Confession of a Reluctant Dieter

I plan to write more about what I mean by the whole life approach to dieting, but I was sitting around thinking about eating and food today and I had a bit of a revelation.

Planning yet again to give up soft drinks, eat a whole foods diet and all in all get healthier.  I was going over again when my start date should be, things I could do to stick with it, and how to all in all transform my diet.

I think these things a lot, but for a long time, it hasn't come to much of anything but thinking.  I took note of this and looked a little deeper.  I asked myself a question that I never really had before.  "Do I really want to change the way I eat?"

The immediate response was a defensive, "Duh, of course I do."  But I paused and asked again.  I realized that it's more complicated that than.  Do I want to lose weight?  Yes.  Feel better about myself?  Yes.  Be in better shape?  Yes.  Yes.  Yes.

But do I want to give up the comfort of sweet or fatty snacks?  Not really.  Give up the sugar rushes?  Umm, well...  Stop the warm and full feeling of midnight snacks?  Ok.  I give up.  I don't really want to do it.  The sacrifice feels too great.

So now what?   Well, I think acknowledging it is a first step.  And this is where the real work has to come in, figuring out how to shift my no to a yes, and reluctance into an embrace. Actually, this is where the idea that dieting has to be about more than eating but also about living really has to come in.  I will come back to this more later.