Your Diet Shouldn’t Make You Miserable
One trap that some dieters fall into is viewing diets as something miserable and depriving. They follow a very rigid and restrictive plan – perhaps one which limits calories excessively, or which only allows a narrow range of food.
Inevitably, the diet doesn’t last. After a few days or weeks of misery, the dieter gives in. And, if they have a history of yo-yo dieting, they’ve reinforced the pattern: diets seem like hard, unrewarding work.
Of course, it shouldn’t be this way! A healthy diet should never make you feel depressed and down. You shouldn’t be eating a small, monotonous cycle of meals – you should be enjoying a variety of different foods and food groups, in order to get all the nutrients you need.
Here are some warning signs to look out for – they’re clues that you need to alter the way you’re thinking about your diet.
“I’m Hungry All the Time”
It’s normal to feel the occasional hunger pang in the first few days of a diet. If you’ve been overeating for a long period of time, your stomach will be used to receiving more food than your body really needs. Plus, for many of us, we’ve grown used to eating for a lot of reasons other than hunger – meaning that we may be out of touch with our own needs and hunger levels.
If you’re regularly feeling hungry, though, you need to reassess your diet. Are you eating the right number of calories for your height, gender and activity level? If so, are you eating filling foods like wholegrains and lean proteins – or are you eating smaller quantities of high-calorie foods?
“I Can’t Face Another Rice Cake”
Some diet plans, like the Cabbage Soup diet, involve eating a narrow selection of foods. Diets that involve replacing meals with “milkshakes” or “cookies” are similar. You might even have ended up devising your own restrictive diet, perhaps focusing on “diet” foods like rice cakes, oat cakes, salad, cottage cheese, etc.
The best diet is one which retrains your eating habits – avoid diets that replaces normal meals with foods that you’d never otherwise eat. You may feel that you want to cut out certain foods – that’s fine, but don’t demonize any particular food or food group: remember that there are no “bad” foods.
“I Feel Constantly Tired”
If you’re lacking in energy, feeling run-down or ill, then look carefully at your diet. You may not be eating enough calories (even if you don’t feel hungry). You may be lacking essential nutrients – dieting women, in particular, often end up with a slight iron deficiency.
You might want to take a multivitamin with iron whilst dieting, to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need. A better solution is to look at what you’re eating: are you getting your five a day? (Fruits and vegetables are a great source of essential vitamins and minerals.) Are you eating a range of foods from different food groups?
“I Can’t Eat With Friends/Family”
Many dieters find that it’s easy going when they’re eating alone – but a family or social engagement can end up throwing their diet off the rails. Typically, the dieter ends up taking one of three routes: avoiding going at all; going along but eating little or nothing; or “giving up” on the diet and eating anything and everything!
None of these are healthy. It’s going to be very hard to stick to a diet that curtails your social life – and it’s difficult not to eat when everyone else is. Having a “break” from your diet at every birthday meal or Friday night out is unlikely to give you good results on the scales!
It is possible to socialize while you’re on a diet – so don’t make yourself (and the people around you) miserable by complaining that you “can’t possibly come for dinner”.
All in all – if your diet is making you feel miserable, then there’s something wrong! Look for healthy foods that you enjoy and which make you feel good – don’t force yourself to eat things which you dislike.
Written by Ali HaleRelated posts:
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