Dieting seems to be a national pastime. Even skinny people tend to explain the extra pound they must lose. Do you think that models who look beautiful and starve themselves to maintain standards set by an industry are happy? Seeing them probably does more to hurt an average woman’s self-esteem than almost anything else. Looking at models and airbrushed celebrities in magazines can make you feel too big, but they’re often airbrushed. I’ve met some models and in person they don’t look as good, unless you think emaciated looks good.

Going on and off of diets isn’t the way to be in shape, and it’s unloving to you if you abuse yourself, ss many people do by alternating between depriving yourself and pigging out when you go off. I’ve found the key to get fitter—whether it’s losing weight or toning up—is you have to want it bad enough to do what you have to do. Like with any desire to change, it’s easy to declare what you want to do things differently. But it’s much harder to carry out your desires. Those desires can help you create excuses, which I’ve brrn guilty of:

•    I’d love to go for a run but the weather hasn’t cooperated when I’m free.
•     I’ve been trying to stay off sugar but I had a lot of events to go to and sweets were given to me.
•    I need to eat more healthy but money is tight right now and I think it would cost more.

Making excuses for not doing what you say you want to do means you don’t want it bad enough. And the excuses help alleviate your guilt about not trying.  But excuses don’t help you lose weight. Nor does going on one fad diet after another. I’ve learned that starting diets often and not sticking to them hurts you. Each time you go off it you can feel like a failure, which is an unloving way to be.

Erma Bombeck said, “In two decades I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.”

Yo-yo (up and down) dieting is unhealthy and doesn’t get your body to where you want it to be. Creating a healthier lifestyle because you love and care about yourself is the best “diet.” It took me years to break unhealthy habits, like needing dessert (sweets) after every meal, and create new healthy ones. I now think of it as taking control of my need for food, not depriving myself. I love me and want to be healthy. Knowing that my body is in better shape is much more satisfying than a bag of chips or a cookie. Love yourself enough to get out of the yo-yo diet cycle and start to create new eating habits that you stick to. That’s the best way to be healthy, which often can result in weight loss.
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