123. Why Your Diet Isn't Working

Aug 24

Your diet or nutrition plan isn’t getting you the results that you want it to. This is a common complaint among women trying to lose weight or gain muscle. There are usually five reasons why it might not be working – let’s look at them.

5 Reasons Your Current Diet or Nutrition Strategy Isn’t Working

You don’t actually need a diet
You’re confused about what to do
You keep trying a strategy that worked 20 years ago
You aren’t eating enough
You’re not willing to be patient

Listen to Episode 123 Here

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Do You Actually Need a Diet?

When your diet or nutrition plan isn’t working for you, based on the physical goals that you’ve set for yourself, it can feel really disheartening.

The first reason it might not be working is that you don’t actually need to be on a diet! What’s your emotional state right now? It’s important to recognize and process your emotions to successfully lose weight or gain muscle, otherwise, you end up either reacting, thought spiraling, resisting, or distracting yourself, which isn’t a healthy coping mechanism.

The next reason your diet might not work is that you’re confused about what you need to do or which plan is the right one for you. This is where I’d really encourage you to check out an intuitive-based approach to eating.

Your Body Changes as You Age

Is your diet or nutrition plan not working because it’s the same one you’ve been on for the last twenty years? If so, let’s face it - it’s outdated! As you age, your body changes the way it processes, which means you need to change what you’re doing. It can also mean that the cyclical way of dieting has damaged your body’s leptin response and you need to repair that.

You might also not be eating enough. Believe it or not, you need to eat a certain amount of food, especially protein, in order to successfully lose weight. So many women are chronically undereating, which makes weight loss so difficult.

Finally, you need to have patience. Sustainable, long-term, and long-lasting change takes time. Anything worth doing is worth doing in a strategic way that is going to translate into long-term results for you.

How can you choose to be satisfied with where you are right now and choose to still make progress? Be patient. Let me know in the comments below why you think your diet or nutrition plan isn’t working for you.

In This Episode

How to define your physical goals [3:00]
Why you might not actually need a diet [6:00]
How your emotional state might impact your diet not working [7:00]
What happens when you don’t recognize and process your emotions [8:30]
Why your strategy from 20 years ago isn’t working anymore [16:30]
What happens when you do cyclical dieting over many years [18:00]
What happens to your muscle mass as you age [19:30]
Why you need to eat more protein if you’re trying to lose weight [23:45]
Why you need to allow yourself space to be patient [28:00]

Quotes

“Before we can even get to designing a strategy or having a plan, we have to take inventory of our emotional state.” [7:35]

“Sometimes, it’s not about somebody telling you the secret key to getting the results you want, it’s actually diving into that emotional state. How can you be aware of the emotions you are feeling, identify the emotions you are feeling, and then allow them?” [8:59]

“Instead of being confused on diet type, maybe we’re pulling it back and asking: Are you willing to eat when you’re hungry? Are you willing to stop when you’re satisfied? If you want to eat when you are not hungry, are you able to identify the emotion or thought that is driving this desire? That is the basis and starting point to becoming an intuitive eater.” [13:28]

“If we are confusing ourselves, we will not take action. The idea is that we have to make the best decision we can for ourselves with the resources we have at the time, and we have to move on from there.” [15:38]

“There is a range of protein that will be adequate to keep your metabolism humming. Protein is the macronutrient that does impact your metabolic burn.” [24:00]

“Be patient. True change, long-term sustainable change, and long-term strategy is going to take time. It will not happen overnight.” [26:58]

“We have to believe that anything worth doing is worth doing in a very strategic way that is going to ultimately give us long-term sustainable results that amplify and promote our optimal health.” [28:05]