of the day, there is only so much time and willpower we humans can have
After a few weeks, the initial strategies backfire - kudos if you can stick to any restrictive diet for months, you definitely belong to the category of UFOs!
Shortly after high-fiving yourself for the first results (usually due to loss of water weight, if not also precious muscle), motivation inexorably slowly but surely fades away. Sure, the scale needle goes into the right direction. But how about your health and energy levels? Skinny-fat looks far off the ultimate body composition goal!
Your body is starving and no amount of self-control will conquer that
Regardless of how motivated you are, improvements stall (or even freeze). You feel deprived, irritated and sluggish. Your workouts seem harder. Maybe you even stopped shrinking and the less you eat, the more you pay for it at the next weigh-in.
You find insidious ways to curb frustration. Missing sweets and treats? Enter the disordered eating behaviors. Ever heard of people covering turkey ham in sweeteners to get their fix in sugary taste? Trick your brain and beware the backlash!
Are you bargaining with yourself: “five more minutes on the treadmill, 60 kcal to go, so now I do deserve a cookie or crisp”… only to engulf the whole box a few minutes later?
Can’t beat evolution! Our bodies are originally designed and evolved to fight hunger -not overeating
Your metabolism and hormonal systems are wreaked havoc. Chances are, it is suffering from deficiency in key nutrients (magnesium being a common one). Don’t forget we were created to preserve status quo. Losing weight is perceived as an immense stress for your body. Especially when done quickly with methods as draconian as wacky (yes, I am pointing a finger at fads and mono diets: cabbage soup only, pineapple all day… enough to make you hate these otherwise yummy foods forever)!
Going down this road, you experience irresistible cravings that may even turn into regular binge eating episodes.
Hello jar of infamous chocolate hazelnut spread gone in a day (one heaped spoon after the other) and all your efforts wasted away! We won’t even mention some new additional kg as a side bonus. In addition to your waistline, the feelings of shame and guilt get bigger and bigger.
Depressing and disheartening, we know. A neverending vicious circle. Are you eating because of shame or ashamed because you eat?
Feeling like a loser at losing weight
So now you blame yourself for failing- once again. All your enthusiasm sapped. You munch way less than before you started dieting, and you put all the weight back on. And then some.
Consider this before joining the next spring crash diet bandwagon.
Dust yourself off. You only fail as many times as you remain defeated, lying on the ground.
Yes, you have to keep trying. Just differently
A sound definition of madness? Doing the same things over and over again, and expecting different results. Endlessly the same outdated inputs, unsurprisingly the old dreaded outputs.
Nothing changes if nothing changes
Slow and steady wins the race
Here at YzzieFit Nutrition Coaching, we firmly believe in taking small actions daily for sustainable results in the long run. Weight loss has to be healthy and take both your strengths and weaknesses into consideration. We introduce and practice habits for success, one at a time. They build up and allow us to lay the foundations to your new lifestyle and the new you.
We try, play around and experiment until we unlock the keys to your success
Should our strategies stop working, we won’t throw in the towel and cry. We will find something new. Or revisit old tricks with a twist. Review the basics (never underestimate them).
In the end, we will have your exclusive body manual
Encountering problem X? Let’s fix it with series of behaviors A, B, C. Manual outdated? No worries. Together we will write out the new version 2.0. Fixing as many bugs as needed.
Personalization takes the prize. Every time
Kiss fads and their one-trick ponies goodbye. Give your last chance to individualization, tailored plans of attack and long term, healthy results respecting and embracing your uniqueness.
Want to find out more? Check our programs for men and women
Get started today!
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