Is There A Diet Plan That Really Works Out There?

Hello, good morning! This is Patrick Ocheni your trusted fitness expert and advisor. I’m going to be answering one of your questions that was sent in by someone by the name of Marissa.

Thank you for sending in this question.

Marissa wants to know, is there a diet plan that really works out there?

Marissa, if I were to read in between the lines, I can tell that you are super duper frustrated. You’ve probably tried all kinds of diet plans out there, and didn’t have much luck.

But guess what? I want you to know Marissa that you are not alone.

I cannot tell you Marissa how many different type of diet programs that I have tried myself going back to when I was 13 years old and I’m now 41 years old. I have been on this journey for over 28 years, so I can definitely empathize with your frustration.

The first thing I want to let you know Marissa before I answer your question is this, if you’re trying to lose weight and you’ve been trying for such a long time and you feel like you’re not making any kind of traction, you feel like you are swimming in quick sand, guess what, I want you to know that it is not your fault.

Why do I say that?

It is not your fault because there is so much information out there. If you go on Google right now and you type in diet plans, you’re going to get a thousand different diet plans for you to try out. And every single one of them is claiming that they are the answer to your weigh loss situation.

What I want to do is share with you guys how I go about trying to figure out which diet plan is the most suitable one for myself.

The first tip though that I want to share with you Marissa is that, you don’t want to be thinking of this as a diet because a diet is something that is temporary. Remember, it is not about just now, it’s about for the rest of your life.

Now, with that being said, what I want to do is share with you three questions that I always ask myself when trying to figure out if this diet plan is going to work for me or not.

The first question is, can I stick to it? That is the number one question you should be asking yourself about any kind of diet plan because, guess what, all diet plans work if you can stick to it. When I talk about sticking to it, again, we are talking about the rest of your life.

When it comes to figuring out if you can stick to it, here are some questions that you should be asking yourself, how expensive is it?

If you have to go from a $300 a month on grocery on the way you eat right now to $600 on this new diet plan, the likelihood is that you are not going to stick to it for a very long time.

Now, another thing you gotta think about is, how does this adapt to my life?

The biggest mistake that a lot of people make is they try to fit their lifestyle into a diet. And, typically what happens is they end up getting super, super frustrated.

It’s kind of like trying to fit a circle into a square or a square into a circle. Now, over time, can you bang your way through it?

Sure.

But, guess what?

That is like going up hill– it is going to be a struggle.

You might get there eventually but, guys, it’s all about working smart not hard. You’ve got to be strategic. What about trying to fit in circle into a circle and a square into a square?

That sounds more simple, right? Absolutely.

Same thing when it comes to choosing a diet plan, you got to choose a plan that fit your lifestyle as opposed to trying to take your lifestyle and fit to it.

Those are just two of the things you got to be asking yourself when you’re trying to figure out if you can stick to this diet plan for the long haul.

The second question I always ask myself when trying to figure out if a diet program is going to work is this, is this program yielding the result that I want?

If yes, stick with it.

If no, well, abandon it and try something else regardless of what your friends or coworkers or anybody else is trying to tell you because this is all about you and your journey not about anybody else.

The third and final question that I always like to ask myself before I adopt a new diet program is, guess what, is it negatively affecting my health?

At the end of the day, it comes down to your health.

What is the point of being “skinny”, if your health is down the tubes? It does not make sense.

You might have to go through different diet programs to finally figure out which one works for you.

Let’s say, for example, somebody told you the “Twinkie diet” is the way to go. And you’re like, man, is that really going to work?

Well, let’s put it through the test.

The first question is, can I stick to it? Let’s say, yes.

Let’s say you really love twinkies and you’re like, yeah, I can eat twinkies for the rest of my life.

Check on the first question, can I stick to it?

The second question is, is it going to yield me result? Well, let’s say you eat twinkies all day long every single day, and you’re able to somehow control how much of it you eat and you are achieving result.

That’s another check right there.

The third and final question is, how is it negatively affecting my health? I am not a doctor, but something tells me if you eat twinkies every single day that can not be good for your heart health.

The answer to that question would be, no.

That’s how you go through the process of analyzing any kind of diet program that you are trying to get on.

Because, again, there’s so much information out there combined with misinformation that causes a lot of frustration and causing people not to achieve their goals. And, this is a great way to filter that maze of information overload.

So, to answer your question, Marissa, is there a diet plan that really works out there?

Absolutely, yes!

You just have to figure out how to customize the ones out there that fit best into your lifestyle and that you can stick to for the rest of your life.