Improve your Diet, Don’t Diet.

You’ve tried everything, done everything right. Went on a diet, cut out carbs, ate 6 meals a day, used meal replacements. Tried gym, running, cardio and even those vibration machines – but somehow you have never been able to get rid of those last few centimeters, or the last few kilos.This person had this advice and then you hear about something that has worked for someone else. Diet after Diet, discouraged and depressed you just do not know what to do anymore.

Well I know you’re tired of listening to other people’s advice, but maybe do just that – give up, just stop.

 Stop so called ‘Dieting’, stop making temporary changes, because temporary changes only lead to temporary results.

The word diet refers to food that you consume on a daily basis, your diet is not a temporary thing, your diet is permanent, because you have to eat every day. Your diet is a choice, what you put in your mouth is part of your DIET. We need to stop thinking that DIET refers to a quick fix a temporary thing. Your DIET is for life and it a choice you make every day.

Your diet is what determines your overall health.

We have somehow taken the word DIET and we now associate it only with losing weight, and not seeing it for what it has always been, simply just what you eat every day.

When I was a little Girl, my Mom went on Weigh-less. It’s a worldwide brand of programs and eating plans executed with the best intentions to help people learn how and what to eat when. It worked and my Mother learnt allot, so did I eventually, but also through her. One thing I do remember from her eating on these diets is that, it was only for her. Only she ate according to the plan. I found myself very jealous and stealing her cracker bread when I got the opportunity. I felt like she got to eat all this delicious foods, salads and fish and all those types of things. The food she made us was still nice, don’t get me wrong, my Mom is an amazing Cook, but I wanted to eat what she was eating.

This is in essence another mistake we make on a daily basis. By only applying healthy living habits to yourself, we’re not teaching anyone else within our households the building blocks of healthy eating habits. We’re just telling them that when the time comes, and they are fat and unhappy, then they can deal with it in a similar manner, which is then to go on a restricted-temporary-diet.

If you think about this, then it simply does not make sense – so were just teaching our kids and families to become fat, and then have a hard time learning new skills as an adult- to fix problems that was never meant to be there?!

Yes you’ve heard this a million times – “Healthy living is a lifestyle!”  and the FACT is just that! It is a lifestyle, its permanent, its feeding your body the right way every day.

You cannot expect permanent results with temporary habits.

You cannot wash the dishes once and expect them to stay clean. You cannot make your bed once and expect it to stay made up. You simply cannot have the one without the other. Like daily chores it is a day-to-day thing.

And its hard – it really is! It sucks teaching your body new things after doing things otherwise for so long. And it takes long, and it is just easier to give up. And to make excuses. Well for each one of the popular excuses I’ve found a solution and here they are:

1. “I’m not a goat, so I don’t eat that type of stuff..”

Solution: No one said you have to eat salad the whole day, I don’t actually understand where that notion comes from – Beautiful Red Meat is very good for you. Your body needs it. What your body doesn’t need is processed cheap alternatives.

2. “I’m just too busy.”

Solution: Plan. Failure to plan is a plan to fail. Decide what you’re going to have for lunch. Decide what your making for dinner and have it ready. Planning your week, and more or less what you want to eat takes like 30 min. When you have everything planned and organised, it will not only save you time and money, it will take the stress of having to think of dinner and lunch when your too tired and busy to do so. Always be one step ahead.

3. “it’s too expensive.”

Solution: It doesn’t need to be that expensive to eat healthy. You are just being Lazy. Shop around and find a good Housewives market – a fruit and veg, or a GO-TO Grocery store. Match prices and decide which one suit’s you best. And you don’t have to buy brand names, or things that look pretty. The cheaper packaging is just as good, and sometimes the contents are even better for you.  Weigh up what cheap microwave, easy box meals cost you your wallet in comparison to your health, and the health of your family. If you don’t teach them – no one will! Anything that is cheap and fast will give you THE SAME RESULTS.

4. “I don’t like fat free…”

Solution: Good, neither do I. Fat does not make you fat, so why take it out of your diet? Rather remove processed foods, that includes anything that had to go through some sort of process to come into creation. Bread, pasta, oven meals, microwave meals. The more natural it is the better. This isn’t always possible, but there is always a better option.

5. “I’m too tired to exercise”

Solution: You’re going to stay tired. As long as you do not exercise or get into a healthy routine you will always be tired. Staying healthy and fit gives a person a sense of motivation, energy and the will to move forward. It provides the body with pleasure giving endorphins. As long as you don’t exercise you’re going to look for those endorphins in food, as it is the next best thing to provide this high. But it doesn’t last, so you keep eating, you pick up more weight, your unhappy, so you eat again.  You’ll just fall into this never ending pit of tiredness and unhappiness that will be so much harder to get out of.

6. “I’m too tired to cook”

Solution: when you buy take away, do you ever ask the store what is in your food, how they made it, or what processes it goes through before it reaches you? Take away fast food chains are a business. They are there to make money out of you, for the least amount of cost toward them. When it comes to sugars, Sodium, preservatives, carbs and processed food they are on their A-game.  Prep your meals in such a way that it is easy to cook, double the recipe and have it for lunch or dinner the next day. Again PLAN, PLAN, PLAN..

