Many diets and programs impose strict rules aboutwhat you can eat and what you must avoid at all costs. They tellyou when to eat and how much. They say fat (or carbohydrate) isthe enemy of a slim body, and that it must be counted andlimited. They tell you to avoid snacking or to eat every 2 or 3hours, without fail. They specify cabbage soup every day for aweek or allow you virtually nothing but grapefruit or eggs. Andthey want you to exercise 5 times a week when you haven't moveda muscle in a decade. But you know that rules are meant to bebroken. The very fact that they are rules imposed by an outsideweight loss "authority" means that they will be.
Rules bring out the small child in you who wants to touch theforbidden ornaments on your aunt's hall table and stay up whenits bedtime. You become the rebellious teenager who wants toparty when there's homework to do.
During your program, nothing makes you want foodmore than forbidding it. "Can't have chocolate cake. Can't havefries" leads you to think of nothing else. Enforced salad orsoup means that these are the last things you actually want toeat.
And when you do succumb, as you inevitably will, to thechocolate cake, you feel guilty rebellious pleasure in breakingthe rules you feel have been unfairly imposed on you. "Why me?"you ask yourself "It's not fair. Why do I have to follow theserules? Everyone else gets to eat cake."
So forget the rules!
"Forget the rules?" you cry "I'll go mad and shovel ineverything in sight. I'll be fatter than ever."
Somehow it doesn't work like that if you treat yourself as theadult you are.
Take responsibility for learning about healthy food andnutrition. And once you have the information you need, make yourchoices from the huge range of delicious food out there. Don'tlabel any food good or bad. Just select from all that'savailable with a mindset of being good to you, good to your bodyand how you want to feel.
And yes, sometimes you will select the chocolate cake. But onceyou treat yourself as a responsible adult rather than a child tobe kept in line and punished, you will find you enjoy the cakeand go on to make healthier choices at your next meal, happy inthe knowledge that nothing is banned, that there will always bemore cake if you want it in the future.
Feed the adult in you and not the rebel child!
Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small
About the author:Janice Elizabeth is a coach, slimming club owner andauthor of "The Diet Exit Plan". Her system promotes permanenthealthy and automatic through making small changesto your everyday habits. Get her FREE 15 page report "How tolose weight without dieting - 7 secrets the diet industrydoesn't want you to know" at http://www.SimplySlimming.comTODAY!
