Do not let diets take you captive
If I could tell you that there is a method whereby your weight will reduce automatically would that interest you?

The fact is that you and I both know what that method is but we are too lazy, impatient and stubborn to use it. Forget that it will leave us happier, healthier and better people we want results by the end of the week. So we do stupid things to ourselves that reduce our happiness and shorten our lives all to no real end result.

In this article I am going to talk about the things that keep us bound in unproductive cycles, unhealthy lifestyles and fat inducing behaviour patterns. I am going to expose you to the secret of how we can be both happy and healthy and slimmer in a world where eating a large slice of cake with fresh creme is totally possible.

If you choose to ignore what we both know after that then that is up to you - but you owe it to yourself to find out a little more before you dismiss what we both know is true. Are you ready to be challenged?



The simple fact of the mater is diets are stupid and pointless. You can't stop the diet when you reach your desired weight and so you are trapped dieting for the rest of your unhappy life. Why do you think diet products make so much money?

Sure, low fat diets can be a useful tool to get things started. They can slow your weight increase in order to get you active again but they are not a healthy or even sustainable lifestyle choice.

Weight loss is not your goal it is only a way-point towards your goal. Sometimes it is not even that. Sometimes it is merely a side effect or indication of the nearness of your goal.

Once you let go of weight loss as some final destination and set your focus on what you truly wish to achieve then (and only then) can you alter your lifestyle to bring the goal into existence. Otherwise you must spend a considerable amount of time, effort and sacrifice without hope of an end (for your entire life) to maintain something that is making you miserable.

In that case the process of getting what you think you need has become the end result. You altered your lifestyle to achieve a life of going without, feeling unsatisfied and sweating daily to maintain an unrealistic figure. When you fail (as sooner or later you will) everything you worked all that time for is undone. all the misery you went through is for nothing.

Who wants to live like that?

Not me.

Let me suggest a better way. One that reduces the girth of your belly, the numbers on the scales and the ratio of fat to muscle all by itself. It is simple and can be broken down into steps. It's what I have used to simply allow my lifestyle to cause my size reduction.

There has not been any dramatic changes but there has been a steady change. The steady rate of change has happened without my obsessing over calories, skipping foods or anything else. It is just my body coming into line with lifestyle changes I have been making.

That's the whole secret.

Yes, honestly that is it - change your lifestyle and your weight will change too.

I made some simple changes:

1. Our family now buys wholemeal bread instead of white. I still drink whole milk and I still eat cheese but we have adapted our shopping habits slightly

2. I've been investigating alternatives to the usual sandwich fillings and making my life better and more interesting with greater variety. Rather than cut out anything I have add in things instead. The result is that I eat less peanut butter in a week because I have other things to enjoy too.

3. I've started training towards a goal. I have become so unfit that activities I used to love to do are now too hard. So I run, walk, jog, cycle and generally do things to train my body to be able to do those things again. I cannot enjoy long walks and bicycle rides when I get out of breath and need to sit down before I've gone anywhere.

4. I've experimented with my day pattern. I no longer use coffee to wake myself because I have broken my addiction to caffeine. While I can still appreciate fine coffee and top quality tea (I'm British, don't forget) I don't need them to get going.

5. I've improved my morning productivity by making eating breakfast a habit. I'll freely confess that work sometimes gets so interesting (I love my job and work from home) that I forget to eat but that is another lifestyle change I need to examine.

What I have been doing is redefining who I am. I've changed the things I do and like to do and I have set new goals. One of which is only a pipe dream at this stage.

For example: I would like to run in the London Marathon with a respectable time on my first attempt. I would also like to try my hand at a little "free running". Finally I want to play football with my kids.

Right now I might manage the football but only just.

Don't get me wrong I'm almost drooling for the day when I can get a nice suit that fits me. I have some fantastic clothes that I'd love to be able to get into but never have.

The thing I have come to realise is this - these things I want are not the goal they are the fruit of a lifestyle I must find.

I'll say that again - if I want to dress in smaller sized clothes I need to become the self that lives a life that results in my body being that size.

First you live the life then the body changes to fit it.

I will never get down to fourteen stone. Right now I'm twenty stone and I'm likely to reduce to 85% to 90% of that at best. Even so I'll be a lot slimmer, and far fitter for it.

The price is that everything about the way I treat myself, think about myself and act must change. The way I relate to myself, relate to others and relate to ideas like food and drink must change. I must become a new self an altered self and that requires more effort than any yo-yo diet ever will.

What is more the results might take years to become apparent. Yet whatever size I end up at I will stay at until the next change of lifestyle takes my body in a new direction.

In this way alone can I hope to loose the bulk and keep it lost - for the rest of my longer, happier life.