THE LONG TERM STRATEGY

The idea of going on a diet to lose a few pounds in a few weeks only seems logical if you are trying to lose weight. But the problem I have with many of these fancy diets is simply this, they almost never offer any long term solution to dieting. So people go on these diets, lose a few pounds, only to gain it all back within a few weeks. The point I try to argue with my wife almost on a daily basis is, instead of going on a temporary diet to lose a few pounds, only to gain it all back once you get off the diet, why not just permanently change your diet since you're looking to lose weight and hoping to keep that weight from ever coming back. Just like exercising I believe healthy dieting should be viewed as a ongoing process for anyone looking to live a healthy lifestyle.

Sticking to a long term diet is not so hard once you get pass the initial stage and get use to the idea of healthy eating. After being diagnosed by a stomach doctor with Gastro- Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) a few years ago. He told me to start maintaining a bland diet in order to repair my stomach and get some relief from all the pain I was experiencing at the time. Maintaining a bland diet simply means I wasn't suppose to eat any fatty, greasy or spicy food. I was only suppose to eat foods that are are soft and easy on my stomach, foods such as: low fat yogurt, macaroni and cheese, mash potatoes. And as far as meats I was allow to eat, I could eat fish, chicken turkey and occasionally I could have some steak but just a small amount. Initially all that meant to me was I am only going to take a small break from eating junk food and drinking alcohol and once I start feeling a little better then I am going right back to my old eating habits. But after really thinking about what the doctor said about junk food and alcohol, and what it does to the stomach if consume on a regular basis. I started thinking maybe I should make that temporary diet change more of a permanent one. So after coming to the realization that it was these things that caused my illness in the first place, I figure it wouldn't made much sense to recover from my illness and then go right back to the same eating habits I had before.

At first the idea of a permanent change sounded almost like an impossible task, but once I got started, I was hooked and before long I was starting to feel a lot better. But even now that I've somewhat recover from my illness, I would never consider going back to my old eating habits.There is no sense in recovering from my illness only to have the same problem occur at some time in the future because of my own negligence. And because of my own experience, I always tell people to forget temporary diets because unless you're only planning on living for a short period of time, temporary diets seems a little pointless to me.