There are more diets than we can count: Atkins, Keto, Paleo, Weight Watchers, Scarsdale, Nutrisystem, Macrobiotic, Mediterranean, 80-20, Golo, Zone, Blood Type, Dukan, Raw Food Diet, DASH, Body Reset, Volumetrics, Mayo Clinic, Noom, Optavia, 5:2 Diet, HMR Program, South Beach... Someone please STOP the madness. It's also true that some diets can inspire the beginning phase of losing weight. However, if we're not careful, our body can get overloaded with imbalances of too much fat and protein, or we might starve ourselves of fiber-rich, nutrient-dense, life-promoting foods.

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Regrettably, our dieting efforts are short-term and harmful, as we watch the pounds, 

stones, and kilos pile back on. Diets suck.

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I shifted when my doctor said, "you have type-2 diabetes." I had been eating a relatively nutritious, plant-focused diet for years, cut out dairy except for Greek yoghurt, and ate animals quite sparingly. What woke me up was learning that type-2 diabetes is caused from fat, not sugar. I had thought my M & M's splurges made me sick. Turns out, it was the veggie nachos, first cold pressed olive oil, and Greek yoghurt that transformed my pancreas into a war zone. I've tried a couple fads like the Master Cleanse with cayenne pepper, maple syrup, lime juice, and water eight times a day for ten days. I felt lighter after toxins left my body and I lost weight, but this cleanse is meant to be completed in ten days. I include it here because some are doing this as a diet for much longer periods of time. I had a flatmate once who ate only oranges for a month because she read an article in a fashion magazine. I'm a huge fan of oranges, but when she finished, she felt sick.

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Dieting can create a limiting and obsessive relationship to food. It's like sitting in a rabbit hole. Alone.

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When we restrict and deprive ourselves of what keeps us alive every day, we often discover that our weight issues become even worse. Let's ponder that for a moment: when we decide to get healthier by shedding excess weight, we often end up feeling frustrated, and our health is often worse off than if we had done nothing at all. The classic insanity definition strikes again: doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Seeing the abundance of diets out there, I'd give us a gold star for effort though. Nobody can say that we aren't trying!

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I've watched people do the carb-fearing, high-fat diet craze. With my nutrition education and experience, I wanted to inspire them to get more food educated via useful books and websites in the WPF universe. Yet, I tend to remain respectfully silent and observe their approach, while they deny decades of evidence-based research about the harmful effects of excessive fat and protein on long-term health and longevity. This is the power of marketing tactics and possible food addiction in action. Sometimes, we humans can be kinda dumb - including Cookhouse Hero!  

 

 

We don't want to be fat shamed, and we certainly don't want the weight loss journey to be challenging. Like, at all. Instead, many of us want an effortless lightning-bolt fix.

 

When we wake up one day and find that our trousers are tight, we may feel inspired to lighten up. So, we devour diet mis/disinformation that doesn't challenge the root causes of our muffin tops. Insanity strikes again and again. In short: dieting is crazy and exhausting. Take an oath RIGHT NOW to stop the yo-yo circus forever. Let's be kinder to ourselves and listen to our instincts. We already know what nutritious food is. This is worth repeating: we already know what nutritious food is. My absolute best advice? Ditch the dieting forever and eat foods today that you'll eat for the rest of your life.