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Have you dieted at some stage of your life? Perhaps you have dieted a lot - every time a new diet hit the stands. A very high percentage of women will respond positively to this question. As more men are becoming body image aware, they are also "trying" diets to lose the gut. If you are the dieting kind of person, you probably have dieted most of your life. Let me ask you this: if diets do work, why are you reading yet another book that might hold the key to your fat reduction woes? The evidence is also on the news stands. If you scan the front covers of popular magazines, the word "diet" or something similar is splashed in big bold letters to get your attention. Why are you still searching for 'THE diet'? Perhaps it is because all your previous attempts to diet have failed! If you think you are going to find THE diet to end all diets in this book, put the book down now. I will save you time pawing your way through the book. Right now, I can tell you that this is not a diet book. The word 'diet' brings with it such strong connotations (to me) of bad feelings, denial, anguish, failure, and eventually, long term ill health, that I don't use the word at all. I would rather refer to an "eating regime" so that my clients don't think I am recommending a diet at all. I haven't written in this book THE diet that will end your yo-yo dieting ways. What I HAVE done will surprise even the most ardent 'dieter'. My message is clear - this is not a diet. Diets are insidiously a two part program. There is the diet phase and there is the post-diet (not diet) phase. It is the second part of the program that the writers of the diets don't tell you about. What do you do when you aren't on the diet? If it is a 'diet', there is always the 'not diet' phase to deal with. If you have dieted in the past or are currently or constantly setting the Monday diet intention and are 'trying' to diet, please read on. Let us reflect momentarily on your past attempts to diet. 1. You dieted for a while somehow drastically changing your eating habits. 2. You lost something that showed up on the scales as a loss of weight (perhaps you went down a size in your clothes). 3. Eventually you stop dieting. 4. You regain what you had lost - plus some. 5. You are inspired to try another diet because someone famous or popular is reported to have 'found' their body using this diet. 6 (or is it 3) Eventually you stop dieting. 7
(or is it 4) You regain what you had lost - plus some. If
you are ready to end the endless cycle of losing a bit then gaining
some more - losing a bit then gaining a whole lot more, I hope
you will read this book in its entirety. All of the information
contained within is important for you to know AND your body will
thank you. The reading will give meaning to why your past efforts
have eventually failed, why you are bigger than you have ever
been, why you are still searching, and what you can do to enjoy
your life without excessive denial ...... for as long as you live.
Most
of Australia is on a diet. America is worse. In fact, most of
the diets come to our shores from there. If not a "diet"
kind of diet, they are following a general plan of 'low fat' eating.
That is what the media has 'educated' us to believe is best for
our health. Most people bought the ticket - got on the ride -
and are still trying to stay on the ride. They are getting fatter
and more unhealthy as the months and years roll on. I know because
these are the people who come to me for help. They think they
are doing all the right things - eating 'low fat' this and 'no
fat' that - proudly stating that they don't put any butter on
their bread. Yet, they look like death warmed up, wake up each
morning feeling like Costa Tzu after 10 rounds, and are confused
and disempowered like deer caught in headlights. We
hear people saying that they are "ON a diet" but do
we hear them announce when they are OFF it? No. Probably because
it carries with it an admission of failure. What are they doing
when they are not ON a diet? Eating poorly. Take a look along the front row (nearest the cash register) at the newsagent. There is always a headline that entices you to pick up the magazine and buy it using a diet as bait. I suppose that you are keen to take the bait and buy the latest, newest diet because the ones you have tried before (perhaps from the same magazine) have not been sustainable. It is this fact that the magazine editors know so well. I am not about to bash them for doing their job - they do a tremendous job of entertaining us through visual stimulation. They do their research and their surveys well. In fact, they do their job very well. They are trying everything they know to get you to buy their magazine. It is true most of the demographic slice of the population who buy their magazines are constantly searching for the "diet" that works. Scan the shelves and the headlines on the magazines that are designed to attract your attention and possibly even your money. Why do they publish new diets and the latest news on the eating habits of Hollywood stars so regularly? Because it sells their magazines. It's bait and you are the fish. When the editors of the magazines are deciding what goes in the magazine, are they thinking about your health? No. They are not in the health profession. They are in media - a form of entertainment. Are they thinking about what is going to sell their magazine better? Yes. Is
their dietary information well founded and health promoting? In
most cases - no. Do you know which stories are closer to the truth?
