Diets don’t work in long-term effectiveness. They are a quick fix. One must change their lifestyle for long term success.

So many diets have come and gone, with many promises of quick weight loss if certain programs are adhered to. It has quickly become a massive industry generating a lot of income, because of the desire of many people to achieve the slim-figure constantly shown to us in the media. It is interesting to note that, despite all the multitudes of dieting programs, there has been little success in the weight loss efforts of most of the population. People attempting to lose weight seem to do so initially at the start of these diet programs, but end up with much more weight after the dieting is over. This leaves them resigned, wondering how they blew it again.

Maintaining a healthy weight involves much more than food restriction. It is a lifestyle that  needs to be developed and not just a program to stick to for two or three months. Dieting is just a temporary fix to solve your weight problems, the results really aren’t going to last, because once the diet has ended, you find yourself plugging back to the same old habits that got you stuck with the fat in the first place; and then the cycle continues. For effective weight loss, everything from what you eat, to how you think, to what you do, should all be in alignment with the healthy lifestyle that you are developing.

A common assumption among dieters when they fail in their efforts to lose weight is that they are not disciplined enough, or that they lack the willpower to stay lean.

Some attribute their dieting failures to their own laziness or gluttony, failing to realize from the inception that, dieting is bound to fail, because it is not a healthy way to lose weight. Meanwhile, losing weight shouldn’t be this difficult and strict-ruled. It is easy to maintain a healthy weight when it’s fun, and not with stringent rules. Dieting produces a kind of tension in our minds, with don’t- eat- this rules, eventually causing stress that makes many well-intentioned efforts backfire.

Through research carried out by psychologists, it has been found that, dieting sends the message “I am being starved” to the brain. The result is that after the dieting period has ended, the body tries to regain every ounce of the fat it has lost, thereby leading to additional weight gain. Your body doesn’t understand the concept that you are dieting, instead it sees it as starvation and goes into fat storage mode; kind of like, storing fat for the ‘rainy days’.

Diets really don’t work because they just focus on one aspect of weight loss: food. Other aspects such as mindset, exercise, sleep, stress management, and hydration are left out, making it totally one-sided, which is not what the body needs. Effective weight loss focuses on total management of every area of health and wellbeing, ensuring a balance and not starvation in any form.

Cultivating sustainable lifestyle changes is important, much more than just focusing on food restriction alone. What we eat, and how much we eat is equally important, but that shouldn’t be the only point of focus or weight loss efforts will just be myopic and yield no results. It is overall important to look at our previous eating habits and patterns, why we eat what we eat and how we eat it. It is a process of changing our negative patterns all around, both internally and externally, to influence every sphere of our life, and not just our food.

Dieting produces psychological effects such as obsession with food, and increased cravings to eat even in the absence of hunger, due to lack of attentiveness. The rigidity and restriction of dieting may eventually lead to some form of eating disorder and binge eating. The high focus on weight loss in dieting may lead to depression and low self-esteem, when the dieter eventually finds out the approach isn’t yielding any positive results. Medical complications that can arise from diet due to starvation include: weakness, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, fatigue, and poor immune system.

Getting past the don’t-eat-this-or-that to developing a healthy habit of choosing healthy pathways to staying healthy; having a healthy approach to living allows excess weight to be lost  slowly and naturally, and because of the accumulation of healthy habits. This kind of lifestyle prevents you from being at war with your body through some diets that could damage internal workings of the body as a whole. When weight is lost through healthy lifestyle habits, the effects are lasting.

Being healthy isn’t all about weight loss. It involves choosing to live daily with habits which ensure your overall well-being. Our lifestyle choices would determine in the long run whether the excess weight is lost, and not merely by boycotting certain foods. For overweight/obese persons, it’s a change that should be taken one step at a time.  It should not be a quick fix, but instead a long-term guarantee to better living that improves overall health even without weight loss. Dieting or any method of losing weight other than lasting change in habits may cause more problems.

Better lifestyle changes that can help maintain a healthy weight without any dieting input include eating consciously, ensuring to eat a balanced diet, being active and engaging in regular moderate physical activity.

After all, what we should all be striving for is total Wellness. “A state of complete physical, mental, and spiritual well-being; not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

“Learn to eat to live, and not to live to eat.”