7. “Its hard…”

Solution: Yes it is. It is very hard. And there is no fast solution, and there shouldn’t be, it’s a everyday thing. In order to live a healthy happy life in your body everyday you have to decide every day that this is it, this is what I’m working for. You’re not going to see results today, or tomorrow – you may only see results in a year, maybe even two. I’ve been winning and failing at this healthy living game for more than 2 years now, and I have to tell you, for the first time since I’ve decided that this is what I’m working for – I’ve started to see results. And it took really long. Looking back I can’t believe that I an where I am now. And I’m so happy, I don’t want to stop. I want this happiness for you, and your family.

8. “I’ll start next year”

 Solution: Just start today. There is a saying in Afrikaans that goes-  “Van uitstel kom afstel!” I couldn’t find a way to say it in English. But it basically refers to the fact that procrastination will eventually lead to not completing the task at all. If you keep postponing  getting into a healthier lifestyle, then you’re just making it harder for yourself. It is a very long and difficult process to change your lifestyle – don’t make it more difficult by postponing it any longer. It going to make you happy, so just do it already. Remember the older you get the more difficult it gets.

9. “I’ve tried everything, nothing works….”

Solution: have you tried not quitting? Have you kept going for more than a year, or more than 2. You spent basically your whole life building the figure you have now. What makes you think you’re going to get it sorted in less time than you spent getting to this point? It takes time. Don’t judge a training program or your Diet results based on a regime of 2months – it is going to take your body a while to adapt and change, depending on what you’ve been indulging in these past few years. Keep going you can do it, and don’t think of it as instant gratification, because it’s quite the opposite. It takes long, it is hard, I keep saying it, but the sooner you make peace with it you can move onto the more important things. Be patient – this is for life not for holiday.

There are many more excuses that you can probably think of, all of which I’m sure has a solution. In the end it’s your life – you have to decide what you want and how you want to live. I just get so upset when people talk to me and tell me why they are unable to make good decisions, like their trying to convince me of their point – like being fat and uncomfortable is just the way it is going to be now, like their way of seeing thing are better. But I’m standing here, in front of them, happy, healthy, in-love with what I’ve become. Isn’t that proof of the fact that living healthy, eating naturally, running, exercising and staying fit is a good thing. We were never meant to live a life where we have to constantly restrict our Diet, just educate yourself and make better choices.

Have your pizza and your indulgence every now and then, but be prepared to live with the consequences, take action. Have your cake, wine, pizza, and then go have a run the next day or exercise – do what makes you happy. But do something.

Your body was a gift, and you’ll be surprised how good it can be for you if you take care of it. I saw a picture the other day that said  “what you eat in private- you wear in public…” – I wish I knew who said that, it really is true.

Like I said, your diet is permanent, you can’t expect permanent results with temporary habits. It’s a lifestyle.  In the beginning I used pills and all types of supplements, and that’s ok. At some point your body needs a little help. Just do your research and do it right.

I’ve been there, I wanted a quick fix – who doesn’t – I learnt very fast that this method is expensive, not only to your pocket- but also to your health, it’s important to do it right, with discipline and respect – if not, your just wasting money and damaging your body more than doing good – I believe in weight training for women – if you do it correctly you won’t look like a gorilla – believe me-  a lot of time, food, and supplements go into getting the physique that female bodybuilders and athletes have – don’t flatter yourself, you won’t look like that unless you work tremendously hard, stop using it as an excuse and start exercising!

It has been two and a little years now –trying my best to run and gym when I can, exercising and making better decisions when it comes to food and alcohol. Some months pushing myself really hard, and other months failing really hard at healthy living.

Start today,  after two years of kind of consistency I started to wake up and realised that something is happening. I’m losing weight! – And people actually notice it – and I feel really happy with not stuffing my face!  I am so motivated just by the unexpected results that I want more – and I want to give others more, I want to inspire others as well.

I’m losing weight by only making the correct food choices, I’m not on some ridiculous gym plan even though if I had the time I would be. And the more I see results the Happier I am, the more it becomes a priority, I prefer getting up early to go run rather that sleeping in. but that doesn’t mean I don’t fail. I do at least 2 times a week, I either sleep in, eat wrong and on the weekends, OH MY SOUL! Weekends are the worst! Drinking too much – maybe having the occasional smoke, not taking advantage of the time to exercise. But the important thing is that you decide to try again.

It’s ok to fail, that is how you learn and decide what you really want – one thing I have learnt is that the only person your bullshitting is yourself, it doesn’t matter what other people say or think – you will always have supporters and haters as they say – but in the end of the day you’re the only one in your skin and you have to be happy in it.

Everything gets easier when you start saying ‘I don’t want to eat that’, instead of ‘I’m not allowed to eat that’.  You’re the only person who should be making the better choice for yourself, no one else – who else is giving you permission?

Decide what makes you happy, for me it’s running – really loud music in my ears and pushing myself, proving to myself again and again that it’s easy, just make the decision. When I’m running it’s just me and myself, honesty as pure as it can come – because it’s just me, only I can will myself to go further, faster or decide to give myself a break. Learn to be honest with yourself – after all it’s the one person you shouldn’t hide anything from.

So live your life – a healthy life. Start today, you’ll thank yourself not today, not tomorrow but in a few months time. You’ll probably have a really hard time the first few weeks. But keep going.

It really is worth it!

Have a lovely day!

XOXOX – Jani