Not Sustainable
“Every weight loss program, no matter how positively it’s packaged, whispers to you that you’re not right. You’re not good enough. You’re unacceptable, and you need to be fixed.”
I don’t like weight loss programs. I don’t like gimmicky weight loss diets. I don’t like meal replacements. I don’t like ways of eating that try to cut out whole macros (fat, carbs, protein). Why? THESE WAYS OF LIFE ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE AND FOR THE MOST PART ARE NOT SAFE.
Recently, I had a friend tell me they were doing a weight loss program that is similar to Medifast. There are several meal replacements throughout the day, and then one meal of their making. Now, beyond this being expensive – you can pay up to $500 for a month of meal replacements – it also has you eating only about 1000 calories a day, give or take a few.
The minimum a human being should be ingesting is around 1200 calories. However, if you are 350 lbs, and you start out your weight loss by eating 1200 calories, you are going to eventually plateau, and then you have no way to reduce calories further in a healthy way. And, if you exercise, you need MORE than 1200 calories a day.
Not to mention, you are eating a TON of processed food – which isn’t good for you. No matter how many claims the labels make.
So, how is this sustainable? If you are ingesting 1000 calories a day, you are not losing weight because you are getting healthy. You are losing weight because you are starving yourself. Now, I will say here that I am not a medical professional, so you can take or leave my opinion.
Are these diets good to lose weight fast? Yes. Are they healthy? No. Are you going to gain the weight back and be less healthy if you go off of it? Probably.
Now, let’s move on to gimmicky diets – the master cleanse, the cabagge soup diet, the grapefruit diet, etc. Come on. You are smarter than that. See above, but realize that these are even worse for you. That’s all I have to say.
And finally, the macro cutting diets – low fat, low carb, low protein – enough. Just eat real food. Cutting out a macro your body needs isn’t natural. Just stop it. Unless you have a serious medical condition that requires this kind of diet, there isn’t a point in it.
Why are all of these diets popular? Why is the diet industry a several billion dollar industry? Because no one wants to wait. Everyone wants to see results now. And no one is really focused on health. They are focused on weight loss.
The basis of any of these plans is that there is something wrong with you that you need to change, and that thing is your weight and the way you look. That you are not good enough. Do you know what freed me from this crazy, soul sucking rollercoaster? Getting sick. Having to manage my diabetes. Realizing that a gimmick wasn’t going to save my life.
Do you know what did? Eating whole foods. Drinking a lot of water. Trying to get a few more minutes of purposeful movement a day. That is why my A1C went from 11.8 to 7.2 in just a few months.
I’ve currently made a switch to a mostly plant-based way of eating. Why? Not because I want to lose weight. Not because I see it as a trend or gimmick or way to lose weight fast. Instead, I see it as a way to improve my overall health – mind, body, and spirit. I’m using meditation and yoga to combat stress, and I am happy that I am not contributing as much to the destruction of the planet by lowering my animal product consumption. We would like to eventually go to zero animal product consumption, while also not eating processed foods. Maybe I will get there. My husband is now on board, so I have some support, and I think we’re going to be successful.
Do I think you need to eat this way? Yes. Do you need to eat the way I do? No. But I think if you want to achieve optimal health and heal your body, you need to do it with food, and there is no fast way to do it – no magic pill. There is just this formula – Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.