HEDONIC EATING VERSUS MINDFUL EATING

hedonic – of or characterized by pleasure

mindful – conscious or aware of something

We eat food because of its ability to provide us with the necessary nourishment and its ability to aid in our brain function. But with the vast majority of foods available, and their desirable tastes, eating can become a pleasure tool to satisfy our desires. Hedonic eating is eating just for the pleasure it brings rather than for the nutritional benefits that can be gained from such eating. Hedonic hunger makes an individual consume certain pleasant food even in the absence of physical hunger. Food is consumed because of its rewarding component. Hedonic influences abound with the multitudes of technological instruments appealing to our sensory organs. With multitudes of snacks, sweets and various high-calorie foods out there, hedonic eating is a common phenomenon. These foods are palatable, convenient, easily available ,and the desire to consume them is high. Cravings are form of hedonic eating, making the eater desire certain food or drink.

Mindful eating is being more aware of what you eat, savoring every taste and taking every bite consciously, with an effort to stop at just being satisfied, meanwhile hedonic eating makes you eat more food, mindlessly, in a bite to have it all, get over-satisfied and still keep going. Mindful eating observes the body, considers the hunger signals, weighing them rightfully before deciding to eat. While eating, mindful eating takes time to note that all distractions are put aside and focus is put on the food in front of the eater, consuming every bite more consciously, feeling every texture and taste of the food.

Hedonic eating can be triggered by emotional circumstances, such as loneliness and stress. While mindful eating seeks to understand emotional feelings that may trigger hedonic eating, and focuses on not entertaining such feelings and to stay on the course of eating consciously and purposely. Mindfulness while eating encourages you to put away distractions such as TV, internet, and cell phones which could spur overeating. Every time spent in mindful eating can be well accounted for, as the senses are in full corporation with the mouth and stomach.

Consciously putting your mind into eating is very beneficial as it helps you be more in control of your eating behavior. Mindful eating connects with the brain and signals to the body when to stop eating and when to start eating, unlike hedonic eating which hardly connects to the brain in the process of eating; The end is just to satisfy this ‘pleasant urge’ to eat. Mindfulness in eating involves breaking free from usual eating habits by thinking through the feelings and internal forces that influence how you eat and your purpose for eating.

Hedonic eating doesn’t require much effort, most times it’s being programmed by impulse into our subconscious, so when the desire to eat something palatable comes, we just move to eat; meanwhile mindful eating requires effort, programming your mind to consciously choose how food is being eaten. Mindfulness helps you listen to your body when it screams hunger or being full. It allows you to obey your body cues. Self-control is a necessary attribute when it comes to hedonic and mindful eating. Hedonic eaters hardly refrain from food which seems pleasant and desirable to them. Mindful eaters on the other hand consciously weigh all options before eating, and know how to control their mind and sensory organs towards their food.

Hedonic eating is one major cause of obesity, as most times the eaters go over the limit satisfying their hedonistic desire, and eventually accumulate excess fat which is then stored up in their body. Mindful eating is beneficial in weight management, as it helps the eater to be more aware of food choices, portions, and manner of consumption.

Hedonic eaters can become more mindful eaters by taking into consideration their motive for eating and how they eat. It would require conscious disciplined efforts for a hedonic eater to overcome the habit. One way is for such an eater to have an eating diary which helps put in check what to eat and when to eat, and also rating on a scale their level of hunger before having any meal or snack. Questions such as the following should be asked before embarking on any meal: Why am I eating this meal? Am I really hungry? Did I eat in the past 1-2 hours? Am I eating just to satisfy an urge? If these can be answered rightly, it can help the hedonic eater to become more mindful. Also, it would help them overcome their hedonic habits gradually.

It is also important to note that mindful eating is not a method of dieting nor some form of food restriction. It doesn’t limit to certain food structure, but rather it helps to coordinate eating behaviors. On the other hand, dieting could lead to some hedonic behaviors, when the eater becomes emotional or judgmental.

Final thoughts: I could use the term “hedonic” for many other behaviors in today’s society. We are all seeking some form of “self-pleasure” in different aspects of our lives. The danger is when our lives become utterly consumed with a particular “hedonistic” action. Let’s be honest with ourselves, that kind of lifestyle is quite selfish, and not only damaging to one’s self, but also to the people closest to us. So, I think if one can shift from “hedonic eating” to “mindful eating,” then you will at same time start living a conscious life.

“Happiness doesn’t derive from location, or material possession, it derives from a higher state of consciousness.”