The word 'diet' means a lot of different things. At one level it means anything that we eat, as in 'The diet of the chimpanzee includes a lot of fruit.' But for most of us, 'diet' has come to mean something restrictive, that comes along with a lot of negative feelings.
To most people, the thought of going on a diet is depressing. It means that we cannot eat whatever we want. It means that we will be hungry all of the time, or so we think. It means a lot of struggle and stress and for what?
Most of us have dieted many times in the past and always gained back most or all of the weight. It's not surprising if we have negative feelings about diets.
The problem is that the idea of a diet is usually something short term. We go on a diet, and when we have lost some weight, we stop. Then, not being on a diet any more, we start to gain the weight back.
To be successful at maintaining our weight loss, we need to drop this idea of being on a diet for a period of time. Instead, think about the wider meaning of the word diet, or call it a 'way of eating' instead.
Getting slim is only half of the battle. The other half is staying slim, and for that we have to be doing things differently than how we did them before. Not just for a few weeks or months, but permanently.
Of course, this does not mean that we can never have dessert again for the rest of our lives. What it means is that as we approach our goal weight, we have to begin to get used to a new way of eating dessert. We might start eating it sometimes but not always, and having smaller portions than we were used to in the past.
This kind of permanent change in our way of eating is not so hard to do, but we must plan it ahead of time and introduce it gradually. That way, we will be much more likely to stay slim for the rest of our lives.
