Hello, and good morning. I want to welcome you to the Body By Patrick podcast. My name is, Patrick Ocheni. In today’s episode, I want to share with you my three steps to choosing a diet plan for weight loss.
In order for you to lose weight successfully, not only do you have to increase your activity level by exercising, but also you’ve got to adjust your eating habits.
One of the mistakes people make is to think that they can exercise and he eat what ever they want and still lose weight. Unfortunately, it does not work like that.
I’ve had clients tell me, Patrick, I thought because I work out with you I could just go home and eat whatever I want or go to McDonald’s and eat whatever I want. No, it does no work like that. So, that’s what prompted today’s topic.
The question becomes, how do you know which diet plan is the one to go with if you’re trying to lose weight?
Remember, the reason why you want to be adjusting your eating habit is because, you cannot out-train a less than ideal eating habit.
For example, let’s say you workout every single day for two hours, but then you go home and you eat a bucket of ice cream, and you eat three donuts, and you eat three hamburgers from McDonald’s.
Those are thousands and thousands of calories. You have just pretty much destroyed the workout you did earlier in the day.
So, don’t fall for that mindset that you can exercise and eat whatever you want. It is just not true.
Here are the three questions that I ask myself before adopting any kind of eating plan.
The first question I ask myself is, is this diet plan sustainable over the long haul? Now, how do you determine if a diet plan is sustainable over the long haul?
The thing is, you have to ask yourself, am I the kind of person that hates counting calories? For example, I hate counting calories.
So, if a plan comes across my table and says, Patrick, you have to eat 1500 calories every single day. Well, guess what? That’s not going to work for me, because the idea of counting calories just stresses me out.
Now, I know people that are experts at counting calories. They love counting calories. They measure everything. To them, it’s fun. So a diet plan that involves counting calories will work for that person, but it’s not going to work for me.
You’ve got to look at your life situation. You’ve got to be honest with yourself and say, you know what, I’ve got to make sure I’m doing things that will suit my lifestyle.
Here’s another example, what if a plan makes you feel deprived?
If you’re feeling deprived on an eating plan, there’s a strong chance you’re not gonna keep it for the long haul.
Let’s say you’re Italian and you love pasta, you grew up eating pasta. You just love it, love it, love it. And all of a sudden you want to lose weight, and somebody says you have to stop eating pasta. Well, there is a strong chance that plan wouldn’t work for you.
Those are just some ways to determine whether or not a plan is sustainable to you over the long haul. If the answer is no, do yourself a favor and just try to come up with a different plan because if you start on a journey that you know yourself is not sustainable, you’re only setting yourself up for failure.
And, remember, your goal is to lose weight and keep it off. Sometimes it’s easier to lose the weight, keeping it off is even harder.
That is why it’s so critical when choosing a diet plan that you choose one you know is sustainable to you over time.
The second thing you’ve got to ask yourself is, is this diet going to help me heal my body in the long run or is it going to cause more problems?
If you eat only a thousand calories of ice cream every single day, you’re going to lose weight. But, is eating ice cream every single day going to a heal your body in the long run or is it going to cause more problems?
I think we know the answer to that question: It’s going to cause more problems in the long haul, because it’s only going to inflame your body over time and inflammation in your body is not a good thing.
Or, it could be donuts. You could literally eat a donut a day and lose weight. If that donut is less than a thousand calories, well, guess what, you are in a caloric deficit and you will lose weight. But again, you’ve got to ask yourself, is this diet plan helping heal my body in the long run or it’s going to cause me more problems.
If it’s not going to heal my body, I do not do it.
The last question that I ask myself is, are you happy with the result you are achieving, especially if your health is not being compromised. Okay. Is the result that you’re getting, are you happy with it?
If you’re happy with it, then guess what? You stick with it and keep on doing it, If you know that this plan is not compromising your health.
That’s pretty much the three questions I asked myself when I’m trying to lose weight, when I’m trying to adopt an eating plan.
I recommend you go through those same questions the next time you come across a diet plan, and just be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself. Remember, again, our goal in trying to lose weight is to achieve better health, do not overlook the longterm goal. Our ultimate goal is to lose weight, create a better version of ourselves, not create a worst version of ourselves.
You can be skinny and be miserable. That is not what I want for you. Hopefully, that’s not what you want for yourself. Make sure you’re choosing a diet plan that is sustainable over time, that’s helping your body heal, and it’s getting you closer to the result that you’re trying to achieve.
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