By Shannon Hayes Buescher
By now, you are a little more than a month into your New Year’s resolution. According to U.S. News & World Report, 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February.
This can be met with frustration and maybe you are thinking, “Why bother continuing?” But the solution is to look at why this happens.
In 2018, eating better and exercising more were the No. 1 New Year’s resolutions. It’s safe to say that the same was true for this year. For most people, this means going on a diet or program that eliminates one or more food groups, and creates rules with food and exercise.
Research has shown that 95 percent of all diets fail, and most people regain the weight lost (plus some) in one to five years. Nobody tells you that when you sign up. And you are taught that in some way, you are just not trying hard enough; that you need to have more willpower and discipline to achieve the results you want.
The problem is not you. It’s the diet. It’s the elimination of any food group. Have you heard of the saying, “What you resist, will persist?” This is what happens; this is why the resolution will only last a month. You can do it for a short while and then, life happens, or the food is “calling your name,” or you just can’t take it anymore, and you must have whatever it is that you cut out.
This doesn’t mean that you just throw in the towel, and quit caring about what you put into your body. It means you pay attention. You pay attention to what foods make your body feel energized versus what makes you feel lethargic. You pay attention to what signs of hunger you experience. You pay attention to how you feel when you move your body. You take the expectation of body change out of it, and do it because it gives you energy, or helps you sleep better or manage stress. When that is leading the decision, you’ll stick with it and last way past this month!
Our society sets us up to believe that our bodies can always be better. Seventy-five percent of surveyed American women endorse unhealthy thoughts, feeling or behaviors related to food or their bodies. And it’s starting younger and younger! Almost half of American children between the first and third grade, want to be thinner and half of the 9- to 10-year-olds are dieting. Since the launch of the “War on Obesity” in the ‘80s, childhood obesity has tripled!
These numbers just make me stop and think. What is happening? What is causing these women, men and young children to feel so terrible and wrong about the body that they are in? How can they find kindness for their body, kindness in the way they use food, kindness in the way they talk to themselves? Society has instilled so much fear, yet things are getting worse. The answer doesn’t rest in another diet. The answer rests inside of you. It rests in the listening, trusting and changing the way you see your body.
Buescher is a registered and licensed dietitian. She has over 15 years of experience with nutritional counseling in sports nutrition, eating disorders and a non-diet approach to food. Visit hayes-nutrition.com.
