Eat To Perform Blog

“Imagine that in order to have a great life you have to cross a dangerous jungle. You can stay safe where you are and have an ordinary life, or you can risk crossing the jungle to have a terrific life."- Ray Dalio

First let’s start here, you shouldn’t be dieting all of the time and it certainly shouldn’t affect your self worth.

But the alternatives aren’t always great either and to be clear, there is an element of what we do that is dieting but the majority of the time you aren’t and I think it’s important that people know what that looks like.

The majority of diets give people a low calorie point and that’s pretty much it. There might be a weight loss cheerleader along the way but the process can often get frustrating. Lately there is a trend to make the deficit a little less taxing (1400 versus 1200 kind of thing) this will only make the problem worse but at the end of the day people aren’t successful dieting because their math just isn’t there.

As human beings we aren’t meant to under eat all of the time. That is why the standard “it’s not a diet, it's a lifestyle" is nonsense, it’s simply a lifestyle of under-eating all of the time.

That’s just dieting under a different heading.

The problem ISN’T that we aren’t good at dieting, I mean, people are literally dieting all of the time, sometimes without realizing it.

The real issue is we don’t know how to not diet.

Look, I am all for any acceptance movement but most people quitting are just doing it wrong and frustrated. And some do need to lose weight but WE ALL need to prioritize moving in our life more (to whatever your capabilities are).

MORE FOOD HELPS WITH THAT.

If you think about your last diet, what did you do? For some they did a really rigid 30 days or so and then on that 31st day they had a blow out with all of the food they actually wanted to eat most of the time. And then you hit the scale in the AM only to find you gained weight.

Which starts the cycle of guilt where you feel like if you don’t live your life in a rigid way you are a failure. Not you just enjoyed yourself on one day and that’s what being human is all about. We internalize it like WE FAILED rather than the diet failed us.

That’s important because your body and brain do not WANT to be under fed.

At the core of Eat To Perform you are not dieting the majority of the time but what does that mean? It means that if you are just trying to lean out a bit you SHOULD be not dieting (this is an example but common) 9 months of the year. In fact, a full cycle is only twelve weeks and only FOUR of those weeks are at your lowest calories.

IN A YEAR!

If that doesn’t sound different IT IS. If you have more weight to lose the cycle's would be shorter for a bit and then extend as you get leaner.

Most diets confuse the issue and when you sign up for their plan you figure it out, "THIS IS JUST ANOTHER DIET where I am eating less all of the time" but that’s not the worst part.

The worst part is that there is seemingly no end, it’s like you are either eating less for life or you failed.

It’s like signing up for a life sentence of misery.

AND THE WILD PART IS THERE IS ANOTHER WAY, a much BETTER way in fact.

After the six week period we start bringing food back as quickly as possible, in fact, we tell people not to vary too much for AT LEAST TWO WEEKS because once those two weeks are over calories are relatively back to normal. Meaning you can fit in a meal you enjoy, not on one day but MOST DAYS.

It’s like a mental and physical break before the second 6 weeks.

I was just talking to a client about her weight goals and I asked her this question, “if you looked leaner and felt healthier would you really care what your weight is?” People often say they would be fine but the scale does mess with them. We agreed to not be SO aggressive with the initial goal so that we can get to the part that matters most.

The not dieting part! The part where you are thriving and doing amazing things. That’s what life is really about.

So I agree, diets are bad, I do them as little as possible but most people have been dieting wrong. In fact, it’s not the dieting they are doing wrong, it's they don’t have a framework for what normal looks like. That’s the part that we do best.

Think of the quote above. With most diets people often start the journey through the jungle and then kind of get lost. We take you all the way through the jungle. That doesn’t mean you never eat less again but what it does mean is you will know the formula for what really works and ironically it’s the not dieting part that is doing the heavy lifting (both figuratively and literally).

The goal of dieting isn’t to suffer as long as possible and then your normal life will appear. The goal is to set up a framework where food can become an ally over time and just ignoring how you eat and why is basically avoiding the issue, not tackling it head on.

And just to be clear I believe there is a world where you can be healthy at 250 pounds as a woman or 300 pounds as a man but that formula involves a smart approach to food and moving. Not avoiding both.

So no, it’s not a diet nor is it a lifestyle. If you want your lifestyle to be that of a non dieter we can help but it’s probably going to be harder than you think. I often say this, we are people’s LAST DIET. I wish we met them closer to the beginning but everyone has their process and it feels like most people want to exhaust all the shortcuts before they really tackle the better way….

You can blame it on the marketing but marketing only tells you what you want to hear. I am telling you the opposite. The secret is in the not dieting part but surprisingly that is often the hardest part because it does require effort, awareness and accountability. You have to believe food can be part of the solution and not JUST the problem because it never was.

It’s so much more complicated than that.

If you need a change that involves food and exercise we can help. No shortcuts, no false promises. Just your coach and you taking you to what will be a new and different life. To talk to a coach now use the link below

https://www.eattoperform.com/

To talk to a coach in real time use the button on the bottom right