Do I Really Need Another Diet? - A psychological approach to your relationship with food
Whenever most people think of the word "diet", they hide into the darkest corner they know of and their gut shrinks to the size of a raisin.
Why? Because they know they need to change something about their eating habits.
Change something to be healthier, change something to look different, change something just because they feel like they should.
So, why don't they?
And why do they see the extreme "diets" as the only way to change things?
This is exactly why I wrote the book Do I Really Need Another Diet? A psychological approach to your relationship with food.
You see, most people have a very unhealthy relationship with food.
I'm not only talking about individuals who are over their desired weight, or are only eating fast food and drinking only sugary drinks.
What most people don't know is just how many people struggle with their relationship with food, be it overweight, underweight, or of whatever weight. Be it eating chocolate bars as if they were made of pure health or be it eating salads for every meal of the day.
Many people struggle being around food they've prohibited themselves from having, struggle with staying in check with their diet plan, crave something they cannot have, and most ultimately end up saying "Screw it!" and quit their efforts altogether.
For most, their diets are a source of anxiety.
Background vector created by iconicbestiary - www.freepik.com
What I first want you to acknowledge is that your diet isn't a six week meal plan you picked off the internet or magazine. Your diet is your lifestyle. Something you do, whether you're aware of it or not, each and every day.
Your diet may consist of three meals of fast food a day, one massive meal, sixteen small ones, or four salads. They're all still called the same. A diet.
Now, changing your lifestyle surely isn't the easiest thing to do, but there's one thing you need to know above all. It won't happen overnight. And it also doesn't have to. Five years from now it won't matter if it took you one month, six months, a year, or two, to fix your food-related problems. What will matter is that you will feel better around food, be able to enjoy all foods without feeling restricted, will be at least closer to your target weight, and will be equipped with all the tools necessary to make desired changes along the way if need be.
I firstly wanted to title this book "How to unf@ck your diet", which should give you an idea of what it's about.
- Stop overeating.
- Enjoy in all foods without the guilt.
- Handle real life situations, such as eating out.
- Set your goals for success.
- Be honest with yourself and stop making excuses.
- Lose or gain weight as effortlessly as possible, depending on your goals.
- Never need to go on another diet ever again.
The book also contains a cheat sheet at the end that describes in-detail how to improve your relationship with food one step at a time and is a great summary of what you've learnt in the book.
It is written to be as easily understood as possible, with real life examples, some humor, and importantly, with its claims supported by scientific articles.
It aims to encourage you to question your relationship with food by providing the necessary tools to achieve your (diet related) goals and even battle your existing food disorders.
And best of all, the tools described in this book remain much the same for all aspects of your life–they are only explained through diet related examples to help you see them in action.
Simple! Answer the following questions!
Are you:
- Endlessly dieting and not seeing results?
- Binging on foods you restricted yourself from?
- Feeling uneasy and out of control around food?
- Tired of telling yourself you'll start over on Monday?
- Dying to get your hands on a magic diet pill?
- Chasing the elusive "best diet"?
- Uncertain how and where to start?
These are just a few examples of the questions the book can help you resolve, so if you've answered yes to these questions, I believe the book holds a lot of valuable information for you.
Now that you know you want the book, you're probably wondering how much it costs and how you can get your hands on a copy.
One option is ordering from Amazon, following the link here.
The book itself is priced at $7.99.The other option is ordering directly from me, for which I will keep the same price, but you will be asked to cover the shipping fee(s). The purchase can be made using STEEM, SBD, Paypal, ...
If you order directly from me, you will receive a signed copy with a personalized thank you note.
Thank you for sticking around until the end of this post. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them.
I wish you all the best on your way to improving your relationship with food and achieving your diet/weight related goals!
I believe in you! <3
Special thanks to the people who believed in me, especially Mitja Kuret, the man who is also responsible for making my products look good, and @calluna, who made sure I didn't forget anything worth mentioning and spell-checked the text. <3
This just changed so much how i think about food, and I wouldn't have answered 'yes' to any of those questions.
