Why Depriving Yourself Never Works With Weight Loss

Until I discovered more healthy ways to lose weight, I used to be the queen of deprivation. 

Every time I started a new diet I would pretend I was happy about it when I was really miserable.  I remember being with friends, or at work, and noticing what everybody was eating and despite salivating to myself, I'd think, no sweat, because once I get this weight off, I’m gonna down a whole box of cookies.  

Only first, I need to lose the weight so for the next few months, I'll cut all my favorite foods, and then I'll go back to eating them…

Looking back, I think to myself, "How much sense did that make?"  I mean, honestly.  And I did it all the time. Sometimes as often as every few weeks!  I used to come up with these crazy rules too, like starting a diet at 1pm on a Friday and I had until 1pm four Fridays from that Friday to lose ten pounds.  There was no real strategy in place mind you, other than eat less exercise more, I just had to achieve the goal by that date.

Then there was the time, in an effort to not deprive myself, I went on the all pudding diet, where the only thing I could eat was pudding, which you can imagine after so much pudding, you don’t want any more pudding.  That completely backfired!

An important reason to realize why it backfired is, other than the fact I was dieting, was because I was in fact depriving myself, just in another way.  There were no greens, protein or good fats in my diet, so my body starting sending me signals to force me to start eating other foods, which, in my mind, translated to failure because I couldn’t stick to just eating pudding!

I used to suffer from a lot of anxiety too and when my anxiety would peak, I couldn’t eat, which I saw as a good thing because I’d always lose weight.  Sometimes my panic attacks lasted weeks or even months, and I'd always drop fat, and I considered a weight loss strategy, but not one I would recommend.  In fact, none of these are!  They are silly ideas we come up with when we get desperate.

I didn't know how to not diet or stop making up ridiculous schemes in order to lose weight you could say.  Again, all born out of desperation!

Chronic dieters are commonly known for depriving themselves, which is a total lose-lose.  It's the same thing as starving yourself which sends the same message to your body and is actually counterproductive to weight loss.  In starvation mode, your body slows metabolism, shuts off fat burning and stores fat.  It pretty much thinks you're on a desert island when you try to cut back or restrict food, therefore, despite the most common claims and weight loss methods that involve calorie restriction, it actually causes weight gain.

I was programmed young, as most people are, that there are certain food rules that we must follow in order to lose weight and one of them is to deprive ourselves of all the foods we love.  We begin to believe that it’s absolutely essential to the process and if we fail at it, then we fail at weight loss altogether, which from my own experience, has proven hardly true.

For starters, I don’t know how to deprive myself.  I'm just not good at it.  When I want something, I want it and that includes food because if I tell myself no, I’ll just keep thinking about whatever it is I want.  In other words, [bctt tweet=”my desire for it isn’t going to just miraculously disappear because my willpower somehow outwit it.”]

So I eat it.  I don’t eat heaping handfuls of whatever it is, but I eat it, but if you want to know a secret, the truth is sometimes I do binge and overeat.  Because there are times when I find myself overeating or binge eating, because I have my moments like everyone else.  It’s not all day everyday, but it happens and I just let it go.  I figure that I either didn’t eat a balanced meal last time I ate, or it’s so good that I ate beyond being satiated, or perhaps I’m avoiding something – whatever the case may be. 

And so what?  I’m not perfect.  None of us are.  But I’m in much more control than I would be if I tried to deny myself and not eat whatever I’m craving.

When I left my job four years ago, I virtually stopped binge eating and overeating altogether.  It became practically nonexistent because I stopped hating my life, of which my job was a big part.  Instead, I started to love the work I do, and my focus became my work versus food so I now know when I do binge or overeat, it just means something is off, physically or emotionally, I address it and move on.

My new strategy now is to look for the reasons behind my actions and determine what made me react the way I did, without self-judgment, because I love food and I am not about to go through life not eating food that makes me happy.  Food is one of the greatest pleasures we have so it doesn’t make sense.

Ironically we have a skewed view on pleasure in our society, in that if something brings us pleasure, we should feel guilty.  I'd love to know who came up with that one!  I actually think food quality matters more than anything.  Organic, hormone-free, gluten-free, dairy-free food.  Low sugar and raw when possible too.  Those are my food rules, and they work for me.

By eating this way, there is never a need for me to feel guilty and I don’t feel deprived.

When you deprive yourself, you just wind up way worse off because it becomes an obsession and when you finally do give in – because let's face it, you will – your binges will last for weeks, sometimes years, so just let yourself have whatever it is you want now, and if you want to obsess about something, make it more about the quality of your food . You’ll never feel like you’re missing anything and you’ll take your focus off the food on your plate and put it on non-food forms of food such as inspiring work, quality relationships, or moving your body in ways that you love and naturally feel good.

When you do that, you'll be fed in ways that food itself could never feed you.

Here's another resource for you too!  My FREE 7-Video eCourse on how to stop emotional eating.  Just click the button below!

Love,
Angela

Angela Minelli is an author, speaker and founder of Angela Minelli International, a heart-based global business serving purpose-driven everyday women and entrepreneurs whose self-image and weight issues are inhibiting their confidence and blocking them from pursuing their life’s passion. 

Angela's joy is in taking a stand for women who are living less than ideal lives, stopped by fear and doubt, which prevents them from stepping into their innate power and delivering their God-given genius to the world. Her coaching programs and products are designed for women with busy lifestyles yet allow for powerful transformation to take place within a small segment of time.  

As a natural health practitioner and digestive health specialist, Angela specializes in helping people overcome weight and energy issues through holistic, non-invasive protocols that address the root cause of their conditions, including adrenal fatigue, candida, thyroid disorders, and more.  

Explore the ideals that are the cornerstone of her work at angelaminelli.com.