What To DO?

Activities, especially the ones we find unpleasant or painful, that don’t yield a positive return to us individually, are counter productive. Acts such as reducing sodium, eating “organic”, or “exercising daily” can sometimes actually prevent a person from creating a healthy lifestyle for themselves.

Hate running? Then don’t run. Don’t like giving up pizza? Then figure out a way to fit it into your diet. Don’t like salads? Then don’t eat them.

So what would be a successful strategy for weight loss?
Choose the most painless, most effective way-of-eating possible, for you personally.

It’s foolish to force one’s own fitness or nutritional ideologies on others. Many people treat fitness and nutrition as though these issues are a Religion and try to push their own preferences on to other people.

Perhaps the Paleo diet worked very well for you. That doesn’t mean that it will work for someone who feels horrible on low carbs or loves bread.

Perhaps limiting all eating to three or less mealtimes a day feels “natural” to you. That doesn’t mean eating in that manner will be effective for those who greatly value daily snacks, or for those who have a strong personal preference for eating a larger number of mini-meals daily.

Perhaps it’s easier for you to restrict the amount of your food intake by establishing a pattern of skipping meals or fasting a few days each week. That doesn’t mean that an eating/fasting pattern is workable or desirable for everyone.

If you find a diet that works for you, congratulations! It’s okay to recommend this diet to your friends, but don’t turn it into Nutritional Dogma. Just be thankful that you’ve found a good strategy and move on with your life.

Saying that there is only one way to eat is the same thing as saying that everyone shares a common heritage, comes from the same cultural background, and has the same personal preferences. People are different. We are not all the same.