Do Diets Really work?

I wrote a similar post a couple weeks ago. So I wanted my readers to see another author who has the same conclusions.  I found this post on WebMD.

Do Diets Really Work?

Men and women have struggled for years, searching endlessly for that magic diet pill to reverse all the bad diet and lifestyle decisions they’ve made in the past. Diet pills come in all shapes, sizes and colors with different fantasies attached to each one. They range from celebrity-endorsed campaigns to more science-based programs that guarantee success. However, the major question still persists as to whether or not all this diet talk is simply a lie.

Don't Fall for Diet Myths and Illusions

People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. To make matters worse, a majority of the confusion about diet myths stems from the fitness and nutrition experts, who cannot seem to agree on anything diet related. 

The Importance of Behavioral Change

I would like to break here and mention that I’m not writing this article to point fingers at diet experts. I want to give the truth, and the truth is that diets don’t work. They are a temporary fix with failure built right into them. The sadness lies in that we as a highly intelligent society continue to fall for the ridiculous and glorified diet trap.

The title of my “diet” plan was  No Diet Plan: Food is just the habit, not the root cause. My aim was to address my client's 'why' or root-cause.  

The idea is to intercept the negative chain of emotions by introducing a new positive point of view instead. This pattern disruption would help redirect lifestyle choices and create environmental changes, which would ultimately result in positive sustainable outcomes. In addition, I created simple nutritional awareness strategies, such as understanding the psychology of the supermarket and combined these easy to follow strategies with moderate exercise.  

Reaching Self-Management

My goal was for my client to self-manage his obesity and chronic conditions by first mastering the ability to self-manage his lifestyle behaviors. I simply drew upon Maslow's Hierarchy, which helped lead me to creating positive momentum at each level of that Hierarchy until my client was able to develop self-management or self-actualization. The levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy from the bottom up are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, which is the goal for self-management. 

Yet, I still needed to address my client's 'why' or reason for whatever or whoever brought him to this point.  I wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t become triggered in the future long after he and I went our separate ways. He might have chosen a habit other than food to suppress his negative emotions. I felt that in order to create a sustainable resolution, I had to have him resolve the trigger that brought him to obesity because it would be very difficult for him to make the needed small consistent changes within his daily eating behaviors if this emotional trigger were to resurface in the future.

Making Eating Habit Changes

Small, consistent behavioral changes can lead to a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Research conducted by Dr. Brian Wansink of the Cornell Food Lab found this:

"Making small easy changes to our eating habits on a consistent basis can lead to sustainable weight loss. The challenge lies in figuring out which changes work for each individual and how to stick with them long enough to make them second nature. 

The No Diet Plan stems from the likes of Maslow and follows the principles implemented by Dr. Brian Winsink. This same kind of program, which I developed along with my colleagues, is now being utilized by the employees of Mt. Sinai Hospital.

There is nothing sexy about this program. It will not get me a book deal. It will not have me on any social media pages posing with my shirt off or plastered throughout the pages of popular fitness magazines. Figuring out your 'why,' disrupting negative patterns, and making small consistent behavior changes is a crucial step towards creating long-term and healthy-lifestyle outcomes. 

Miseducated Equals Misguided

In 2012, Miley Cyrus tweeted, "Gluten is crap anyway!" I'm not about to say that Cyrus started the gluten-free trend. But, with the burgeoning popularity of the gluten-free diet and the almost nine-billion dollar value it has, the marketing of this label is only being fueled by uneducated bloggers, celebrities and social media who are doing more harm than good. 

More than 70 million Americans are trying to cut back on gluten, but only people with celiac disease need to be concerned with gluten. Celiac disease only affects about 1 percent of the population, which makes it hard to explain the popularity of the gluten-free diet. Celiac disease is a serious condition and should be addressed by a physician -- not a blogger, social media nutritionist or your roommate.

Let's Go Food Shopping

The grocery store is set up to have you spend money on food that you do not need. They aim to have you eat from a box, while you live in a box, so you can keep visiting your doctor in a box, telling him/her all about your illnesses that will eventually lead you to dying and being placed in a box.

Studies like the University of Notre Dame's Psychology of the Grocery Store clearly illustrate the clever ways marketers and brands make highly unhealthy foods into attractive choices. They also use a host of colors, smells, and visual imagery ensure that people are fooled into purchasing them time and time again.

Weight Loss Tips

To help find your way to successful weight loss, follow these simple tips:

• Focus on small consistent behavioral steps.
• Surround yourself with friends and loved ones who support your journey.
• Understand that what the food and beverage labels really mean.
• Realize that what people say on social media may not always be the truth. 
• Diets and exercise programs have failure already built into them and will send you down a path to more failure, so don’t fall victim to these typical ploys.
• Give you body a break and stop judging yourself by your weight.

Look for my Ebook offer, “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, on all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ibooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com,  or Gardner Books in the U.K.