36 Diet Crushing Truths About You

I stopped dieting when I was 36 years old, and started making my way back to the body I would have been in had I never gone on that first (second… third… tenth….eleventh….) one.

What follows are 36 truths that I’ve come to understand in the years since then.  I’m grateful to the women with whom I’ve worked for helping to enlighten me, and hopeful that one day, dieting will be as offensive to us as slavery is.

The truth is…

1. If you weigh more than you want to weigh, you may think that it is because you love food and eating too much. The truth is that you don’t love food or eating enough.

2.  All of the food in the world is eaten to feel good.

3.  When you eat beyond the point of being physically satisfied, it is because you believe that something bad will happen if you don’t.  (And you’re not going to stand around and just let something bad happen to you.)  At the point where you can’t bring yourself to eat anymore, you’re stopping because you think something bad will happen to you, if you continue.

4.  No matter what the circumstances and what kind of food it is and how much there is of it, there is a limit to the amount of food you will eat.

5.  What you eat can be of great consequence to your health…it is of no consequence to what you weigh.

6.  Exercise can be of great consequence to your health…it is of no consequence to what you weigh.

7.  Eating “high calorie” foods is not a guarantee that you will gain weight; eating “low-calorie” foods is not a guarantee that you will lose weight. In fact, often the opposite is true.

8.  You don’t know any-body that doesn’t love to exercise.

9.  There are chips/desserts/candy that you would never consider eating unless stranded on a desert island (and then only with no hope of rescue.)

10.  There are fruits and vegetables that if you were told that as of a certain day would never be available to you again, you would load your refrigerator with them. A reasonable response.

11.  Whenever and whatever and however much you eat, it is with your best interests in mind.

12.  Eating what you want when you are hungry and stopping when you are full comes naturally to you.

13.  You believe that being at your ideal weight has its disadvantages.

14.  You believe that eating when you are not hungry has its upside.

15.  You have been happy at a weight you have been unhappy with.

16.  You have been unhappy at a weight you have been happy with.

17.  While there is no such thing as problem behavior, there is such a thing as solution behavior with potentially problematic results.

18.  If you could eliminate physical or emotional pain – except for their extremes – from your life or the lives of your loved ones, you would not.

19.  You delay gratification.

20.  The way to become who you want to be is by being who you already are.

21.  If you have ever eaten to relieve stress, you have just asoften not eaten to relieve stress.

22.  There is no such thing as a fattening food.

23.  Being active comes naturally to you.

24.  If I were to offer you one million dollars to write an informative book relying only upon your knowledge about how to lose weight and keep it off, we both know you’d be a millionaire.  (Even if I told you your self-help book had to be tailored for people who refused to exercise, and who weren’t going to change what they were eating.)

25.  You have perceived enemies who are your most loyal supporters.

26.  You are a proficient self-hypnotist.

27.  You already act as if you are at your natural and ideal weight.

28.  Losing weight is not the most important thing in the world to you.

29.  You have a food solution, not a food problem. You have a eating solution, not an eating problem.

30.  Whether you see the glass is half-full or half-empty, there is still the same amount in the glass.

31.  No matter how few or how many people are one your priority list, you are always #1 on it, and make every decision accordingly.

32.  Eating what you don’t want to eat whets your appetite – in direct proportion – for what you do want to eat.  (And vice-versa.)

33.  Whether you are dieting or bingeing, you are doing it in an effort to take care of yourself.

34.  To lose weight and never find it again requires willpower…to not change yourself.

35.  ”All people occasionally stumble upon the truth. Most people pick themselves up and continue as if nothing happened.” Winston Churchill

36.  The sooner that you realize these truths about you, the more easily – and sooner – you will return to your true and natural weight.

It’s my pleasure to help.

(The truth is that’s an understatement.)

What on this list would you like to talk about more?  Or disagree with?  Have at it in the comments.

(And I’d love it if you passed this on to someone you know who is laboring under the as-you-know false impression that she sucks.  Much appreciated!)

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