The average woman has been on 61 diets since the age of 16! That means at least one diet a year. We at Ella hate the word diet. For the most part it means adopting an unnatural eating pattern which bans certain foods or drinks. In our experience this can surely only mean that sooner or later, you’ll end up reverting back to your bad old habits .
Every woman we’ve known who has been on a diet has normally put the weight they’ve lost back on. So we reckon diets just don’t work.
So what’s the alternative?
Accept your size
Going on diets can actually be bad for your health. Especially if you lose weight then put it back on. Keeping your weight stable, so long as your BMI is not too high (it should be between 20 and 25 – check with your GP) , is better than constantly putting on and then losing weight.
Binge dieting can cause all kinds of problems, besides putting unnecessary strain on your heart it can be bad for your self image. If you are a size 12 that’s not unhealthy. What is unhealthy is obsessing about being a size smaller and doing unhealthy things to get to that size.
For some of us dieting can actually be a distraction from other things we need to deal with; so deal with those first.
Exercise
This is one of the things that actually can make a difference, but again it’s about moderation. Spending a week at a bootcamp to lose half a stone or doing exercise every day for two months then giving up is akin to binge dieting. If you are doing this then your exercise programme is not sustainable. So find something you enjoy, you’ll be more likely to stick to it.
Drink more water
A hydrated body is one that doesn’t crave things it doesn’t need. Dehydration can also at worst make you crave incredibly salty or sweet things.
Eat breakfast
If you don’t feel hungry in the morning, you body is probably out of sync. If you haven’t eaten for 12 hours and you are not hungry it may be you relying too much on caffeine and sugar to get going. Skipping breakfast means your sugar levels will only continue to plummet leaving you starving hungry, when you are less likely to make wise food choices.
And another good reason why we probably should even mention the word diet
Research by British baker Warburtons, which came up with the startling diet stats above, appears to show how our obsession with dieting is affecting our children; six out of ten children are now asking their parents to cut nutritionally rich foods such as potatoes, bread and fruit out of their diet.
So in the interests of a having a varied non-diet diet, we also wondered what foods were in actual fact not so bad for us (and our little and not so little ones)
Fruit squash – contains vitamin C. Just avoid the ones with sweeteners in, and make sure you clean your teeth (but not straight afterwards as the acid can react with toothpaste).
Cereals – even the sugary ones have added vitamins, if you have young children who are fussy eaters, it’s sometimes better to let them eat Coco Pops and make sure they clean their teeth later.
White bread – which contains calcium. In fact all breads contain essential nutrients from protein and calcium to iron and B group vitamins.
Jelly – when made with fruit its a great way to up your intake of vitamin C.
Full fat milk – the fat in milk means that it contains more of the fat-soluble vitamins which semi skimmed and skimmed milk doesn’t. These include A, and E and K. And full fat milk is still on 5 %fat at most.
So what do you think of diets? A con or has one done it for you? Let us know.
Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.