Can't Follow a Diet?

Don't worry...it is not you!
Whether you have diabetes or are overweight and trying to follow a diet and just can't...it is really NOT you. It is not that you don't have enough “willpower” or you have failed. The diet has failed you.
Most studies indicate that dieting works for a while, but isn't a long-term solution. If you have been on several diets this may sound familiar: You are able to follow a diet for a few weeks or months, then you get side-tracked and go “off” the diet and then re-gain lost weight.
I feel that there are so many bad things about dieting I don't know where to begin. Here are just a few of my gripes about dieting: First, most diets totally disregard our natural hunger/fullness cues. We need to become more attuned eaters (Listen to our bodies' hunger and fullness cues.) to help us find our healthy weight, not ignore them by following some diet. Second, diets often reinforce “all-or-nothing” thinking. All-or-nothing thinking, also known as “black and white” thinking assumes that everything is in absolutes. One example of all-or-nothing thinking in regards to dieting is you are either “on” a diet or “off” a diet. Once “off the diet” then the negative thinking kicks in and we move farther away from being attuned eaters. There is hardly anything in human behavior that is an absolute (Including eating.). If we are able to think in shades of gray about food and eating that may help get us unstuck from the dieting roller coaster.
I believe the first step to healthy eating is actually give-up dieting and begin to tune into our bodies natural hunger and fullness cues.