The “Diet” You Should Be On

by Marco G.

The word “diet” itself has been twisted to mean so many different things. Instead of it describing one’s eating habits, it has become a term that breeds fear and deprivation. We decide to “go on a diet,” gives rise to many of the same feelings some have when they “go on” lent, or “go on” a low carb, high protein diet. It is like we are strapping on some kind of fat body armour and going to war against our impulses. No wonder the moment your mind gets a hint that deprivation is coming, it signals the rest of your body to get ready for a famine, to defend and hold on to everything it has. The result? Your cravings automatically go up and your body begins resisting weight loss/healthy choices because it is in fear of a famine. Wow, what a backfire for those who thought “diet” was their weight loss solution. It reminds me of the old adage: “tell someone they can’t have something and soon that is all they will crave.”

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The choices overweight people have made have been wrong from the get-go. I know, I was one. Here is the big reveal; what the nations (USA and Canada) eat, in fact the western-food industrialized world eats, started us all off on the wrong foot. Most of our readers here at GetFitFaster.ca are enlightened about the awful effects os fast/processed foods, so I am not going to spend a lot of time educating you on this, since I would be “preaching to the choir,” so to speak; but I do hope to encourage you on a couple of points that have been very important in my own journey. We got “here,” borderline epidemic obesity, diabetes, heart disease… you name it, because our “sugar daddies” hooked us on crappy food as “good for us,” and made us believe that foods like veg, fruits, seeds etc. represent a “DIET.” Our parents, look, I adore mine, led us, rather, FED us to believe that good behaviour = sugar! My near silver hair bears witness to this as I can recall the lollipop my barber gave me in Italy, after not crying during the cut. By the way, that guy snipped my ear once! There was blood, then there was another lollipop… all better. It is no different than the practice of hooking someone on a drug, a little at a time.

WE HAVE IT BACKWARDS 
The following may revolutionize the way you think about what “a diet” actually is.  To our bodies and the way they are naturally designed, NOT eating fast food, junk food and boatloads of refined sugar is NORMAL! Yes, you read that correctly; it is the NORMAL way our bodies were designed by nature – to NOT want to eat that stuff. What IS NORMAL, is eating unprocessed, unrefined foods; veg, fruit, greens, seeds etc… what is naturally ABNORMAL to our bodies is to not eat that way. However, we have taught them differently.

What is ABNORMAL is to buy diet/health related products to try and counteract the awful choices we are making. What is ABNORMAL is getting so hooked on sweets, sugars, unhealthy fats that “eating clean/right” is now considered, yup, here is that word again: ABNORMAL! Do you see how backwards we have this? Going on “a diet” now means “eating healthy!” The power of natural food is reversing disease across the planet everyday, but you won’t hear about that much because there is no  money in “health,” but there are billions of dollars to be made in despair and sickness. See just one example of how natural food eradicated disease, from Dr. Mercola here: http://goo.gl/mvHvxJ

NO, THAT IS NOT “FOOD” YOU ARE GIVING UP
If your initial thoughts run along the lines of “Marco, what are you saying? That I have to give up the foods I love?” My immediate answer is this; if what you mean by “foods you love” is Fried Chicken, Fries, Poutine, Sodas, Donuts, Chocolate Cake, fattening cookies, diet products including sodas, certain protein bars, low carb this, low fat that, fast food, most pre packaged frozen items, things in plastic wrap or shiny foil packaging, processed snacks and so on…” YOU ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT “FOOD,” you are talking about products manufactured in a lab, or that are cooked in such an unhealthy way that they defy the very meaning of the word “food” itself. If instead your thinking is “I could never give those things up,” then, as unpopular as this might make me, you have a different challenge before you, and it is that of mindset and self-imposed limitations. 

HOW I DID IT – HOW I AM STILL AT IT
I made a conscious decision that being healthy and liking the way I look, is more important to me than any momentary satisfaction junk food can offer. Was it easy? Ask me that after I tell you that I also quit 20 years plus of smoking 1+ packs of cigarettes a day. NO. IT WAS NOT EASY. But trying to go up one flight of stairs at 25 years of age and clutching my chest in pain was not easy either. When I really cleaned up my eating, I went through sugar withdrawals and headaches, but they are gone. Now I get these if I ever overload on sugar. You can train your body to do just about anything, including going through some discomfort in order to get a desired result. Nothing you eat that is “dead,” as in processed, made in a lab, or has no nutritional value has any place in your body if your goal is quality of life, or weight management. 

WHO WILL GET THE FINAL WORD?
Excuses like “I can’t, I don’t have the willpower, the discipline…” you can say all of that for a while, a long while in fact, because our bodies are capable of withstanding massive amounts of abuse. But at some point these statements will stare you dead in the face and scream at you when the doctor says “you have diabetes, your kidneys are shutting down, your blood pressure is through the roof, your pancreas is malfunctioning, you will need medication for the rest of your life” and worse. 

Don’t give your lack of willpower or your addiction to bad food the chance to say “GOTCHA,” at some point later in your life. Go through a little discomfort now to lessen the chances of massive pain and suffering later. I challenge you do rethink what “diet” means to you.

I tackled some of this in a podcast earlier this year. You can download it here for free.