Rita Sharma is 32 years of age. She has a history of diabetes and obesity in her family. As a child she was brought up on a staple diet of ice-cream on Sundays, Chips, Cola and a Burger on Saturdays. If she didn’t like the vegetables and sprouts, there was always the sauce, halwa, white rice with ghee and sugar, and ladoos as an option. She never saw her parents workout as they were too busy with their work schedules. She saw them taking tablets for diabetes as they continued with the normal diet at home. Rita grew up thinking this is the way things go in.
With this background, Rita never managed to cultivate good habits of healthy eating and exercise. She took up a job and lived in the suburbs in Mumbai. As a food loving Punjabi she loved her lip smacking food like Chole Bhature, Parathas, Jalebis with other sweets.
Juggling her family life and office, Rita also had to manage the cooking at home. She saw some other women in the society go for the occasional Yoga, Zumba classes, but she didn’t really feel motivated to do so. One fine day an occasional blood test revealed that she had hypothyroid, borderline diabetes and her weight had shot upto 75 kgs. As advised by the doctor she visited a nutritionist who advised her a diet plan with major food restrictions. Though it was a very difficult task to cut down on the portions and includes salads and sprouts in the diet, Ritu did manage to lose weight. After losing about ten kgs Rita had had enough of the restrictions and she stopped visiting the nutritionist. She started going for the occasional walks but slowly came back to the normal diet. The dosas, white rice, sweets and larger portions as the nutritionist never spoke of the maintenance diet. In about a year’s time Ritu shot upto 72 kgs again.
Later, Rita started following some fad online diet and also went in for some Protein shake diets with some herbal drinks. She did manage to lose some weight in about a month. But then post three months Rita was back to her old habits of savouring her Jalebis and mutton Biryani. She felt she was being denied what is her right to eat what she craves. Later she joined the gym at the behest of her friend. She went for a month and somehow did not enjoy it and left it. Starting up a new diet all over again seemed a hell of a task for her.
Now what we say here might come as a bit of a shock, but as per some new research, diets don’t work most of the time. Stop dieting and start savoring your food instead. Focus on mindfulness instead.
That may seem like surprising advice, but there’s mounting scientific evidence to suggest that diets don’t work. Research shows that food restriction just makes you want to eat more. And over the long term, can backfire, triggering your body’s survival defenses, slowing your metabolism and making it even harder to lose weight in the future.
So what’s the alternative? Many weight researchers are encouraging a new approach to healthy eating based on brain science. A variety of techniques that encourage mindful awareness of how we eat, acceptance related to the foods we want to eat and intuitive eating exercises can be used to quell cravings and reshape our eating habits.
At holisticfitness.in, we think it is also about forming habits. And new habits are not easily formed. In fact, parents have to realize that childhood is the best time to cultivate healthy eating habits. In fact, we find a child crying is often times given a candy or ice-cream as a bait.
Of course, one cannot deny the fact that restrictive weight-loss plans are important and there is no other way to burn fat. But many fail to take a long term approach. We at Yogfit recommend …Exercise, Yoga, Mindful Eating, Stress Management, Yoga Therapy, Lifestyle and Diet modification. All this is tailored around your background, culture, eating habits and Genes. What many forget is that our emotions and memories are connected with our food. Remember, the soup that your mother made for you when you were sick. The sweets, he weekends treats, your school lunchbox and your childhood birthday parties. What did you enjoy and eat there and what habits did you form in childhood?
Traci Mann, who heads the health and eating laboratory at the University of Minnesota, notes that beyond the disappointment of not keeping weight off, dieting also impacts your body.
A diet is an unpleasant and short-lived way to try to lose weight,” said Mann, author of “Secrets From the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again.” “You might take it off in the short term, but it comes back. It happens no matter who you are; it happens to people with great willpower and to people with crappy willpower.”
So, let us not think short term and go in for that fad diet. If you have managed to lose fat and weight then your focus should be on adapting the changes in your life. Check what you eat regularly, and later stick to smaller portions, exercise everyday to burn calories and have an occasional cheat day to satisfy your cravings. Food is meant to be eaten so don’t be too harsh on yourself everytime. Stress can play havoc with your cortisol hormone also, stay away from emotional and binge eating.
So, if you are tempted to try that fad diet think again. As rapid weight loss can lead to lasting changes that may slow your metabolism and alter your hormones.
A weight-reduced body responds differently to food and exercise than a body that has not dieted, studies suggest, and a dieter’s muscles may burn fewer calories than expected during exercise.