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Diets don’t start on a Monday
‘I’ll start again Monday’? How many times have you said that? I know I said it over and over again.
You’ve been dieting, fallen off the bandwagon, and now you’re looking for that fresh start. Maybe you had a weekend on the drink and have overdone the syns. Or maybe you’ve had a few celebrations in the week – birthdays etc – and you’ve had ‘too many’ calories.
It brings out that ‘to hell with it’ approach to your diet. You’ve ruined the week so you may aswell just carry on and start again next week.
Monday, that’s a good day to start, isn’t it? It’s a new week at work, it’ll give you the weekend to do what you like, and then you can start afresh. New week, new diet, new you?
Monday arrives, weekend eating and drinking is done, you’re feeling ready. But where is that motivation? Weren’t you going to start that diet today? It feels like any other day though. It just feels like another day where you’re going to obsess over every last morsel you put in your mouth, the numbers on the scales, and limiting the food you are ‘allowed’ to eat.
We’ve all been there, many times, which just goes to show that starting on a Monday just doesn’t work. If it really was the way forward we wouldn’t have to keep restarting our diets.
A new mindset
I’d like you to try a new mindset. You’re done dieting. Think it, say it, believe it.
Dieting involves restriction and guilt, both things we don’t want to associate with food. Guilt applies to people who steal or murder for example, not for people who….. eat!
You can live your life without starting your diet over and over again each week. This week how about trying NOT to diet. Getting up in the morning and eating what you want for breakfast. Making a sandwich for lunch without being concerned about whether or not you can have bread. Eating your evening meal without considering if you have enough calories, macros, syns, points left for what you want to eat.
If you are genuinely concerned about your overall food intake you can still choose to eat in a more nutritious way, but without restriction and counting. You’re going to put a lovely mixture of food groups on your plate or in your lunch box. Maybe some healthy wholegrain carbs, lots of lovely colourful fresh fruit and veg, some lean protein and some dairy or other healthy fats. But whatever you choose to eat don’t let it be at the expense of other foods.
This means that you don’t need to eat those more nutritious foods all the time and no play foods. Nutrition is about adding more good stuff, not taking stuff out, so by all means have the foods that you see as healthier, but for the love of god pleeeeeeease keep in ALL of the stuff that you enjoy. You don’t need to bin the chocolate, cake, pastries and pies to have a good balanced diet.
If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable
Start this TODAY. Start this NOW.
All of those diet slogans out there about starting now still apply, but this time they apply to you beginning your journey to food freedom and a life without rules and guilt around food.
