You’ve read it a million times. Diets just don’t work. Only a tiny percentage (3%) of dieters actually lose weight and keep it off.  So why is it so hard to give up the belief that you can become a thin person and stay that way by dieting?

I know. You’re still hoping for that one magical diet that will easily solve your weight problem. That diet will be the perfect solution for you to lose weight quickly and easily and keep it off.  If you still believe that, maybe you also believe in the tooth fairy.

Do you like diets because they tell you what to do and you can at least temporarily give up responsibility for your eating choices to the diet? Then you get tired of the rigid diet, and give up that, right? Or if you are one of the very few who stays on the diet long enough to reach your goal, what happens when you go off the diet and resume eating the way you did before? You’ll get the same results as you did before the diet, that’s what!

The problem with diets is that they encourage us to ignore our body’s signals and needs. Diets do not address the real problem that caused your weight problem in the first place, which is why you are eating more food than your body needs. In other words, a diet doesn’t permanently change your relationship with food.

You can temporarily eat less food, but if you don’t address the emotional issues that cause you to eat when you aren’t hungry, you will never lose weight and keep it off.

Are you ready to dump the diet mentality?

Here’s how to do it!

1.     Throw out all of your diet books, carb and calorie counters and things like that and don’t buy them anymore.

2.     Stop reading articles about the latest diet craze.  That includes Paleo, Whole 30, South Beach, Intermittent Fasting, cleanses of all varieties, Atkins, Keto, the Zone, and all the rest of them.

3.     Face the reality that there is no quick fix. Quick fixes don’t work. It took you a while to gain the weight and it will take you a while to break the habits that caused it, and to lose the weight. Be patient.

4.     Start listening to your body’s hunger and fullness signals, and use those signals to decide when to eat and how much. Eat like you did when you were a toddler. Start eating when you are hungry and stop when your body has had enough but doesn’t feel full.

5.     Give yourself permission to eat whatever your body wants as long as you are hungry.

6.     Don’t give up! Changing the way you deal with food and eating takes a lot of practice. If you mess up, which you will, don’t let that discourage you. Notice what went wrong, and think about how to avoid that problem next time.