Dieting fads aren’t the only answer to improving your health
It is January and my inbox is full of offers to join health clubs (online these days), clean living groups or to test a special diet.
A lot of marketing agencies send me press releases of their clients offering ‘the’ diet to lose weight permanently. It is always funny to me that these same agencies were sending offers to indulge in this and that just a month prior!
Normally, gyms would see a high increase in membership – just to be abandoned weeks later. I either ignore these offers or reply politely that I am not a follower of any of these miracle diets or clubs where your weight is announced in a circle of strangers.
And yes, people who have met me or know me, know that I need to lose weight – so do I by the way. I have a mirror at home (some might doubt that if they see my hair) and I have a wardrobe full of clothes that don’t fit anymore. But I am very much aware of why I am the weight I am.
I am getting older (not that I want to), my lifestyle has changed (due to getting older) and I am less active than I used to be – yet my diet hasn’t changed.
Which means, I am eating the same things I ate when I was 20 years younger but don’t have the capacity anymore to burn these calories.
And in addition to that – I am a glutton. Plain and simple. I am not blaming a slow metabolism or ‘hidden’ calories (we all know these calories) but myself and my inability to say no to good food.
My mum had the ability to eat an entire duck (a task she completed one Christmas when I was a child and we weren’t quick enough to the table) followed by a creamy dessert without adding an ounce to her weight (this is one gene I didn’t get from her) while my dad is the opposite (saying that, he also can eat an entire duck without breaking a sweat – but the ounces pile up).
My German grandmother was never fat but what you might call a ‘strongly built’ woman. When my wonderful grandad passed away, she lost a lot of weight (they were an awesome couple) and she kept the weight down by simply adding ‘light’ days.
We both loved going out together and we visited many beautiful restaurants – but when she indulged, the following day she watched what she was eating. That way, she kept her weight down nicely.
I just have troubles with the ‘light’ days as even these are filled with delicious food. What I am trying to say in a very longwinded way – eat less and eat well and your weight (if you need to lose a few pounds) should reduce naturally.
Don’t try to restrict good food by following one of these ‘miracle’ diets – they work for a short while, are unsustainable long-term and in 99 per cent of all cases, the weight piles up again.
John McKenna published a food pyramid a few years ago (the HSE food pyramid hasn’t been updated in centuries) and if you follow this, you should be able to balance your health and weight nicely.