I used to see food (as you know) as either an inconvenience, or a treat. I would force myself to eat anything for sustenance without thought for anything other than not being hungry (the week last year I had dry cream crackers every day for lunch comes to mind) and just force myself to chew and swallow, as quickly as possible to end the eating experience as soon as possible. Or, i would see it as a treat, or maybe that isn't the right word, i would eat things i enjoyed until i got that burning feeling at the back of my throat or felt so full i couldn't move. All the time with this book made me realize so much about my own eating and how more than it being unhealthy, it was a way my subconscious was grasping at straws in a battle for self containment and abuse. This helped me see that in myself, and i'm not saying my eating has completely changed, but now i keep a staple supply of things to eat for my lunch that taste nice enough, and feed my body instead of just filling my tummy. I still have binge out times, where i feast like a viking and then some, but it isn't a big bar of chocolate every night (okay, okay, its a smaller bar, and sometimes i manage the magic metal orange juice instead) but there are so many techniques here i have used in so many aspects of my life. This is a book on the psychology and practicality of diets, that is equally about self acceptance, and really loving yourself is feeding your body with what it needs, and looking after it, and not operating a regiment of self deprivation, but finding the balance.
In my totally not bias opinion, everyone should have a copy.
Mój Ukochany!~ >:^D - Totally relateable to young me where I had no concept of food other than “this food is candy, this food is healthy” and that’s what they only cared to say. However, when I did start to develop a taste and care to understand food, I would massively structure how I ate - only eating a whole lot when on family gatherings. Otherwise, I really place limitations and drink water if I feel hungry. Then again, this same family of mine really had an eye on my health and instilled hard habits of eating I have now either modified or abandoned.
So in short: whatever mój Ukochany says about the book might be true and I won’t doubt it.
Does that mean you'll be buying it :p
(although "might be true" haha)
Maybe~ ;p
(True on that)
First of all, thank you for this extensive comment, and for all the help with the book itself.
Do I need to answer more questions then, or rewrite the paragraph? ;P
Thank you so very much for sharing this with us, and I am so very happy to hear that it helped you realize the source of the problem, and helped you summon the power to change things.
I cannot not comment on the small chocolate bar, so, here goes :P
Most of us are very bad at giving ourselves credit for what we've achieved, and overall very critical about our success. We also always want more and more and more, failing to realize that maintaining a new habit is also success in itself.
What I'm trying to say is, you switching from a big bar of chocolate to a smaller one and sticking to it is a great success. Same as someone trying to lose/gain weight - many people think they've failed if the scale doesn't move every week/month. What most don't realize is that you've actually successfully maintained a new, lower/higher weight, and that is success too!
I'm not saying give yourself participation rewards or that you shouldn't keep yourself accountable with mistakes. I'm saying give yourself credit where it's due, take your time, and be your friend instead of your enemy.
Sorry, this kind of took a turn beyond answering you and directed a larger audience.
So very happy to see that you have used the techniques described in the book in other aspects of life, too, and that they've worked! :D
It was my biggest intention to write the book like so that everything inside it can also be applied in other areas of your life, not just food related stuff, only explaining stuff using food related examples. I am so happy it worked out as intended!
Thank you again for this extensive comment!
I always felt I learned unhealthy eating habits from my family growing up and it was what I knew and what i was comfortable with and changing that wasn't easy because its so simple to fall back to what you know. It really is about a concerted effort to change your lifestyle rather than these fads of eating this and that.
FYI I have also selected your post as my @Pifc post of the week and you can find my nomination post [here](https://steemit.com/payitforward/@chekohler/week-50-pay-it-forward-curation-entry) and more about the curation program [here](https://steemit.com/payitforward/@pifc/week-50-pay-it-forward-curation-contest). You are also most welcome to join us each week and help find authors who should be getting a little extra reward
That is very much what is happening in most households and why the children of obese parents are more likely to be obese themselves. And it is exactly as you said, after you've developed said habits, they become comfortable.
