Why Dieting is Keeping America Fat

There are literally hundreds of diets available to suit
everyone’s taste: Atkins, Zone, South Beach, low carb, low fat,
liquid mixes, vegetarian, all protein. Millions of us are on
these different diets. So why are we still fat?

The key is our relationship with food. There is just so much of
it available: fast food outlets clog our streets, television
commercials and 24 hour cooking channels whet our appetites,
super chefs tempt us to labor long hours in the kitchen to
create our own culinary masterpieces. The different diets all
have one enormous component in common -they continue this
infatuation with food. What can I eat? How many carbs? How many
calories? What is allowed? How can it be made to taste as good
as possible?

Our behaviors continue, even the self-destructive kind, because
we receive some pleasant reward known in psychology as
reinforcement. We continue to overeat because of the emotional
satisfaction of devouring good tasting food. We will never slim
down until we find satisfaction in something other than food.
Young lovers forget to eat because they are consumed with other
passions. Gamblers neglect meals because the psychological
thrill is in their games. Alcoholics and drug addicts almost
never eat because their primary relationship is with their drug
of choice. Corporate ladder climbers and entrepreneurs are slim
because they are emotionally invested in their careers and their
business and nothing else matters.

To pare off fat, we have to focus on something other than food.
Focus on some aspect of your life: your family, your community,
your job, sports, social welfare, sex, school, hobbies, anything
important to you, and you will start to regard food as something
that has to be consumed to stay alive but also as something that
interferes with your life, to be avoided except when absolutely
necessary.

Psychologically distance yourself from food and one day the
commercials, the endless burgers and fries, and watching people
eating in public will seem totally alien as if a parallel world
exists with which you have no connection.

It is then that you will be on the way to controlling your
weight.

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