If somebody came to me when I was at my largest and definitively said to me that it was impossible to lose weight unless I cut out butter, bacon, cheese, pasta and bread, would I still be overweight?
Probably. Maybe. There is a possibility. If I believed them.
The problem with these sort of restrictive diets, the ones that really cut deep and eliminate every favourite food, is that my brain, at the very least, tries to sabotage me. It tells me I am never, ever ever going to have bacon again, and at the first sign of weakness, that’s where I’d dive. Into a big, crispy pile of delicious salty bacon. Even if I was given a reason why I should be cutting out bacon. Even if bacon was carcinogenic, and I knew it. Studies have shown that nitrosamines, which are found in quantity in preserved meats such as bacon, IS carcinogenic. But does this knowledge stop me, in this hypothetical universe? No. Why? It’s for the same reason that I will rarely pass up a cigarette if one is offered. It’s because I’m stupid. In other words (nicer, less accurate words), I’m only human. My brain wants what my brain wants. Instant gratification.
Okay, so this is the hypothetical situation, but is it really so hypothetical? When I was at my largest, a variety of people told me a variety of things. Cut out carbs, cut out fats, cut out processed foods. Bacon? Are you kidding? Why should you even need to eat bacon? It’s a luxury food, not a dietary requirement. I was told all these things, on a daily basis. But in the end, what worked? I didn’t cut out a single one of these things. Well, except for white bread. But that was by choice. I didn’t adjust the content, just the quantity.
I’ve been reading recently about a researcher who was trying to prove the age-old concept of weight loss as an equation of calories in versus calories out. For a period of ten weeks, he survived on a diet of almost entirely snack food. Snack cakes, corn chips, candy, cookies and the like. CNN calls it “the convenience store diet” or “the twinkie diet” and I picked up various other designations from other news services. One article stated that he had a protein shake every now and then, and a multivitamin tablet. But all the same, he lost weight on a horrible diet due to the simple equation of calories in, calories out. He limited his intake to 1800 calories a day, and despite the actual content of the food he was eating, he lost weight. Nobody would ever recommend living on a diet like this. For a start, if you had to limit yourself to 1800 calories, that’s not a lot of junk food. It is a lot of healthy food, however, and the bottom line is that I prefer eating quality and quantity over a small amount of instant gratification.
But if you can fit it into your daily calories, why not have some bacon? Why not have real butter instead of that horrible fake-tasting margarine? Why do people always turn to these fake junk-food healthy substitutes, but then fail to lose their weekly kilo? It’s because a pita bread with fresh tomato, crumbled feta and roasted vegetables IS something healthy and delicious (if you’re into that sort of thing) but it ISN’T a pizza, and no amount of positive affirmation will make your brain think it is. You could try to stop wanting pizza instead. That’s probably a healthier way to go about things. Or, you could do as I do and treat yourself to a SMALL slice of good quality real pizza on a day when you’ve had an awesome workout. Without eating the whole pizza. The real achievement is to stop when you’re ahead. One slice of pizza won’t kill you, if it’s within your daily intake limit, but four will probably set you back. Good things in moderation. Or in the case of bacon, delicious yet carcinogenic things in moderation.
I believe that people these days are too addicted to blaming everybody else for every problem in their lives. Your diet is one of the things that YOU can control completely. You choose, ultimately, every thing that you put in your mouth. I’m not going to waste my time on tofu and lettuce if I don’t want to, and I’ve lost 20 kilograms without having to waste a second on these things.
I hope this makes sense, but I had to vent a little.
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