Perhaps not yet. Every
time you see an advertisement for food or drinks, ask yourself
this question: "What are they trying to do?" The answer:
"Sell their product" and "Make money". Fair
enough. This is the business they in - they need to survive. They
will use every trick in the book to influence you to buy. They
will even use strong, fit, extraordinary athletes to sell a product
that, if they ate, would not result in that body that is doing
the selling. You would think I was crazy if I asked you to go to the butcher to buy a garden hose or ask a plumber to fix your scratched car bumper. Don't go to the newsagency to buy your health and nutrition knowledge. There might be some accurate information in that haystack somewhere, but the chances of you finding it are minuscule. Avoid the gamble of being mis-educated or misled. Just
as an aside: I actually do some research from the newsagency.
I collect all kinds of magazines from the moderate general fitness
types to the incredible hulk types. I am researching what it is
that is being projected out there that is influencing my clients
and you. I need to know what is popular and what you might be
'learning'. I do this so that I know what I am up against and
what type of fire extinguisher I need to use. There
is something more sinister happening after they come off the diet.
It is worse than just the feeling of failure. It causes them to
quite literally "blow up" more each time. This might
be the most important part of this book so ..... if you remember
only one thing from this book ..... I hope it is this information
that follows. Before you begin a diet, you are usually feeling pretty lousy about yourself. Maybe you have been overindulging for a while. Perhaps you have become a bit softer in those traditional fat storage areas - you know the ones. Perhaps your clothes have shrunk and you don't feel very comfortable in them any more. Something sparks your interest in the latest diet sensation. The words on the front page of the magazine are talking to YOU. Just a few dollars and some change separates you from the answer to your prayers in the latest issue of whatever has the brightest most eye catching cover on a magazine. Perhaps it is a number one selling book with a guilt wrenching title that offers hope for what you know has been a lifestyle of self abuse. You take the 'bait' to the sales counter. Now
that you think you have the information that will solve all your
problems - the diet to 'do it for you', you go out and celebrate
for tomorrow your life (as you know it) ends. You are "going
on a diet tomorrow". That is such a frequently heard statement.
Isn't it true that we humans want that which we cannot have even
more than if it was available to us all the time? The forbidden
fruit tastes better. Most
often, this stands for 'dread' or 'discipline' or 'denial' as
well as 'diet'. Then, unfortunately, you do notice a drop in weight as measured by your friendly bathroom scales. I say unfortunately because this is what gets you to 'stick with it' for a while longer and to buy the next diet selling headline magazine. Despite feeling like you are about to faint constantly, you convince yourself that you are happy and go about your day and continue the 'diet' for as long as possible. Usually
your social life pops its head up and you go out with friends
- eventually. The food looks and smells so good that your attention
moves from the chosen company and the great atmosphere to the
food exclusively. You lose control of your eyes. They become magnetized
to the food. Your nostrils flare unselfconsciously in an attempt
to savor the air more fully. You inhale more calories than you
have eaten all day. Lastly, your brain shuts down. You are amnesiac
about your publicly stated diet. You allow your body to join your
eyes at the buffet and you load up your plate with food - real
food. Your body, your mind, your entire being thanks you for taking
this step away from the diet and towards food. You
forget you were ever on a diet and continue making your food choices
with your taste buds and nostrils. Inevitably you get bigger and
bigger until you take some more 'bait' and try another diet. This
is the 'deadly' cycle most people go through in their attempts
to lose bodyfat. I have chosen my words very carefully. Dieting
IS a deadly cycle. Please read on to find out how diets can kill.
