It's not your fault. Diets simply don't work.

It's not you, it's the diet. Take it from me, diets don't serve you. In fact, they leave you worse off than when you started. Read on for my personal experience.

Why don’t diets work long-term?

The simple answer is that I don't think they are designed to.

You may have had success with a diet for a period of time, and that's awesome. BUT, the major question is, are you still following the diet and still seeing the same results? Research says you probably aren't; 95 to 98 percent of weight loss attempts fail. Also, two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost. Again it's not your fault! Doctors have known for roughly 60 years that diets don't work ...60 years!!

If we've known diets don't work for so long, why is the industry worth $72 billion dollars?

We always go back to the same diet and expect different results. THIS time it will work and stick - there is a very high probability that it won't. Should it be this way?

Here's why I'm ditching the diet culture. By the end of this article, I hope you will too.

Diets are designed for short periods of time.

Small time frames are not conducive to long-term sustainability.

“try x, you'll lose weight in 2 weeks”

“lose 20 pounds in 30 days if you do x”

You get the idea.

As I said, you may have had success with a certain diet for a season, but then gained all of the weight back. I don't know about you, but if I'm given an end date, I'm definitely going to crush it for the allotted time and then go crazy with all of the food I was missing out on.

Sound familiar?

Now, you're back to living the way you were pre-diet as if nothing changed.

Again, that's not your fault. The diet promised you would achieve your goal in a specific time period, and that's literally it. It didn't offer guidance for when the diet ends.

If you don't know how to sustain it, how can you expect long-term results?

Diets are designed to cut major food groups.

Of course you’re going to lose weight if you’re cutting a major source of sustenance. Logically, that makes sense. Does this make you healthy though?

We are all familiar with the saying, you want what you can't have.

This saying absolutely applies to restrictive diets. All you can think about are the foods you're 'not allowed to eat'.

When you're at a restaurant, you're tempted.

When you're at a social gathering, you're tempted.

When you're at a friend's house, you're tempted.

You're literally tempted everywhere you go!

In the midst of this chronic temptation, you're left with 2 choices:

1. Avoid the food your diet tells you that you can't have. Chances are you feel like the odd one out. Meanwhile, you're internally fighting with yourself. 'just have one. NO! you can't have anything here. just don't eat anything at all'

2. Eat the food you're not supposed to eat and leave feeling ashamed and guilty thinking you're a failure.

Constantly feeling like a failure and/or that you're missing out on something does NOT sound like a balanced lifestyle to me.

Amidst the shame and guilt that follows you after indulging on the forbidden food, you start stress eating because you're looking for comfort from the exact foods you're supposed to stay away from.

It's a vicious cycle.

Again, it's not your fault. The diet told you to cut the food group to hit your ideal weight goal. It didn't tell you that you would still crave the missing foods. It offer instruction on how to eat in public settings.

Plus, neglecting your body nutrients by cutting food groups cold turkey isn't good for your body. Your body desires balance in all of the nutrients and minerals God placed on earth.

Cutting an entire food group is robbing your body of what it needs to function optimally.

Diets suggest significant decrease in caloric intake.

Let me be bold and say, you should not be eating less than 1000 calories a day!! There's absolutely no way that you can function properly, trust me I know.

Leading up to my wedding, I wanted to make sure I looked my absolute best. I always said, "when I'm in my 50s, I want to be able to look back and be so proud of how in shape I was". At the time, I was still in college full-time, working full-time, in multiple ministries at my church, purchasing a house, and planning my wedding. I needed a fast way to lose weight.

I wish I knew how much I was hurting my body.

So I did what most do; I heavily restricted my caloric intake and exercised a LOT. I dropped weight like crazy! I was so proud of the number on the scale.

On the outside, I looked great.

On the inside, I was not well.

I had no energy. My digestion was very poor. My periods were horrendous. My stomach hurt all the time. I was deficient in so many nutrients. I eventually couldn't eat normal amounts of food because my stomach shrunk so much.

YOU NEED CALORIES TO FUNCTION!!

I am very passionate about this.

Calories are not bad. Fat is not bad. Carbs are not bad. Protein is not bad.

Again, your body requires every single food group! If you take one thing from this post it's to:

Focus on quality over quantity.

I used to count my calories to make sure I wasn't eating too much. Now, I don't think about them. Of course, I'm conscious about caloric value, but I'm not obsessively tracking what I'm eating.

Not only does calorie counting lead to dangerous eating behaviors, it's completely exhausting and often discouraging. It definitely doesn't ensure proper nutrition.

Let me share a secret: just because it's low in calories doesn't mean it's good for you. There are many processed foods that are technically low in calories, but they are full of processed chemicals and toxins. Again, quality over quantity.

Now, I eat more than I did when I was restricting and counting. I weigh more than I did on my wedding day, and let me tell you I feel great!! I feel a thousand times better than I did when I was following a restrictive diet. I may weigh more, but I look and feel so much healthier. I promise you, diets don't work!

Diets offer zero guidance.

Most diets provide a list of foods to eat and avoid, and that's literally it. I guess you're automatically supposed to know how to start shopping, preparing, and eating these foods. They leave you out to dry with no instruction. Basically setting you up for failure.

Diets, of course, describe how amazing you're going to feel when you lose the weight. What they don't tell you is how to combat the challenges you're going to face with adopting a new way of eating. It's all unicorns and glitter - not reality.

Diets tend to keep the secret of how to effectively sustain the eating method for a lifetime.

You guys, guidance is so important on a wellness journey!

Again, it's not your fault if you've eaten a certain way for so many years. Chances are it's just a reflection of what you ate during childhood. It's difficult to make a 180 degree shift in diet. That's why guidance and accountability are so valuable. Change can't and shouldn't happen overnight.

I'm always alluding to a 'healthy lifestyle', so what exactly is it?

I can tell you it's not restrictive.

It's not deficient.

It's not obsessive.

It shouldn't stress you out.

A healthy lifestyle is a choice not a requirement.

1. It's listening to your body rather than comparing your body to the perfect illusion diets portray.

2. It's eating based on your body's needs not based on a list of requirements.

3. It's empowering yourself to indulge in moments of reward and celebration.

4. It's eating all of the food groups - again, God put them on this earth for a reason.

5. It's eating when your hungry and stopping when your full - this looks different for all of us and that's okay!

6. It's coming to terms that all of our journeys look different - because we are all, in fact, different.

7. It's having a positive mindset around food - it's not something to avoid.

I could go on and on.

To summarize, a healthy lifestyle should not leave you exhausted, stressed, lifeless, and starving. A healthy lifestyle should be a fulfilling journey of discovering the foods that leave you energized, stress-free, revitalized, and FULL! It's going to look different for everyone.

So what's you're next step? Are you satisfied with settling for a diet that doesn't serve you? Or are you ready to embark on a journey to finding your authentic wellness? Join me in ditching the diet culture.

Not sure what your next step is? I would love to help you discover it! Please don't hesitate to to DM me on Instagram at @r.a.w.balance, message me on Facebook, or send me a message via my contact page. I can't wait to share my passion with you!