Don’t become Diet obsessed

As you will see in today’s newsletter, one of our valued clients, Clint from Mulberries Cafe in Morley, is embarking upon a ‘Spring Challenge’ to lose 10 kilos in 3 months. With help and guidance from Lifestyle Improvers we wish Clint all the best in his challenge which will involve a well managed eating plan along with a structured exercise regime.

One piece of advice we can offer Clint during this challenge is not to become obsessed with his diet or eating plan. Obviously Clint wants to do everything possible to get the 10kgs off and while our natural instinct is to focus very closely on our food intake, perhaps maintaining a food diary, counting calories and fat and measuring and weighing every piece of food that crosses our path, it is vitally important that Clint does not focus obsessively on this area.

While being more aware of your food choices, balancing protein and carbohydrates and making sure that you are eating mindfully is important, becoming obsessed with every morsel that goes into your mouth may actually be doing you more harm than good. When we are focusing on one small aspect of life, it actually results in the brain becoming limited in its ability to see the bigger picture. A good example of this is when you buy a new car you suddenly notice more of that type of car on the road as the brain has been focussed on an important decision and has limited your ability to notice other types of cars.

If you have been trying to make dietary changes and find that the more you concentrate on your food intake, the worse it gets it may be time to ensure you are also balancing your dietary changes with other lifestyle shifts that will help support your new eating regime.

Are you dedicating enough time to your exercise and relationships? Are you keeping yourself busy at times when you’re more likely to overeat? Are you putting your dietary changes in the context of your life? Surprisingly enough, in more cases than not, weight loss comes into place once we work towards being happy in all areas of our life.

So if you are avoiding social and family eating situations, cutting back more and more and still not getting results, it may be time to relax a little, evaluate the bigger picture, let go of your need to control every situation and live a little. As long as you keep the basic diet and exercise principles in place things tend to fall in line pretty quickly.