Six Reasons Dieting Fails for the Food Addict

Before I released excess weight for good and became known as a certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS),  I spent nearly three decades at various arms of diet centers such as Weight Watchers, Ediets, Twelve Step programs, mostly as the recipient of diets initially and worked as a clinical psychotherapist/addiction psychologist certified as an eating disorder specialist later. But a more accurate title for that job in my earlier days might have been certified diet failure doctor and uninformed therapist: while I lost a great deal of weight and showed the way to thousands, I’d watch one after the other go through the revolving door of failed diet plans.

Like the ongoing dieters, I too joined the up and down weight loss program initially. And while it may not be possible to pinpoint what exactly makes for a great weight loss program, it’s pretty easy to identify some of the avoidable mistakes that can virtually guarantee your weight loss and release of food addiction that will get relegated to a success story. See these mistakes below:

1.     DIET CENTER  HOPPER

Mary joined every weight loss center known to mankind with white knuckle determination and gritted teeth. She was going to lose the weight no matter what. And, of course, the no matter what turned into another failure.  Whatever food program you lose weight with is the very same one you will maintain with. If you can’t figure out how to make the “diet” doable for everyday life, you’re probably not on the right food program for a food addict.

2.     DIET BOOKS

Although hundreds of diet books line the shelves of bookstores, virtual and brick and mortar, It’s close to impossible to eradicate every single little mistake in the diet that was not intended for long periods of time. But what’s not really forgivable are promises that you can eat an ounce of dark chocolate daily and a glass of wine with dinner once you reach a certain level in the program. A true food addict cannot indulge even a small morsel of sweetened chocolate and succulent red wine or they’re crashing. A cocaine addict wouldn’t have just a small smidgen of coke once they reached “maintenance” now would they? Of course not!

3.     DIET FADS

Start eating cookies today and lose weight! Yes, YOU read this right you can eat cookies and lose weight. Eat one cookie for breakfast, one for lunch, and a reasonable dinner, and you too can be thin. Diet fashionistas are the perfect candidates to lure to fad diets. The food addict begs, steals, and bargains, promising after this one last binge to never binge-eat again. So offer the cookie diet to the desperate dieter and she's roped in! But the truth be told, after lured, in a short period of time, after the "honeymoon"  has passed, the binge eating resumes. We are addicts and require real food every four to five hours and must avoid sugar, flour, and wheat to prevent a relapse, so fad diets must be avoided—they don't work—not ever.
4.     30 POUNDS OFF IN ONE MONTH DIET

Yes, you read this right. You too can lose 30 pounds in 30 days! Everyone’s winning at their weight loss with our nutritious packed boxed meals. All “gourmet” meals are prepared for you to take the guess work out of preparation. Yeah right. A food addict first would starve as there isn’t enough food in the small box and second, a food addict would go into a full-blown binge because boxed foods are notorious for hidden sugar, flours, and wheat.

5.     ERRORS OF IGNORANCE

Of course you think this time will be different when you go on the “miracle diet” because you are determined NOW. And you’re convinced the special grapefruit concoction, with Brazilian leaves proven to drop weight while you sleep, is a perfect fit for you. Trust me, there is no magical concoction of leaves, plastic suits that enhance sweat, or any other doohickey that works long term. It simply doe not exist not now—not ever. I swear!

6.     THE HARD SELL

Dante’s juicer is proven to cure you of all illness and restore your body to the size when you were a teenager. Millions of satisfied customers are now wearing bathing suits and win the lotto too.   Not.  There is no quick fix. A change of lifestyle, attitude, and a turn toward a Higher Source you have a good chance of success at your weight loss and releasing food addiction.

Yes, no doubt there are tons of promises of weight loss on every corner billboard, magazine, late night television commercial and broadcast on radio signals around the globe. But before I released excess weight for good and became an addiction psychologist,  certified as an eating disorder specialist (CEDS), I toiled nearly three decades making one "diet" mistake after another before realizing what makes a winner at weight loss and recovery and what keeps a person tied to diet mentality committing one diet error after another. It's your turn to stop going through the revolving door of failed diet plans and this time take charge, make a permanent step towards winning and put to rest the vast array of diet mishaps.

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Dieting on Empty: The Problem with Diet Mentality

I recently helped my patient Melinda sift through her New Year’s resolution, coaching her on diet mentality and how to make healthier food choices to quiet her binge eating. She is a voracious dieter, never trusting herself to put together an eating-for life formula to compliment her lifestyle. In short, she had all the makings of another New Year’s resolution diet fiasco—or so I thought.

Melinda didn’t stick with her diets, and after scrutinizing her timeline of expectation—lose two pounds a week on a 1300-a-day calorie diet—I can understand why.

It looked nothing like my own food-for-life formula, which offers a satisfying mix of balanced meals, exercise, meditation and prayer from an assortment of personal experience and quality recommendations from  patients I’ve spent years curating and tweaking for 23 years.

Melinda’s diet left her hungry, weak, and craving sugary and salty foods.

My patient could have groomed her assortment of diet rituals, but why should she? Like many patients, she was open to try a new diet with the promise of quick weight loss, but not especially determined to stay on it, and her initial experience failed to deliver the promised weight loss in a more efficient way.  The time and emotional energy she’d invested in it hadn’t convinced her on the positive results, and she wasn’t motivated on investing more time.

One of the greatest strengths of investing in balanced meals, exercise, meditation, and prayer is its ability to free the binge eater from diet mentality. For some it’s a way of making peace with years of on-and-off dieting and to release weight for once. For others, it’s a new full-proof formula encouraging food as fuel, exercise as energy booster, meditation and prayer to feed the spiritual hunger.

What  jumping off the diet-merry-go-around amounts to—weight loss, self empowerment, spiritual food, peace of mind—depends entirely on what lifestyle balance you prescribe.

Yes, embarking on clean eating and spiritual practice also poses problems for some. Learning to “feel” emotions rather than eat them requires a closer look at daily issues that were numbed by food. Jumping on a balance life  style formula is like winning the lotto—only instead of getting a pile of green cash—the winner pays taxes, learns of “family and friends” she didn’t know she had and the expectancy to clear everyone’s debt. The experience might be a pleasant one, but it takes work.

This initial flood of emotions and the effort required to address it stands between the dieter and the healthy formula it needs to make peace with diet mentality.

The list of successful patients continues to grow.

For dieters to turn over a new relationship with food, emotions, and experience a thriving, successful lifestyle, they must do the legwork. They must begin with a balanced breakfast, lunch, metabolic boost, and dinner; incorporate with daily exercise, meditation and prayer.

But no doubt people will lack the perseverance to trust that their body and emotions will respond. People lose patience when rapid weight loss doesn’t come, instead a slow and steady change of body, mind and spirit evolves over time.

Next New Year there will be no need of a New Year’s resolution promising to eat a meager 1300 calories only to give up due to starvation. Instead, Melinda will ring in the New Year with a svelte body and a clear mind and have no need to make a resolution at all because she adopted a lifelong plan that she can live with one day at a time.

Photo Taken By: Dr. Lisa Ortigara Crego