How many times do people go back onto such programs? Why aren't they sustainable? I've had new clients say, "I've been on and off the ............. program for years". Why keep going back to something that clearly is not sustainable? I don't want any repeat business with my program. Another way that people try to lose the fat is by using 'gizmos' and 'gadgets'. These are my terms for things that aren't natural that people use to try to rid themselves of fat. They include: pills, stimulants, staples, coils, suction and synthetic 'diet' food. It is disturbing to me what people will do to their body in order to lose bodyfat. It doesn't have to be like that. I
can remember as a kid, my father 'dieted'. He ate 'slimming biscuits'.
He was a man of huge proportions in every sense - a Principal
of a High School and quite overfat. Most described him as a 'big'
man. I now know that another descriptor would have been more accurate.
He went to work trying to function with all the stress of that
kind of responsibility on a diet biscuit! At lunch time he had
another biscuit! The evening meal was the only real meal he ate
all day. He was starving himself. When
looking at the long term effects of diets ...... they don't work.
In most instances they seriously affect your health - negatively.
Now let's get a bit physiological in order to further understand
why diets don't work. Have you noticed when you eat that your
body temperature goes up a little? You feel a bit warmer after
eating than you did prior to eating. That is your metabolism firing
up in order to digest the food. If you restrict your food intake,
over time your metabolic rate slows. If your metabolism is slower
than before the diet and you return to normal eating, your body
will not burn the calories contained in the meal as fuel. It will
store them as bodyfat. It is important for me to know if a new client has dieted previously because I can then make a reasonable assumption that their metabolic rate will be slower than someone who hasn't. Some metabolic rates are so sluggish that the body no longer signals hunger. Why would it continue talking to someone (you) when you never reply to a simple request for food? Even that function goes to sleep. It
does this because it actually tries to keep itself alive. Now
there's a novel thought. Why do some people have a higher BMR than others? Have you noticed that sleeping with your partner is like sleeping with a raging furnace? Conversely,
if you feel like a frog with cold extremities (not including smokers
- that's another story), your BMR is very low. It's not ticking
over fast enough to produce enough body heat to keep you warm.
Men, in general, usually have a higher BMR because they more muscles
than women. Musculature is very metabolically active during rest.
That means it takes more energy to maintain muscle - even when
sleeping. The more muscle they build, the higher their BMR and
the higher their core body temperature. Fat, on the other hand,
is metabolically sluggish. This means it takes very little physiological
energy to maintain it. People with more fat than muscle have a
slower BMR. It is possible and, in fact, it is desirable. I want you to enhance your metabolic rate. You want to reduce your bodyfat, right? Your metabolic rate needs to be increased so that you burn some of that stored bodyfat you've saved for the hibernation that you never begin or the famine that never comes. My program will improve your metabolic rate. If
you want to maintain your current bodyfat levels, all you have
to do is to 'output' the same amount of energy that you 'intake'.
The three factors that add up to your total energy output are
heat/metabolism, work/activity, and energy storage. My program
will allow all three energy output sources to be enhanced. Why
do the programs who supply food to your door work? It is because
they are counting the calories and what they are providing is
of lower caloric value than what you have been giving your body
previously. BUT (and this is the big butt - pun) - when you reduce
your caloric intake, your metabolism slows down. For
all those people who TRY to lose fat by restricting their intake
of food (and probably nutrition as a whole) please note again:
when you reduce your caloric intake, your metabolism slows down.
