How to create your own "diet"

The problem with 'diets'. besides the fact that they are designed for temporary results, is that they are:

1. one size fits all
2. they don't address the root causes of being overweight in the first place 
3. they lead to rebound weight gain (most often, more weight than you started the diet with)

Yes, you want to lose weight permanently, but you think you have to deprive yourself of delicious food and push yourself to exercise - and neither of those things is really that inspiring. You think to yourself, there really is no point anyway, why work so hard only to end up heavier than ever?

I get it. 

When you've been overweight for a long time, it is hard to even imagine that it's possible to be at your ideal weight. 

Yes, there is no quick fix for permanent weight loss, the journey is longer and there are for certain obstacles to overcome. However, it is well worth the effort because it immediately improves your health and your quality of life, long before you reach the destination. 

Lisa's story beautifully illustrates this.  She is a perfect example of the mindset needed to achieve permanent weight loss without pushing and forcing your body and making it all about aesthetics.

Lisa initially lost her first 40 lbs on the Atkins diet, but had trouble maintaining that lifestyle since she doesn't enjoy eating a lot of meat.  Now that she lives the 'delish' lifestyle she has fortified her previous results (no more yo yo - ing up and down) and has lost another 30 plus pounds in a way that is pleasurable and sustainable for life.

Here is how she describes her process within the 'delish' approach......

"The delish diet approach makes me feel like I am not depriving myself of any foods that I love to eat.  If I crave cake or fries, I just adapt it to a delish version. Before I would do a diet for 2 weeks or a month and would only see minimal weight loss. I felt discouraged and would go back to eating the way I new how, as it was easier. This time around if I fell off the delish diet with a meal or for the day, I would just start with the next meal or the day after eating the delish way - without beating myself up or feeling guilty that I did. I have no more gallbladder issues or fatty liver symptoms and my blood sugar levels are good. On a physical level I feel stronger, have more energy, I want to run not walk and I want to hike not stroll. This way of eating is for life, as I have so much energy and vitality and I know what my body needs to be healthy and stay off medication."

Lisa continues to let go of her weight on multiple levels. She stays focused on maintaining her natural lifestyle and tracking her health gains, instead of focusing on the scale. 

When I asked her what advice she would give someone to help them have the courage to take the leap into using their weight loss journey as a catalyst for life transformation, here is what she said...

"First and foremost you have to want this for you and no one else. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes - even if you have to keep recreating and trying different approaches.  Stop making excuses and start now and take each day at a time.  It isn't even a matter of "if I can do it, you can do it". We all are capable of getting healthy first and the weight just naturally falls off."

In order to stop being that person who 'yo yo diets', 'watches their weight' and otherwise obsesses about it, you have to let go of the urgency to be your ideal weight and be willing to slow down and simply focus on your health. You have to learn how to make and choose foods that are both delicious and healthy - which simply comes down to knowing how to choose the right ingredients, knowing where to shop and how to properly stock your kitchen so that you always have the right ingredients on hand. You can make or buy healthy, soul satisfying pleasurable versions of the foods you crave - so why wouldn't you take the time to learn how?

The majority of people unsuccessfully trying to lose weight, are looking for a done for you diet and exercise plan with structured meals - even though they find them terribly difficult to follow - whether that's because the recipes are too difficult, the ingredients obscure or they just can't get or stay organized.

Following a menu plans is a temporary approach, because no one can do that permanently anyway. It doesn't work because the people following them, have changed absolutely nothing on the inside. Even if they can follow the plan to get to their ideal weight, they are the same person who started the diet, so here's what happens: they celebrate by rewarding themselves with all the food they deprived themselves of, and then go back to their old default diet and lifestyle.

Guess what happens when we re-instate all our old habits? We get the same results we used to have. Except now we are fatter, because we damaged our metabolism from dieting - so those very same habits makes us fatter now than before we started the diet! Then after months of rebound feasting, we act like an insane person and do the same thing again! It is absolutely illogical and insane to think doing the same thing is going to lead to different results.

What you have to do to lose weight permanently is to permanently change your diet and lifestyle. End of story. If you are not willing to do that, you might as well just keep doing what you are doing, accept being fat - and for god's sake stop dieting - it's more of a punishment to your body than any of your 'run of the mill' poor dietary choices.

But if you are like 'hell no', I am not going to settle for that, then I invite you to enrol in the Delish UN-Diet School to learn how to make permanent diet changes with the intention of prioritizing your health first. 

Here's a sneak peek at the core 'practices' that lead to permanent results with weight loss:

1. Learn how to revamp your kitchen to support permanent diet and lifestyle changes, so that willpower is no longer necessary.
2. Learn how to properly formulate your meals (even health nuts are do this wrong)
3.  Get yourself off the cycle of dieting through a re-education in the physiology of weight loss and the hormonal basis of obesity.
4. Unlearn the constructs that make up the diet mentality, change your mindset and access your personal power to transform your life.

The truth is that weight loss is the inevitable result of getting healthy - dieting simply perpetuates the problem it professes to solve (but you don't need me to tell you that!).

Instead of obsessing about your weight, you can set it and forget it. It all begins with a decision.

If you put the foundation in place in your kitchen for healthy eating and in your home for a natural lifestyle (one that is NOT 'obesogenic'), then you are set up for success and have eliminated the need for willpower.

If you don't change your relationship to your health, to food and to consumerism, you get to stay 'watching your weight'. And guess what? What you focus on expands. The more you focus on your weight, the fatter you get.

On the other hand, the more you focus on your health, the healthier you get.

Losing the extra body fat that your body does not need, is a good side effect of optimal health.

That extra body fat is your body speaking to you through symptoms - extra fat is not the reason you are overweight. Your body is showing you that you are inflamed and toxic - so be kind to your body. Stop ignoring it. Listen to what it is trying to tell you and do this work for your health.

Do you want to know why despite 95-97% of dieters failing that I was able to drop 12 dress sizes without dieting and maintain my results now for 9 plus years? It's super simple:

1. I did a deep cleanse to eliminate inflammation and toxicity and to reboot my metabolism,
2.  Eliminated all the foods from my kitchen that were causing inflammation and hormone havoc (surprisingly those foods are most often considered health foods).
3. Next I brought in new food ingredients that did not trigger blood sugar fluctuations, inflammation and weight gain.
4. I determined which nutrient deficiencies were triggering cravings and 'tanking' my metabolism and restored them.
5. Finally, I learned how to take my favourite comfort foods and re-create them with alternative ingredients that tasted just as good - and sometimes way better. 

That's how you eliminate the need for willpower.

I don't have to fight with myself about what to eat, because I can pretty much make or buy a healthy 'delish-i-fied' version anything my heart desires.

There is no deprivation in my diet and more pleasure in food than there ever was.

So you see, I don't have any reason (or urge) to eat unhealthy in my own home - I would actually have to go out of my way to do that.

I have set up my kitchen, diet, lifestyle and environment to support the habits that lead to health and to maintain my ideal weight on autopilot.

That's what I mean about 'setting it and forgetting it'.

So what's your decision?

Are you ready now to learn how to lose weight naturally without dieting, by putting your health first?