In our community, someone said, “I don’t want to have to think about my food. I have enough on my plate; I don’t want this responsibility.”
Basically, “Tell me what to eat and I’ll eat it.”
I get that a lot.
I recently did an interview with the author of Why Smart People Don’t Diet. This was something that came up in our conversation, and I said to her, “With all the diet books out there if people really just wanted to be told, ‘Here’s what to eat, eat it and lose weight,’ wouldn’t the success rate be astronomical?”
People think that’s what they want. For a very short window of time, they will maybe follow it and do what they’re told to do. At some point, we want to feel some level of control over our food.
We want to feel some level of flexibility, and this is why I say it’s essential to find what will work for you long term. It’s all about taking what you’re currently doing, your baseline, and starting to implement change over time.
If the way you’re eating right now is not helping you get to your desired weight, change one thing; for example, change what you’re eating for breakfast. Start to fundamentally rebuild your food. If you think that buying a book and having someone else tell you what to eat for 12 weeks or however many weeks is the solution, look around.
How many people buy these books and actually stick to it forever without doing any tweaks to the plan whatsoever? We don’t want to just eat what we’re told. That’s why those plans are not successful.
I urge you to take back ownership and ask yourself if you really want someone else telling you what to eat. If you really do, it should have worked by now. It’s not really what you want. You want to feel in control of yourself, your body and your life, and you should.
A lot of times we think that’s what we want in the moment because it seems like the easier way, but it’s not really the easier way if we are constantly stuck in a cycle that’s a lot of work. It’s really about revamping what you’re doing, tweaking what you’re currently doing, and not feeling like you have to overhaul your life overnight.
Have you tried following a plan that told you exactly what to eat? What happened when the plan ended? Comment below or on Facebook and share your experience.