Dieting: Breaking the American Obsession

People who succeed at weight loss recognize the deceit of diets and no longer choose to be victimized by one of the most unregulated industries on record. We now know that women who focus on TV ads about dieting, or diet products, eat nearly twice as much as those who watch ads about other consumer products. What is your first line of defense if you are one of these victims? Change the channel. It can be your first step toward taking control of your new life.

An obsession with dieting has never worked and it never will. Diets hurt you mentally and physically. You lose the weight; you gain it back. You feel good about yourself for a moment, and then you feel terrible. Diets are a cruel joke of bait and switch. You’ve been conned into thinking you are buying one thing and end up stuck with something else. Have you ever thought of this? If diets worked, everyone would be thin. Diets are a kind of Russian roulette. And the game can be deadly. Yet somehow, we figure the odds are in our favor, so we pay our money and take our chances. We think, Well, maybe this one will work. We’re seduced by full-age, four-color promises, paid celebrity testimonials, newspaper and glamour magazine advertisements, and European “miracle” stories of instant fat removal. There is no end to the deceit. Nor is there a lack of the vulnerable who’ll do anything to be thin and therefore be loved, admired, and accepted.

Both the initial and ultimate false premise of a diet is that food is the culprit. Food is not the problem, and therefore dieting is not the cure. The antidote to dieting is to learn and live an authentic, balanced, healthy life. When we clean up the chaos on the inside, then, and only then, will we be free to address our external challenges.

You may be asking, “what is the formula for success that can put me among the two percent who succeed in losing weight permanently?” The good news is there is no formula. There is not a set of rules for you to follow. Guidelines and action plans? Yes, but no formulas.

People who lose weight permanently learn that weight loss comes through personal freedom and a lack of rules. Rules kill; freedom gives birth to personal growth. Rules immobilize; freedom allows people to be who they are designed to be and gives hope to last a lifetime. People who are overweight do not have defects in their personalities. Instead, they choose to live with pain, and food has been a way to cope with that pain.

What emotional toxins are you living with? What pain, fear, hurt, frustration, or abuse have become so much a part of your inner world that you have difficulty differentiating it from life itself?

Our team at The Center • A Place of HOPE can help you or a loved one address the internal issues that might be manifesting themselves in weight gain. If you believe you or someone you love is in need of recovery support, fill out this form or call 1-888-747-5592 to speak confidentially with a specialist today.