Don't Make Dieting Your Resolution!

Each time I turn on the TV or the radio I hear, "Lose 20 pounds by Valentines Day!" or "Lose all the holiday weight for just pennies a day!" And my all time favorite, "Do you suffer from abdominal fat? (duh) In just weeks you can lose the fat and get the abs you've always wanted!" Do you have abdominal fat? PUHLEEEEZZZZEE! No, I just suffer from ankle fat and I'm dying to get rid of it, any ideas?

O.K. where was I, right, the plethora of post holiday weight loss ads.

For many of you, the holidays certainly bring its share of challenges, most of which include trying to say no to too many sweets and high fat foods. It happens every year and yet every year we seem to be surprised come January 1st that we "did it again." Though we thought we fought the urge, the scale reflects the ugly truth!

We replay our indiscretions over and over in our head wondering why we couldn't, "Just say no!" What was it? Why can't we fight it? What makes us eat the things we know we shouldn't eat? I'll tell you what it is, it's called January, the month of redemption. For every cookie, cake and chocolate ball, January will absolve us of our nutritional no-no's. January, the month of repentance for all our food sins, be gone spritz cookie!

Ah, January, sweet, sweet January, what would we do without January? My hunch is that February would have new found popularity.

The reality is, how can you fight the urge to once again jump on the latest fad diet to undo all the holiday indulgences? How can I encourage you to finally make the decision to develop habits that will carry you well in to the new year and beyond? How can I coax you to ignore the whisperings of the diet devil that consistently makes empty promises and entices you with "too good to be true" claims. I guess I'll have to jump on my soapbox and hope that my words overpower any empty promises made by the latest diet trends.

Below are My Top 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't t Diet This Year! (and every year following).

10. Name one diet that's worked... permanently. (You can't count the one's where you lost 5 pounds here and 10 pounds there or even 25 pounds. They don't count if the weight came back.)

9. Because diets leave you feeling like a failure, over and over and over again. When's the last time a diet left you feeling grand about yourself?

8. Diet's are dangerous. Too little food translates to low energy and low metabolism. Unregulated diet pills can elevate your blood pressure resulting in high blood pressure and possibly a stroke.

7. Diets are misleading. I sort of think about the peddlars in the old days, also known as sellers of Snake Oil. Snake Oil was touted as the "cure of whatever ails ya!" as soon as the peddlar sold out, he was long gone. How many diets make promises that actually pan out? What recourse do you have when they don't work?

6. Diets convey poor information - Let's see, for the most part diets don't encourage healthy food choices, they simply talk about cutting calories. And though we do consume too many calories in this country, we simply need to make better food choices and cut down on portions. Some diets say, well hey, if you have a snickers, that's 10 points, but it's o.k. just don't go past your points. Where's the nutritional benefit there? Guess it doesn't matter if you don't exceed your points, right?

5. Diets don't teach moderation- Diets are clearly all or nothing. You can either eat something or nothing. Why do you think we go nuts during the holidays? Because we're not on a diet and diets teach us when we're not dieting, we can eat whatever we want! Huh? Wha?

4. Diet's aren't real life. In the 20 plus years I've been in this business one of the biggest reasons diets fail is that people travel, celebrate birthdays, anniversary's, weddings, etc. If you're on a diet and the food isn't on the menu you either starve or you're forced to go "off" your diet. Once you're "off" your diet well you're pretty much done and then you can eat anything you want, right?

3. Diet's usurp self-esteem- For those of you that have spent most of your life dieting, tell me how you feel about your body? Tell me how you feel about you? Your value? Trust me, I've been around the block enough times to see how dieting has whittled away at the self-esteem of many talented, brilliant people simply because they couldn't find success with their weight. Let's see, could it be the diet perhaps? Hmmmm.

2. Diets make us forget we have common sense- You guys KNOW what you should eat, you do. Quick, name three great choices for breakfast? Three great choices for lunch? Three great choices for dinner? See you know, it's just that for whatever reason you have ditched any inclination to listen to what you know and have opted to follow some nutty diet that will teach you little and leave you feeling once again as though you've failed.

And the number one reason you shouldn't diet,

1. Diet's Don't Work! Do I really need to elaborate?

Your health, your choice!