These are the people who think they have the 'will power' to eat
less. I have seen many people try to lose bodyfat this way by
restricting their intake. Please take this message seriously -
don't do it. • You might start off well because you believe you have been so 'bad' that you see it as 'serving time' - this kind of punishment might even feel good to you for a while. • You perhaps don't know which food is the type that puts the fat on so you restrict all food types - this reduces your nutritional intake substantially. • You might feel lethargic and get the latest version of the cold/flu. • Your metabolism slows significantly to match the food intake. • You notice you are not losing 'weight' any more so you restrict your intake even more. • Your metabolism matches this restricted intake quickly and you plateau faster. • With no other information other than your own experiences, you know you lost some 'weight' when you first started so you continue to repeat the cycle of ever decreasing your intake until you are living your day on an apple. • Inevitably you might get sick. • Inevitably you will have to return to normal eating - your brain, your taste buds, your body is screaming for this normality. Some people only last a couple of days because the body is screaming so loudly for real nutrition and a sustainable quantity that they crash off the 'diet' by the evening meal time. • Because you have adversely affected your metabolism, your body stored the (now) excess food intake as fat - you are soon fatter than ever. •
You set a date to resume the food restricted 'diet' and you go
through the cycle all over again. Dieting can kill you. Diets most often focus on the weight loss or, at best, fat loss. Most don't focus on nutritional balance. If there is a caloric reduction in food intake, there most likely is a nutritional reduction as well. If your daily nutritional needs are not being met through your food intake, your body (being the smart one who wants to survive) will take what it needs from storage. Your food is stored not only as fat but is stored in your muscles as well. In most cases, energy is more readily available from your muscles so they are the first port of call when you don't give your body what it needs. The result is a reduction/loss of muscle mass. This process is called 'catabolism'. This is not too dissimilar to the 'eating of others' term - cannibalism. The difference is that you are eating yourself. Why? Because you won't give your body what it needs nutritionally. Why? Because
you are trying to be thin. All your muscles are affected by this
slow but deliberate self-starvation. You become weaker. Remember
when I said that men usually have a higher metabolic rate because
they have more musculature? When you 'eat' your own muscles for
fuel, you are destroying the very thing that will help you burn
bodyfat 24 hours a day - your muscles. Your metabolism slows significantly
when you reduce (eat) your musculature. Your heart is a muscle too. Your
body doesn't differentiate between biceps muscle and heart muscle.
It needs fuel. It doesn't want to die. It will take whatever it
needs from any available source. When your skeletal muscles reduces
to the point of not being able to do their job - you feel weak.
When your heart muscle reduces in size to the point where it can't
do it's job - you die. Your
metabolism will increase if you increase your food intake and
increase your lean muscle mass. Send a clear message that there
IS a supermarket just around the corner. Let your body go ahead
and burn your food/fuel confident in the knowledge that there
is plenty where that came from. Don't give your body mixed messages.
Send quality food in frequently throughout the day to keep your
metabolism motoring along all day. Build and maintain an adequate
amount of lean muscle mass to keep your metabolism motoring along
while you sleep. (There are, of course, other benefits to having
muscles which I will elaborate in a later section of the book.)
Remember our BMR is measured when the body is at rest. Our body is at rest every night. **Light your metabolic fire first thing in the morning. That is, eat within 1 hour of waking. **Do your aerobic training in the morning to jump start the furnace. **Eat a well balanced breakfast. **Toss a log onto the fire frequently throughout the day (eat some well balanced food). That is, midmorning, lunch, mid-afternoon, dinner and, depending on the time you go to bed after dinner, perhaps a late night snack. **Keep the fire going all day. Eat a balanced meal or snack at least every 3 - 5 hours. **Try to eat lightly at the end of the day when your metabolism is slowing down and when you are becoming less active. My Program It is not a low calorie program. Nor did I just say that you could eat huge quantities of food frequently throughout the day. You are advised to not take any action until you have read the entire program and the educative support material contained in this book. Come
on - you have put your faith (and life) in the 'miracle' diets
in the past. 1. Remove the word 'diet' from your vocabulary. 2. Make a promise to yourself and all the people who care about you that you will not diet any more. 3. Leave the fad diets on the shelf. 4. Give your body what it needs - nutritious food. 5.
Refer others to this site if see them "blow up". They
will thank you. |
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DIETS DON'T WORK