Are you a serial yoyo dieter? Have you ever been brainwashed into thinking those detox teas actually work?

Have you ever been on a restricted eating plan? I’m willing to bet a good chunk of my salary that you have, and I have a feeling that at some point you packed in that “diet”.

Any mention of the term dieting and most people will squirm. “I spend my days eating salad and feeling sad” or “I’m going to have to spend my entire life in the gym” are common statements that people say to me when they tell me they’re trying to lose weight.

The truth is, dieting is not a long-term approach. Fad diets and detox teas, they are all short-term “quick fixes”, which ultimately lead to no results, making you feel pretty crappy about yourself.

If you actually put it into perspective…In order for someone to gain weight, you have to live a lifestyle that caters to gaining weight.

Whether that’s from excessive eating, binge drinking or a total lack of physical activity, the weight doesn’t just jump onto you overnight. Yes, that means that you can’t put on a stone if you eat a pizza one Saturday night. It may take years of poor habits to get to that bad of a level.

If it took 5-10 years to pile on all that weight, it won’t just fall off in a single week or even 12 weeks for some. There lies the answer, if it took a certain lifestyle to gain weight, it’s going to take a different lifestyle to take it off. It’s a permanent change in the way you live. Being in shape should be the result of how you live every day.

If you fix those bad habits that caused the weight gain, you can cause the weight

to come off.

Cleaning up some daily habits will often do the trick. For example, if you drink a can of fizzy drink every day with your lunch change that out for water.

By changing that one simple habit, added up over 1 year will result in a 16 pound difference. Add 30 minutes of physical activity 3-4 times a week and there’s at least another 12 pounds each year.

The perfect habit to get started is to just drink more water. It’s a simple habit to teach yourself and also an inexpensive one! Not only will you get the benefit of hydration you’ll also skip the extra calories from fizzy drinks, fruit juices and those coffee mocha delights.

Take 1 year, and week by week, improve on your current habits with nutritional changes or physical activity.

Losing weight doesn’t have to be restrictive or obsessive in any sense of the word Take macro counting for example, it doesn’t restrict what you eat, it is used to ensure you’re eating the right things and developing a balance.

Your lifestyle will ultimately determine how your weight loss journey will go.

You’ve probably heard of someone getting liposuction or another form of weight reduction surgery. More often than not they put all that weight back on before long. They got their quick fix, but in the end, if they have a poor lifestyle from a nutrition and physical activity perspective, the weight will creep back on.

If you’re looking for some juice or fat-burner fads, I would wholeheartedly recommend you realign your thoughts on weight loss. Losing weight is a process, not an event. My guesses are that you’d like to maintain your weight once you get there.

Don’t fall into that cycle just like a yo-yo, going up and down and up and down. Weight loss is more than just a temporary fix, it’s a lifestyle change. Be like a rock, when a rock is dropped it just drops, and stays down.

Sophie