Why is Dieting So Hard?

If you can easily follow diets, but you crash and burn at the first sign of a hurdle or challenge, you need to read this article.  There isn’t a recipe in sight, but it has the power to propel you faster and more assuredly towards your goal weight.

Sticking to a diet (any diet) isn’t just a question of following recipes, understanding food portions and swapping bad foods for good substitutes.  More importantly than all that, you need to be able to cope with temptation, and be strong enough to cope with the times when all you want to eat is chocolate.

So why is dieting so hard?  After all, we know which foods are good for us and which ones are bad.  We know when we ought to be eating and when we shouldn’t.  We know all about portion control, our ‘5 a day’ target of fruit and vegetables and the need to drink more water.  Surely all we need to do is put all that into practice, right?

Simply put, the answer is yes.  But to do that, our brain needs to get involved.  And that’s where the problems start.

That’s when our subconscious starts to get in the way of all our good efforts.  Our bad habits (possibly ones we’ve had for years) start to make themselves known.  And they begin to make themselves a dieting nuisance.

That is the reason why dieting is so hard.

Not because we can’t get to grips with making salads more interesting, or following low-calorie recipes, or substituting unhealthy foods with more healthy ones.  It’s because we have a whole lifetime of bad habits to change.  Our emotions get in the way and send us hunting for chocolate at 11pm, even when we’ve stuck to our diet with ease for the rest of the day.  Then we get angry and frustrated with ourselves… and we eat even more.  After all, we think, we’ve blown it now anyway.

I used to be a size 22 (UK sizes).  I have no idea how much I weighed at my heaviest, but it was way too much.  I am now three dress sizes smaller.

I tried a lot of diets.  Weight Watchers, Rosemary Conley’s Hip and Thigh Diet, the cabbage soup diet, the high fibre diet, the Slimming World diet… and I always did okay for the first couple of weeks, as I was buoyed up with enthusiasm.

Some of the diets were easier to stick with than others, but it was always the same thing that hampered me.

Me.

My habits.  My weaknesses.  In short, my mental thought processes and well worn patterns were preventing me from losing the weight I so desperately wanted to shift.  I wasn’t happy at work or at home at the time, and after a while I realised that if I was going to shift the weight and break the pattern of comfort eating I was stuck in, I would need to do something about those habits and weaknesses.

And as soon as I started facing those problems head on and dealing with them, the weight started melting away.  I still followed a weight loss plan (and I truly believe it’s immaterial which one it was – the right one for you will be the one which fits in best with your lifestyle), but it was so much easier to follow successfully… because my negative habits were no longer ruining my efforts every day. 

Learning how to harness the power of your mind and understand what it is that has made you unsuccessful up until now can really make all the difference.  You’ll need to be one hundred per cent honest with yourself if you are able to get the maximum benefit from this method.  But if you are, you’ll be rewarded with a huge boost towards your weight loss goal.

One thing you must understand is that you won’t be able to magically change bad habits into good ones overnight.  If you’re really strong willed you may be able to stop having biscuits with every cup of tea immediately, but if it’s something you’ve done for years, you’ll be reminded of that habit every time you go and boil the kettle. 

You will start to see a difference though, so persevere and you might be surprised at the results you get.  Good luck.