I’m a huge fan of safe, sane and permanent weight loss.
 
Dieting? Not so much.
 
I define “dieting” as “a way of eating that is un-joyful and unsustainable.”
 
For you, that might mean “the Atkins program.” For somebody else, it might mean “going Paleo.” Or “South Beach,” “going raw-vegan” or “doing a juice cleanse.”
 
Basically: if you’re eating in a way that you can’t stand doing for more than a few days, weeks or months, because you are miserable doing it … guess what? You’z on a diet.
 
And when it comes to reaching and maintaining your natural weight, it’s not gonna work.
 
In honor of the next session of The Weight School — which opens for enrollment in 7 days, yay! — I give you:
 
 
5 really good reasons to stop dieting, forever:
 
 
1. IT. DOES. NOT. WORK.
 
Dieting has been proven to cause weight gain, not loss.
 
As this UCLA professor and researcher states: "You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back. We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more.”
 
 
2. It screws with your brain chemistry.
 
Studies have shown that dieting “raises levels of hormones that stimulate appetite, while causing your brain to magnify food cravings.” Basically: your brain goes kuh-razy, panicking because it thinks you’re trying to starve yourself to death. So it goes into overdrive to make damn sure that don’t. (Hello, overeating!)
 
 

3. It shrinks your world.
 
How many times have you said, “I’ll go on that tropical vacation, once I look hot in a bikini?” Or “I’ll go to my high school reunion, but only if I drop twenty pounds?” Or “I’ll start dating again, once I’m back down to a size six?”
 
This kind of mentality shrinks your world, closes doors, and postpones joy and meaningful relationships until “someday.” A “someday” that might never come.
 
 

4. It’s a disturbing use of money.
 
The diet industry makes $60 billion a year. Imagine if women collectively decided to STOP the madness, and, oh, I don’t know … use all of that money to find a cure for cancer?
 
 

5. It erodes your self-esteem.
 
If you crashed your car into a fire hydrant every single time you drove to work, you’d start to seriously doubt your ability to drive. Pretty soon, you wouldn’t trust yourself anymore. And why should you? Clearly, you’re a hot mess.
 
When you diet, lose weight, then gain it all back — and then some — it eats away at your self-esteem.
 
That feeling of incompetence and worthlessness seeps into other areas of your life, creating a vicious cycle that makes it even harder to reach your goals. (Not just your weight-related goals. Any goals.)
 
 
But I don’t even need to tell you all of this. You already know that dieting sucks.
 
You already know that there’s got to be a better alternative.
 
You already suspect that it’s got something to do with … love.
 
You’re right.
 
And in 7 days, I’d like to give you a taste of what that “better alternative” is.
 
 
Join me for a FREE Weight School webinar on Thursday, July 24th @ 10am Pacific.
 
 
RSVP here: http://theweightschool.com/
 
 
… and I’ll see ya there.
 
Susan