No one enjoys dieting. It has to, in some form or other, involve restriction, and that sucks.

But there’s no way of getting around that.

Left to your own devices you blew it, you ate too much, you couldn’t be trusted and off you went with your pennies and bought a first class ticket to fatty central (I did too by the way).

But that ticket isn’t one way, by default it’s a return ticket, meaning you can leave whenever you want to and come back to the good side.

However the price of that return ticket is as follows:

1. You will need to count or allow for your food in some way, you can’t simply chomp away for fun any more.
2. You will need to say no to extras and seconds (most of the time).
3. You need to occasionally make different choices when going out.
4. You may need to form new habits of an evening and weekend.
5. You will need to endure some hunger and discomfort occasionally.
6. You will need to find a new ‘crutch’ when sad, or happy, or bored.

Now that doesn’t seem so bad does it, but the actual doing of it is much harder than the saying of it.

Why?

Because you HAVE TO. Because you know that’s what you have to do, and the human psyche immediately wants to rebel and do the opposite.

You may not even want seconds, but the fact you know you CAN’T makes you want seconds.

Now I get fed up (and I am sure a lot of you do too) when people run around saying “It’s not a diet it’s a lifestyle change”

AAAARRRGGGHHH it’s not a b****y lifestyle change at all, if it was you would have done it on your own, ages ago, the first time you looked in a mirror and had a shock.

Your lifestyle MADE you overweight, you’re rubbish at lifestyle food choices, that ship has sailed pal, NOW you have to diet!

All those people who say you need to make it a lifestyle have no idea. Your diet forces you to count food, weigh ingredients, restrict the chocolate and treats, and if that is NOT how you plan to spend the rest of your life then it is most definitely NOT a lifestyle. It’s not even on the table.

Most of you know I eat very strictly. Very low carb, single ingredient foods, unbelievably restrictive. Only drink water. I am a machine ?

I enjoy it, fortunately it’s all the food I love, BUT IT’S A DIET.

Can I see myself eating like this forever?

HELL NO, and THAT means it is NOT a lifestyle, it’s a DIET. At some point I will grow up and eat more enjoyable foods!

People who think otherwise are fools.

So, what do you do.

Well actually the point of this post is what you do NOT do.

You don’t COMPLAIN. There is no point, you have had the fun, you ate with no responsibility.

You saw the weight going on, bought bigger clothes, loosened the belt, you had loads of warning signs, it didn’t just appear overnight and surprise you.

At COUNTLESS opportunities you could have got off the train, but you didn’t, you kept going, YOU kept going. It didn’t happen TO YOU.

Well now, your apathy and complacency and whatever you want to call it needs to be paid back, like a debt.

You can’t borrow money from the bank, then continually moan about paying it back. It’s life. And so is dieting.

You had the fun, got the results.

Now you are not happy with the results and you need to do something about it. That thing is dieting.

Counting and weighing food, saying no to stuff. it’s called dieting.

Not eating to abandonment and pigging out with copious amounts of alcohol and food. It’s called dieting.

You’re lucky that you are even in the position to need to diet, millions die each year from starvation and lack of food, YOU were lucky enough to go the complete opposite way and eat too much!

So listen. You ate it, drank it, had the fun and carefree ‘lifestyle’ and ignored the warning signs when it started to go awry.

So you have no right to complain about being on a diet now. No right AT ALL. You can’t have your cake and eat it (believe me I tried to think of another analogy). You need to accept responsibility for your actions and take ownership of what needs to be done.

It’s not even complicated or require special kit. You simply need to eat less.

But to do that you HAVE to follow your diet, because as I said earlier, left to your own devices, trying to follow a ‘lifestyle’ didn’t work. You sucked at that, THAT SHIP HAS SAILED FOR YOU

NOW, you are dieting. Accept it, suck it up, get on with it and stop moaning. The sooner you do, and knuckle down, the sooner it will be over X