3 out of 4 women have been on a diet…
90% of women gain at least 50% of the weight they lose back within 1 year!!
80% of American women are unhappy with the way they look.
70% of women feel out of balance, even Oprah says it’s the one thing she craves.
“Balance” is the Missing Key to Losing Weight Permanently.

I think we are all pretty aware that diets don't work, but why is this? I think there are two reasons to consider: #1 There is a flaw in the plan. There is a flaw with the way you lost the weight. Perhaps the diet was too restrictive, or you starved yourself. Maybe you over exercised and couldn't maintain that routine. Please remember- any change you make must be seamless into your lifestyle!!  Look, most people may lose weight initially. Diets may work temporarily if you follow them!  But how many times have you lost and gained back the same ten pounds?

The second reason why diets don’t work is that we can get a little lax with self-monitoring.We get caught up in life, stress, busyness, and we don't quickly reverse small changes! I'm not a fan of the scale- I say throw the darn thing away!! But, if we use our favorite jeans as a monitor- try them on every Saturday. If they're tight, let's not blame the dryer for shrinking them. Just drink more water, eat whole, natural foods, add in more veggies. The jeans should fit fine again in a couple of days.

You see, I believe we are more than numbers on a scale, but we have to hold ourself accountable for our well-being. It affects everything we do. Remember, self-care is not selfish, it's a necessity to be our best selves when taking care of everyone else!!

I mastered the art of losing weight.  I've been on every diet from A-Z. Tried them all. I lost 60 pounds in a few months. But I ALWAYS gained it back, and sometimes I'd gain back more than I lost. I dreaded family parties when I was "up" and couldn't wait to see friends and family when I was "down". I'm sure you all know the feeling. Finally, I realized, to avoid being one of the 90% of women who gain it back, we have to avoid extreme plans for losing, and also self-monitor to quickly reverse small gains. It's all about finding balance. And, this for, was truly life changing.
 
Words I suggest be removed from your vocabulary:

1) diet (i.e I'm trying this great new diet)

2) start (i.e. I will start on Monday)

3) cheated (i.e. I was bad, I cheated. Listen up, you're bad if you rob a bank not if you eat a cookie!)

I believe we can both psych ourselves up and psych ourselves out when we feel we are dieting! We get very excited to begin the diet, but when we are tempted by that ice cream, chocolate or cake, we give in for the moment and then get discouraged.  We can easily lose our dedication and focus, think we cheated, go off for 4 days and then wait until Monday to start again.

Fad diets are diets that offer "quick" results. Often fad diets are based on eliminating whole, entire food groups. It sounds good in theory- to lose 20 pounds this month, and how hard could it be? It might not be hard temporarily, but are you ready to live without carbohydrates forever? Traditional diets are based on cutting out calories. This can be difficult if you are measuring every calorie that you take in. You'd be a slave to measuring things on a dieter's scale. Also, if you cut your calories too low, you risk going into starvation. And as we now know can slow your metabolism down.  Both types of diets are great in theory. But we have to learn what's realistic and what you can truly apply into our lifestyle.
 
I'm not saying the "diet" itself doesn't work. Please understand there are many brilliant books and plans available to us that have been tested with proven results. It's not the "diets" that fail us, it is what I call "the dieter's mentality". We all know the perfect pair is nutrition and exercise!! There are no magic pills; just acquire healthy habits, find your own meaning for balance, enjoy life, enjoy the taste of natural, fresh food and how it makes you feel rather than worry about what it does to the scale. We deserve to be healthy, we deserve to nourish our bodies- it's just that simple!!