How to Diet During the Holidays

If you are on a restricted meal plan trying to be good this time of year, good luck. As you’ll probably hear, no one diets during the holidays. January is when we give it all up and endure the DTs of sugar, salt and carb withdrawals. It is a time to celebrate now and enjoy food, festivities and cheer. Diets are next to impossible to adhere to against grandma’s famous mac n cheese, the office cookie exchange and parties laden with festive cocktails.

While it is true the holidays are tough time to start or be on a diet, it is also where the diet mentality has failed us and our waistlines. This idea we must deprive, restrict, and limit ourselves in order to lose weight has corrupted what it means to diet and how it is done. It has also made it so we don’t lose weight. Despite the billions spent each year on meal plans, coaching, plans and programs, we are obese and only getting fatter. In fact, the United States ranks number one for the number of people considered obese and overweight. It really doesn’t matter what time of year it is either.

Dieting Gone Wrong

The way we diet sets us up for failure. Most diet plans contain restrictions on foods in either type or quantity or both. This puts our body into starvation or with uncontrolled cravings. Most of us cannot overcome that uncomfortableness and will revert to old habits within the first week on a new diet.

Then there are diets and meal plans with pre-packaged meals, fuelings or some other name for what we should be eating on their program. Almost 90% of these program’s meals contain unnatural ingredients that are no better than processed foods we are already eating off a diet. From artificial sweeteners to preservatives and chemicals these foods put us at risk for creating further health complications.

My favorite is the programs that require payment for you to receive coaching from someone who has gone through the program themselves successfully. Often these are unqualified every day people who just by chance lost some weight. They use a one sized fits all script they are taught.

It really doesn’t matter the program you look at as you will find these elements in all of them. There is a lack of personalization for your specific needs and you are left feeling hangry. If you manage to make it through the first couple months you may lose weight but as soon as you stop it often comes back.

How to Diet, Even During the Holidays

If you are serious about improving your waistline, cleaning up what you eat and being healthier than a diet i