willingly forced my body to accept the diet of a typical, overweight American. Now, as a result, the struggle between what I should eat and what I wanted to eat was going to dominate every single meal.
Iâd broken up with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Mountain Dew. How long did I have to wait until I stopped missing them?
Instant or Long-Term Gratification?
Turn on the television, browse through a magazine, look to the shelves of your local pharmacy, and youâre inundated with quick fixes to any potential weight problem. It doesnât matter what the approach is, or who the experts sponsoring it are, the claims are the same: stick to this approach for a short time, and you will see results.
Some diets aim to strike all carbohydrates from your diet, filling you up on only protein. Others provide simple instructions to drink some of your calories, and youâll stop feeling hungry through the majority of the day. Other people swear by eating cabbage soup (or some other specific food) as a way to shed the pounds.
Regardless of the fad, all such approaches share the same inherent flawâthe fact that theyâre diets. The idea of a diet is straightforward: eat specific âgoodâ foods and restrict yourself from âbadâ foods. The problem is that someday (whether itâs in a week, a month, or a few hours) âbadâ foods will fall back onto your plate. Any progress made will be quickly reversed.
Think back to every diet youâve tried. Early on, the going is smooth. The weight starts to drop off as you remove forbidden foods from your diet. Then you start to plateau. Or youâre constantly faced with those same foods that your body once used to rely on and are tortured by the temptation.
Gradually, you sneak in one of the forbidden foods, claiming that youâll start dieting again next Monday. Then Monday becomes the next Monday, and one forbidden food becomes twoâand the initially promising attempt becomes deflating failure.
And yet, whatever the reason for stopping, months after one fad diet has failed youâre on the hunt for the next. Before you know it, youâre filling your grocery cart with indulgent amounts of cabbage (or whatever), hoping that the answer lies in a never-ending portion of soup or Tabasco sauce or grapefruit juice concoction.
Thatâs the diet side of the health industry. The other side of the equation is the fitness industry. For every quick-fix diet, thereâs an equally compelling exercise program promising that a few minutes, hours, or routines later you can have the body that youâve always dreamed of.
Exercise fanatics believe that hard work at the gym is the real means to long-term weight success. Less dependent on what youâre eating, the true change in health, in their view, comes from how many calories are being worked out of your system.
These claims are just as straightforward as those of the diet gurus: put a small amount of work in, and see the results. Only in America could the idea of little effort equating to ridiculous results be embraced as if it were going out of style. How else could you justify the existence of contraptions like the âweight vestâ or any variety of metal bars that promise six-pack abs just in time for summer?
The typical exercise-to-lose-weight program takes a similar course to that of fad diets. The initial interest carries results, but a plateau eventually occurs. Or because youâre now burning more calories, you also eat more foodâand the net result is zero.
For every one of us whoâs tried a fad diet, weâve also tried the quick-fix exercise route. The end result is the reason the health industry is one of the fastest-growing in our nation. Quick-fix exercises donât work, forcing you to go out and try another.
Upon plateau, the exerciser or dieter starts to doubt that those washboard abs or slim thighs are going to come before the next millennium, let
Iâd broken up with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Mountain Dew. How long did I have to wait until I stopped missing them?
Instant or Long-Term Gratification?
Turn on the television, browse through a magazine, look to the shelves of your local pharmacy, and youâre inundated with quick fixes to any potential weight problem. It doesnât matter what the approach is, or who the experts sponsoring it are, the claims are the same: stick to this approach for a short time, and you will see results.
Some diets aim to strike all carbohydrates from your diet, filling you up on only protein. Others provide simple instructions to drink some of your calories, and youâll stop feeling hungry through the majority of the day. Other people swear by eating cabbage soup (or some other specific food) as a way to shed the pounds.
Regardless of the fad, all such approaches share the same inherent flawâthe fact that theyâre diets. The idea of a diet is straightforward: eat specific âgoodâ foods and restrict yourself from âbadâ foods. The problem is that someday (whether itâs in a week, a month, or a few hours) âbadâ foods will fall back onto your plate. Any progress made will be quickly reversed.
Think back to every diet youâve tried. Early on, the going is smooth. The weight starts to drop off as you remove forbidden foods from your diet. Then you start to plateau. Or youâre constantly faced with those same foods that your body once used to rely on and are tortured by the temptation.
Gradually, you sneak in one of the forbidden foods, claiming that youâll start dieting again next Monday. Then Monday becomes the next Monday, and one forbidden food becomes twoâand the initially promising attempt becomes deflating failure.
And yet, whatever the reason for stopping, months after one fad diet has failed youâre on the hunt for the next. Before you know it, youâre filling your grocery cart with indulgent amounts of cabbage (or whatever), hoping that the answer lies in a never-ending portion of soup or Tabasco sauce or grapefruit juice concoction.
Thatâs the diet side of the health industry. The other side of the equation is the fitness industry. For every quick-fix diet, thereâs an equally compelling exercise program promising that a few minutes, hours, or routines later you can have the body that youâve always dreamed of.
Exercise fanatics believe that hard work at the gym is the real means to long-term weight success. Less dependent on what youâre eating, the true change in health, in their view, comes from how many calories are being worked out of your system.
These claims are just as straightforward as those of the diet gurus: put a small amount of work in, and see the results. Only in America could the idea of little effort equating to ridiculous results be embraced as if it were going out of style. How else could you justify the existence of contraptions like the âweight vestâ or any variety of metal bars that promise six-pack abs just in time for summer?
The typical exercise-to-lose-weight program takes a similar course to that of fad diets. The initial interest carries results, but a plateau eventually occurs. Or because youâre now burning more calories, you also eat more foodâand the net result is zero.
For every one of us whoâs tried a fad diet, weâve also tried the quick-fix exercise route. The end result is the reason the health industry is one of the fastest-growing in our nation. Quick-fix exercises donât work, forcing you to go out and try another.
Upon plateau, the exerciser or dieter starts to doubt that those washboard abs or slim thighs are going to come before the next millennium, let
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