What's good, though, is that you can replace those habits for different ones and create a new "normal", a new comfort zone. It does take time and effort, and leaving your comfort zone, but it's actually not as hard as our brains make it sound when you actually get around to it.
Exactly. This "Eat this and this and this, and don't eat this and this and this" kind of thinking is a large part of the problem.
But if you would only just change it to "Eat more of this and this and this, and less of this and this and this", it becomes a much healthier motto to live by.
What many people don't realize is that you can have cookies, doughnuts, cake, fast food, ... ... , but there's a difference between having one or two cookies, and having an entire package.
The book also speaks about that, and also notices that not all people can work with "moderation". Some people cannot stop at one or two cookies, or cannot stop unless they've cleaned their plate clean, and if that's you, that's okay. In the book I also describe strategies to help you fight that.
Thank you! :D
It means a lot to me!
This post has been manually selected, curated and upvoted by CI mod staff team. Supporting all posts that are in high quality and don’t get enough recognition.
This post was submitted for curation by: @theironfelix
This post was voted: 100%
Thank you very much, @co-in ! :D
And thank you to @theironfelix for submitting it!
<<<<3333!!!!~
Well this was an interesting post you made, very much in the realm of information uploading and talking about the key points of the books you have consumed and later transformed in your digestion of them. It really is nice to see not another member in the cult of "dieting" saying "be on X diet" or this or that, but trying one's best to actually dive into the heart of diets against the mysticism that has been made from diet industries (which has much benefited under Market/Capitalist functioning as any economist will tell you). And I want to say this right now before we go anywhere else that we should be making talks about what individual people should be doing on diets, it's a very much needed side which unfortunately has been blasted to the wayside not by dieters themselves but by the diet industry. However, we can save the talks of political-economy (which that is an entire mess of interrelations itself right there and can make any a mind insane even when we are discovering the unconscious mechanisms of such).
La fotos (The photos): Let's start here since these are very crucial in any a post, especially dieting or information-based posts. And I swear the lucky number of fotos (photos) on Steemit is the number two, haven't a real clue other than the logistics of citation and the fact that every little pixel counts. So the vector drawing one is really cutesy and conveys the general spirit of the post uncontroversially. The second one, a book cover I presume, is actually very nicely fitted to the text just right next to it, but more on that in "La forma" section. Since there were two, let's move on!!!!~
La forma (The form): Hey, we're in this section, so let's talk about the form of the post. Obviously since this is more in the reins of the "sciences" and what not, the form obviously will take on the form of most science/STEM posts - no doubt on that. Which isn't to say anything good or bad, it's appropriate is what I am saying. Moving on, the bullet points seem appropriate when used, italics good for emphasis and drawing closer to the "I" statements that have to be utilized (more on that later), sourcing seems appropriate and in the flow of the text, emoticons used sparsely but correctly and quotation marks used right when citing the general audience. All this to draw us in to the post's general feeling of being a lecture-dialogue (or a dialogue that happens in the form of the lecture and we have to respond with our internal voices even if you don't get to hear us, six-feet under dead or alive standing there on the lecturer's podium). The "I" (which we all share this I) statements were done well (and generally coded with italics), crucial for a psychology post as well ;p and yada yada for the rest.
El contenido (The content): Gotta say, the form works in conjunction with the content. So much of the form applies to here fairly well: bullet points stuck with orderings or facts, italics with showing that the author's voice is emphasized at key points to help the reader focus, emoticons just being adorably placed while still functioning correctly, sourcing to showcase a work if a reader wants to further study and pictures used right to keep interest up in a post if they get a bit tired. Of course this was mainly focused on psychology, actual assistance and dieting (demystifying such to the best of our abilities), so glad it focused on that for content. Other than that, hope to see some nice upvotes on this post!~
Exactly as you noted.
Capitalism.
