What Happens When The Diet Is Over?

"Diet" is another name for eating regime, and if you look at it this way, the diet is never finished.  I came across an expression recently that says that we are born; we eat and then we die. Obtaining sustenance from food is vital to life itself and is first in the list of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, along with warmth and shelter. The instant that the baby is born, human or animal, it seeks the nipple and we do not have to teach it to suck once it latches on.

So perhaps the answer to the question is that the diet is never over!

But many people, when they reach their goal weight, assume that they can just start eating like they did before. It may be okay to have the occasional treat, (occasional being the key word) and life would be pretty boring without them. But the average diet these days, and probably the way of eating that led up to the need to lose weight in the first place, can consist of too much in the way of sugary and starchy foods.

So finding out what to eat when reaching goal is not straightforward. A strict slimming diet can make the body learn to live on a lot less food, and in the experience of many dieters, researchers and studies, it seems that it cannot recover. Many experts advise people to step up the exercise, but this can be self defeating because exercise can just make you hungry. Exercise is good for you of course, but it is not the way to lose weight. You can read more about this in the book "Instinctive Fitness" by Oliver Selway & Charlie Packer. According to Oliver we need to exercise instinctively and not spend hours on the treadmill in the Gym.

So what can happen when the diet is over then?

As I have already mentioned when the diet is over we need to experiment. Many slimming clubs start a maintenance programme once people reach their goal, and some of them are good. The only problem is that some of them include sugary or sweet and starchy foods, which can be addictive, the food industry makes sure of that. It bears repeating that as these foods were more than likely included in the old way of eating before the person decided to lose weight, then it is best not to include them in the new way of eating after reaching goal.

In my experience adding one unprocessed food back into the diet, every few days is the way to go. This gives your body a chance to regain some balance and is a good indicator of what you can eat in the future without regaining.  Stick to foods with around three to five ingredients but at best just one. The fewer ingredients there are, the nearer to natural foods they are.

It may take a little patience and even a little weight gain, but don't be afraid of that, because that is what experimenting is all about.  It can be enjoyable and fun finding out what your future way of eating for life is going to be.

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