Don’t Lose Your Mind Lose Your Weight
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Don’t
Lose Your Mind Lose Your Weight
For a long time, I used to think
that diets were all about starving and punishing yourself. And I
wasn’t alone. A lot of people thought the same way. Then I came
across a book by Rujuta Diwekar the nutritionist which totally
changed my perception about diets and dieting. Through the book I
came to know that it wasn’t about starving but about eating well,
eating right and eating regularly.
Simplicity Is Profund
Don’t lose your mind, by
complicating something as simple as feeding yourself (although these
words appear in smaller font on the cover, they are really the bigger
message). Losing weight, as you will realize by the end of the
article (I Hope), is incidental. A by-product of following a common
sense approach to eating- eating right.
But there is a thin line between
simplicity and oversimplification. And just like you do with
generalizations, you miss the point completely when you oversimplify.
Eating a balanced diet will keep you healthy: a simple statement of
fact. The less we eat, the thinner we become: an oversimplification .
Other examples of oversimplification: blood group, GM (General
Motors), cabbage soup and orange juice diets.
Be Smart About Dieting And Food
Through this article I share with
you my take on dieting, and how dieting or diet is the most
misunderstood term in English. There is no such thing as going
‘on’ or ‘off’ your diet. Eating correctly has to be a
lifelong commitment, and the diet should be a reflection of this.
This automatically rules out any extreme diet or crash diets which
require you to go ‘off’ them. Diet, or what you eat, should be
planned according to your activity, lifestyle, fitness levels, likes,
dislikes, genetics, etc. It should be part of your daily life, just
as brushing our teeth is. For diets to work they have to be
personalised. Oversimplification or generalisation has never
worked. We are all genetically predisposed to carry fat in different
parts of our body.
My Other belief is that all food
is good. All foods contain nutrients which have their own role to
play in our body. We need all kinds of nutrients, like carbs,
protein, fats, vitamins and minerals, and depriving us of even one of
them will create an imbalance in our system. Also there is no
bravery attached to weight loss. You can achieve it just by
falling sick. What is most important is that you feel good about
yourself, treat yourself well, be committed to eating properly and
exercising; and weight loss, rather fat loss, will just happen.
Punishing yourself by going on deprivation diets (liquids diets, low
carb, high protein or any other fad diet) is never going to work. You
will lose weight but at what cost? Not to mention that it will all
come back, double of what you lost, in fact.
Internal Happiness
Over the years I have come to
understand that everything that we do or do not do is motivated by a
strong desire to be happy. We want to lose weight because we think
that it will make us happy. W want to, just have to, eat that pastry
because it will make us happy. We don’t want to eat karela sabzi
because that will make us unhappy. The problem is that we are looking
for happiness in the wrong place. Happiness is within us (clichéd
but true) and when we get in touch with ourselves, our true being,
we will discover happiness. Dieting or eating correctly, is a
process, a learning tool, to go within. And when we see or experience
that glimpse of reality within ourselves, it will (has to) reflect in
our physical body.