Companies thrive on the people who aren't happy with themselves and are led to believe that they need that one miracle product (or kale juice which appears to be popular at the moment for no other reason than extracting people's funds), that just happens to cost an X amount of money.
It's sad but true that a happy individual will be a worse customer than an unhappy one.
It's gross where capitalism has gotten us. It's exactly as you said... An industry.
People need to re-learn how they view food and let go of the stuff they've been brainwashed with. It takes time and effort, but it is damn worth it.
First of all, thank you for getting so in-depth <3
And, yeah, I found the vector one to be great for the thumbnail, and very fitting for the message I'm trying to convey.
The second image is indeed the book cover! :D
I have to say it, you write with just the right degree of humor and wit. I love it! :D
Thank you for the comments on the form, especially because I was somewhat struggling with finding the right ratio between trying to describe the book and praise/sell it to a potential customer (which, let's face it, every author wants to do) without sounding like a badly overdone TV commercial.
I really wanted to include those questions in there for the reader to realize that a bad relationship with food doesn't only mean being over or under weight, but so, so, soo much more. At the same time, however, the questions can really be seen as overdoing it.
If I managed to strike the right ratio, perfect. :D
I'm so happy you pointed out the itallic/bold text. The book itself is written in much the same way, with the key points emphasized in bold. I think it really makes a difference, because seeing something in bold, you prep the mind for something important and it thus resonates with you better. At least so I believe. ;3
Once again, thank you for taking the time to write this up, and thank you for the kind wishes. <3
I mostly hope it manages (or should I say, that I manage to?) to help as many people as possible, also why the price is set at $7.99.
Again, thank you, and will definitely keep on writing!
And you... you keep on writing too ;)
Aye, I agree. The power of the modern advertisement, funny connection to Edward Bernays who was a niece of Sigmund Freud but totally weaponized psychoanalysis to the extreme of legalized mass ego-correction. Which this industry very much had tried burning all things but fails to remember that human error prevents it from achieving it all. So we shall take to the fight to struggle against the modern condition for a material condition that shall support us and never instigate us to have to uplift the entire society from the rot it generated.
~Welcome!~
Interesante - los ambos!
~^^~ Yah really think? ~^^~
It's definitely one of the many arts we can constantly improve on. But yeah, I got the questions. Also heck yeah on the ratio! :^D
Welcome as always~
Hue~
~UwU~
Yepp, and when you start thinking about it, it's quite insane how much we can be manipulated with, even if we know exactly what to look out for. Hell, placebos work to a degree even when you know they are placebos!
The human mind truly is nothing short of art.
I very much do think so. ^^
Awwwyiiiissss :P cha-ching
When they control the means of mental production, they can make magic into a science and science magic.
Hue~
Cha-chiiiiing!~
+1 to that. ^^
I have observed that most moderately-successful diets have one main thing in common... They cut the crap and pay attention to what they're eating. That's why people say: "Oh, I feel so good!"
I found you because @chekohler featured you in the Pay it Forward Curation Contest - keep up the great work!
It depends on what you count as a "successful diet"... If it's about losing fat, one can lose fat on an all-junk-food diet so long as they keep their calories in check. One could also consider gauging the diet by the foods you eat, and there is truth to some being better than others in that regard.
But what I believe is the ultimate measurement of the success of a diet, is how the individual feels while on said diet.
If you feel deprived, "hangry", out of control around foods you shouldn't have, I very much don't see such a diet as successful, even if it consists of foods that would make up the perfect ratio of everything a human body needs to function perfectly.
On the other hand, if one would feel satisfied, satiated, and in control around food, but eating a diet strongly deficient in X,Y,Z nutrients, that would also not be a prime example of a successful diet.
I believe that for a diet to be successful we need to take care of both aspects. Have an individual feel good, in control, with plenty of options and without restraining them from having X food(s), but also have this diet be balanced in terms of nutrients.
It may sound hard to achieve, but that's mostly due to the marketing/media.
Also, "cut the crap"... the "crap" here is, what, exactly?
