Ep #24: Why Diets Don’t Work

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 24.

Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women, a podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host, Fortune 100 executive and Certified Life Coach, Shannan Christiansen.

Hello loves, welcome back to the show. I am so excited about spending some time with you ladies. So my grandbabies spent the night on Friday night. I mean, it is always super fun to spend some time with them. I mean, we took them to the movies and we made cookies when we got home.

My g-babies still amaze me. We made these chocolate chip cookies and they took a plate of them into their room and only ate less than a quarter of what was on their little plate. They just don’t overeat. They stop when they are full. It always amazes me how connected little kids are to their bodies. It’s just automatic for them.

I took them home on Saturday. It was completely raining on Saturday. Phoenix has had the craziest coldest weather this year. So it was raining and I didn’t want to leave the house so I did some stuff around the house, and then I started watching a documentary. I love learning, so I was like, hey, a new documentary’s out, let me watch it.

The documentary was on health, or so I thought. It was actually a commercial for another diet. They have this formula down. They start with all the doctors and studies. Then they add in a couple of people who started this diet and after 14 magical days, they were off all their medication. Then they tell you about how you can start eating a food group that was forbidden, like sugar.

Then of course, they completely eliminate a whole other food group. I was watching and it just astonished me that still, after all these years, we are still being promised a new diet plan that will change your life in 14 days and will magically work. It was just so eye-opening to me from where I sit today.

There was a time where I would have believed all of it and said, “Sign me up.” But today, I’m a critical thinker and I listen to my body. I pay attention to what feels good in it and what fuels it. I have become the scientist of my own body. Listen to episode number nine if you want to know how to become the scientist of your own body.

In today’s show, I’m going to talk about why diets don’t work. But first, I want to give a listener shout-out to Micky T. She wrote, “Shannan is very kind and I enjoy listening to her.” Thank you so much Micky. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review of the show. I read every single review. I just love them.

So diet, ladies, oh boy. That term has a lot of meaning for me. I dieted so long that dieting was more normal than not. I was always trying the next diet or next fad. I’ve tried everything from Atkins, calorie counting, Weight Watchers, all of the different meal plans, cabbage soup, pills, protein shakes, all of it.

Like, all the things. And I remember counting calories or points. That’s what I mostly did. I kept going back to it over and over again. I would decide I was only going to eat 1200 calories. I did not care what made up the 1200 calories. I was just going to stick to the 1200 calories.

I had no idea when I was hungry or full. I made a plan of food for the day of 1200 calories. I would pack my snacks and eat low-calorie food. I was also eating three meals and three snacks. I would be thinking all day about what I was eating and would be obsessing on why I could not eat like a normal person.

Why could I not have the donut? So much of the food was low-calorie, empty calories, and mostly came out of a box. It was not fueling me. So I felt crazy, hungry, and like a failure. I would really try to stick to the 1200 calories, but eventually, I just could not white-knuckle it any more. And I would eat over the 1200 calories.

Then I would continue to slip until I was binging on all the foods that I could not have while I was eating 1200 calories. I was so focused on the calories and sticking to a diet that I never checked in with my body. Diets don’t work because it is so focused on something outside of you. It is focused on the food and following some plan that someone made that does not know what you need for calories or what foods fuel your body.

We think if we could just get the right food plan, if someone could tell us the magical food plan, then we’d be able to stick to it. But loves, we have done this for so long. It feels comfortable to us to go on a diet. I mean, we have done it for 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

I was coaching one of my society members and she was a long-time Weight Watchers client. She had gone through Jumpstart and is now in the society, and she was struggling. She had the thought, “I’m going to quit the society and go back to Weight Watchers.” I was coaching her and I said, “You totally can. You can go back. And if that works for you, awesome.”

And then I asked, “But has it worked for you?” When I think of something that works, it works long-term. It is not something that you keep quitting and going back to, gaining and losing weight. She said no. She said, “It just feels comfortable.” She did not go back and has found so much success with the society.

She told the group the other day it finally clicked. Loves, our lizard brain is searching for comfort. It wants us to do what it’s always done. But if we want to change, we have to do something different. Diets don’t work because they keep us in the mental drama and obsession over some food or exercise plan that someone else has created for us.

What I believe and what has worked for my clients and myself is that you have to go inside. You have to reconnect with your body, learn what fuels it, and then deal with all the thoughts and belief systems that are keeping you overweight. It’s not a quick fix. It’s not the formula they use in the documentaries.

But loves, I believe it is the only way. I knew there was something different, that diets had kept me stuck on the diet rollercoaster for almost 38 years. I knew I had to stop dieting and learn to lose weight with love, kindness, and in a way that I could do forever. Because love, I wanted off the diet rollercoaster for good. And love, I want that for you too.

So here are some transformational questions so you can begin to coach yourself. Number one, how many diets have you been on? Number two, why do you believe that diets that you’ve tried don’t work? Number three, why do you want something different for yourself now? So good, loves.

If you love this work and you want to go deeper, take my free course. You can learn more about it at bflycoaching.com/free-course. Bye for now loves.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!