Dieting Is Not Easy

Dieting is not easy. It is not fun and can be extremely frustrating. Then why are more than 45 percent of women effectively dieting all the time?

For me, dieting has always been a ?phase.? One day, I'll wake up and be really motivated to lose weight. I'll proceed to join the latest fad diet bandwagon and workout five times a week. That will last for about a month, maybe two, and then I'm back to eating fast food and lying on the sofa watching Oprah.

Unfortunately, that seems to be all too similar for other women wanting to be super-model slim. The media pushes an unnatural body type, making it difficult for us to accept our natural beauty. Did you know that the average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds, compared to the average American model, who is 5'11" tall and weighs 117 pounds? No wonder approximately 7 million girls and women are struggling with an eating disorder.

Luckily, I have never been one of those women, unless you count feeling the need to completely clean your plate of food as a disorder. When I was growing up, it was instilled in my brain. We never ate until we were full; we would eat until we were completely stuffed and about to pop. Buttered bread? Sure, why not! Dessert? Of course!

Fortunately for me, I feel like I have seen the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to how to diet. Now, I'm not a dieting expert, but the truth is, the best way to diet is to NOT diet. It's all about changing your lifestyle. You can't completely cut out carbs, sugar or fat, but you can moderate your intake. Get your sugar from an apple or banana instead of a candy bar, or your carbs from whole grain pasta instead of a croissant. It's all about choosing the right food to eat and sticking to it. Sure, I love the occasional hamburger or chocolate shake, and I've learned that I shouldn't feel bad for that. If you deprive yourself of the things you love to eat, then one day you'll just go crazy and over-indulge in those things.

Exercising has to be the most important part of the lifestyle change. Fifty-nine percent of adults do not engage in ANY exercise whatsoever, and only 26 percent of those who do exercise, do it more than three times a week. My main problem with exercise was that I would get bored with what I was doing. I've learned that you can't stick to one routine every time, and the best thing to do is to mix it up. One day I'll do the elliptical machine; the next I'll take a yoga or Pilates class. Sometimes even throwing something simple into your routine like going for a walk or jog is just what you need to change it up. It's also great having a workout buddy so that you both can motivate each other to get out and stick to your exercise plans.

In the end, it all comes down to feeling good about yourself. If you want to know more, a nutritional expert can help you develop a personal action plan for improving your eating habits while keeping the fun in food. Personal trainers can also devise a workout plan that is fit to what you want out of your workout while still keeping it interesting. The most important advice I can give you is to stop thinking about how you should go about loosing weight and get out there and do it!

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