Cake by itself isn't bad. Cookies, ice cream, pizza, and so forth aren't bad either. They are calorically dense foods (often with little to no micronutrients), but they aren't the real culprit. You can have them all, so long as the rest of your meals stay inside of your caloric range and not gain fat.
Think about it, near all diets have a culprit, a demon, something that's responsible for everything bad. Some say sugar is bad, some say fat is bad, some say you can only ever drink kale juice and nothing but. But it's really, really, not as simple as that... Or as complicated, depends how you look at it.
All foods can be enjoyed without the guilt so long as you know how to make room for them. Eating one cookie won't make you fat, but damn, a whole packet probably might.
But we've been ingrained with this image of there having to be an enemy, a culprit, something we need to demonize and avoid at all costs, when in reality, it's just... really not like that at all.
What I'm, in short, saying here, is that, Yes, most of your diet should consist of whole foods, but if some of it is highly refined and/or what most classify as "junk", that's okay too.
There's also a full chapter on labeling food as "good" and "bad/junk" is harming you more than it does good, and also why having "cheat meals" is likely not your best idea.
Anyhoooo, I'll stop this wall of text here and thank you for stopping by! :D
Everyone has their own placeholder for a lack. For me it was books that I ate. Knowledge that I devoured. Diaries which I wrote to the full.
No matter if eating, knowledge, playing, buying, smoking, climbing, travelling, running or meditating. Everything is compensation, if it should serve a lack. If something is not made out of inspiration and joy, if it is not born from within, but an adaptation to what one mistakenly believes to be, become or have to be, everything remains an attempt to pretend self-love.
One feels self-love when one carries a full beverage tray and serves the guests in the inn, not spilling a drop, pushing oneself through the narrow rows of chairs and exhausting oneself joyfully, because one did not pay attention to whether the beverages sloshed over the edges. Which they didn't do either. But when I meticulously begin to take care that nothing goes wrong, that I don't make any mistakes, then it goes wrong, I stumble, smash the dishes and turn my heart into a murder pit.
I feel self-love when I dance to music in a full club where hundreds of others could watch me, but where I am not interested in their eyes but in becoming one with the music, in spontaneously surrendering to the rhythms. My heart is turned to the music that guides my body. But if I am anxious to look good, if I am aware of the many eyes that watch my dance and judge me, then every pair of eyes that I encounter is like a thread that pulls on my limbs and my movements become clumsy.
I am so very happy you brought this up!
And I love how you put it; "Everything is compensation, if it should serve a lack".
Trying to fix a problem without working on its root and actually solving it cannot ever work. It's like applying a band aid on a crack in concrete wall - sooner or later it gives in, or at least never heals.
And as you said, it is by no means limited to food or any other such thing, it can be anything at all!
Yes! It is when you quit worrying about every little detail and just let go and have fun that all the detail just somehow falls into place and you have the time of your life.
You put it so well!
Thank you for sharing!
And I very much wish you continue enjoying dancing, and whatever else you do!
Thank you, what a kind feedback from you.
Great that you have written a book! It's a great thing to be able to sit down and do, and it is really a massive achievement and something that you can point to with pride!
I have dropped by as you were featured by @chekohler for a Curation Contest by @pifc!
Thank you!
And it is! It's an experience/challenge all for itself and, as you said, something to be proud of after investing hours and hours into writing and editing.
Thanks for stopping by! :D
Congratulations @davidkain! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
I guess the diet industry would't be a multi-million dollar industry if more people understood and believed the truth you're telling! Good luck with the book sales; I hope it's a huge success, because that would mean that people are finally understanding their messed up relationships with food. Thank you for sharing this.
I found your post because @chekohler featured you in a Pay it Forward Curation Contest entry! Feel free to join us any week with an entry of your own if you'd like :)
Exactly. It's a multibillion dollar market that would lose their customers if the products actually worked.
Thank you for the wishes! I very much hope so too, because what is happening is nothing but deceiving!
:D
You're most welcome @davidkain!