Don’t diet. Eat for health!

 

I’ve always been an avid reader of diet programs. Whether from online trainers who offer shape-up programs, online sites, books or magazines. It’s an odd obsession, I admit, probably springing from my long-gone days of looking for “the diet to end all diets.”

Most of the diets I read about are of a limited duration. Often, somewhere around 12 or 16 weeks. I guess it makes sense. A trainer can’t point to his client and say, “Hey, look at Shirley. Over the last 5 years, she’s lost 20 pounds!”

Many women expect to lose 20 pounds in 3 months—for beach season or a reunion or a vacation or some other event. Or, sometimes, “just because.”

But that’s a mistake.

There is a better way

Five years ago, I started dating my sweet boyfriend, Alan. At the time, his weight approached 240. He was wearing size 38 pants—and they were tight.

I thought he was the nicest man, very kind, very thoughtful and the funniest guy I’d ever met. Raising two children by himself and working full-time, he had developed some bad habits: A cereal breakfast, mid-morning donut, a white bread sandwich at lunch, whatever goodies were available in the office mid-afternoon and, usually, a meat and boxed rice dish he cooked when he got home. I don’t think he’d eat a vegetable all day!

Oh, yeah. There were usually two or three beers after a nighttime workout in his basement.

Alan’s only ”before” picture (already down 40 lbs from 240) 

“A [small] change will do you good”

Since he knew I was a trainer and had some knowledge of nutrition, Alan asked for dietary suggestions. I decided I was not about to overhaul his diet. Instead, I simply recommended cutting down his donut habit to every other day, instead of daily. He was okay with that, and began substituting fruit or fruit-flavored yogurt for the donuts. A few weeks later, he’d decided he did not need to eat donuts at all.

And so it started. Bit by bit, Alan made changes. White bread sandwiches gave way to sandwiches made from whole wheat bread, pitas and wraps. Vegetables and salads and fruits were added. Trail mix subbed for cookies and candy. The array of cookies and coffeecakes in his kitchen was replaced by bowls of fruit, bunches of bananas and whole pineapples. A few years later, Alan even began toting homemade salads for lunch—forget the sandwich!

Five years later…

 Down 50 lbs and feeling good!

I’ll estimate that Alan’s lost 65 pounds of fat and put on 15 pounds of muscle, equaling that 50-lb scale loss.

He now wears size 32 pants and, for the first time in many years, likes the way his arms look. (He has biceps!)  

After years of working out together, Alan’s strength is way up and his stamina has greatly improved. Mowing the grass no longer wipes him out.

What I hope you will get from this post is this:

Permanent positive changes are so much more rewarding than the short-lived changes necessitated by overly restrictive diets and regimens.

Eating for health should not be punitive. It won’t work.

Choose the food that gives you energy, fights disease and rebuilds and repairs your body.

Five years? It’s really not that long a time.

And every year, Alan’s gotten healthier and healthier. His “new” habits have stuck.

Even if he takes a break at a friend’s barbecue, he knows how to get back on track the next day. So there are no feelings of “Darn, I blew it.” Because there’s no diet.

And I think that’s the most pleasant way to live.