I’m not on a diet or exercise program, I’m transitioning into a healthy lifestyle.
What’s the difference?
Diet/Exercise Program
You eat certain foods, eliminate others, and go to the gym like a caged hamster every day. You hate the rules, restrictions, and the boredom.
Healthy Lifestyle
An increased level of physical activity with a balanced diet. I’ve only ever been on diets and exercise programs before, that’s why I (among millions of others out there) have failed repeated attempts to lose weight. You may lose a little weight at first, but you’ll quit and go right back where you started.
It’s imperative to understand the difference between a diet/exercise program and a healthy lifestyle. If you don’t, it’s going to be extremely hard for you to lose weight and keep it off. The difference between the two clicked on like a light bulb two months ago — that’s why my weight is plummeting and hopefully won’t return.
Are you still not sure I haven’t been drinking already? Don’t judge me, it’s almost noon. I kid. Seriously though, consider the following:
An old attempt to lose weight (diet/exercise)
I forced myself to go to the gym and I hated it. I had no other physical activity. I couldn’t eat cheese, tacos, mayo, fried foods, pancakes, barbecue, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.. I still had the same unhealthy habits I had before I started dieting and exercising, I just made myself go to the gym 5 times a week and I couldn’t eat the foods I had loved for years.
A diet would last for a week or two, I’d lose a little weight, then quit. Diet and exercise alone is simply not enough to lose weight.
Current attempt to lose weight (a healthy lifestyle)
I still force myself to go to the gym, but I enjoy going — I make it a contest to challenge myself every time. And since I joined a small gym, I’ve become a regular and have made friends with the other members; we see and workout with each other daily, sharing our lives.
With my healthy lifestyle, I eat foods that I couldn’t when I was dieting. The old diets eliminated them, my new healthy lifestyle does not. I limit foods now, but if I still want a cheeseburger, or chicken wings and fries, I’m going to have them.
Outside of the gym, I’m using my newly-toned body to perform activities I rarely did before. I play basketball everyday after the gym with the kid from next door. I’m taking the dogs for more walks and wrestling with them more; our boxer weighs almost 100 pounds and I toss him around like a puppy. When I go shopping, I park at whatever parking spot is available at the store; I don’t circle for 10 minutes waiting for a close spot to become available.
I’m living a healthy lifestyle, not forcing diet and exercise into a bad one.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post.
I joined the gym approximately 6-7 weeks ago, and I go 5 days a week. I have no “formal” routine, but I make sure I’m there for at least 1hr each day. I mix in weights and cardio on various days.
I’ve ditched soda except for on Saturdays (cheat day). All I drink is water now. During the week, I stick to relatively healthier food. Plus, I always make sure I’ve eaten every 2-3 hours or so. This has kept me from eating large meals. My afternoon snack (3pmish) is sometimes a Hershey bar with almonds. Yes, I’m still eating chocolate — just not as much.
I’ve lost roughly 12lbs in this time going from 205lbs to about 193lbs.
By compromising with myself, I’ve lost half the weight I’ve wanted to lose by my wedding (7 months). I have another 10lbs or so to lose and then I’ll be happy.
You are so very right.
I wish gyms, trainers, and consultants would be very upfront with people looking to lose weight and explain that like it or not, it’s a permanent lifestyle change. People forget that when you weight a lot then you used to, your body burns less calories naturally in a day then it once did, and therefore, you will need to eat less if you want to remain at that reduced wait.
The truth of it is, if you want to want to lose more than a few pounds and stay there, you will never, ever be able to eat the same way again – so your new diet better be one that you can happily maintain.
Research shows time and time again, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. While we need to be mindful of things like fat content and sodium for our general health, if we “budget” our calories correctly, there is no reason why a new weight maintenance diet (or even weight loss) diet can’t contain the odd big mac time and again. Make it easy on yourself!
so how did the comment / exercise experiement go??
Excellent post, thank you. I think this is what I’ve been missing in all of my years of “dieting”. I can last a month or two but then go back to my old ways. I think I’ll plug in this philosophy and see how it goes.
You’re quite an inspiration :)
Hey Connie — the pledge is tomorrow evening :)
I’m glad you guys liked the post.
I’ve never been on a “diet” before. I just couldn’t stick to someone else’s “plan”. I like to follow ideas on how to lose weight. I’ll take something from one “diet” and take some idea from another. The best thing I learned was from a book called “You on a Diet”. Limiting your choices every day makes it much easier to lose weight. Having the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch or dinner may be boring but it takes one thing out of the “loop” that you have to think about. I’m not sure if it was in the same book but a family who decided to turn their meals around and have dinner the first meal of the day and their breakfast the last lost a substantial amount of weight between them.