“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

Wednesday. We might need to do a deep dive into essential oils in the future, but here is one thing I can confidently say right now — vaping essential oils sounds like a bad idea. Someone should probably let the essential oil people know. A diffuser is one thing, but vaping lavender or peppermint seems questionable at best. Moving on to something else that raises some red flags — are diets helping us get healthier, or are they doing more harm than good? Let’s dive in.

Do Diets Work?

We live in a time when we are all inundated with dieting information and all sorts of conflicting information and noise. This begs a simple question: Do diets truly make us healthier, or are they more of a problem than a solution?

Our health in the United States is not exactly one of our strong suits. Approximately 75% of the population is classified as overweight or obese. The solution? We’re bombarded with new dietary claims every day, from fruit being labeled as bad to oatmeal being dubbed toxic. So, what kind of impact are these dietary suggestions having on our health?

Let’s try a little thought experiment. It’s not the act of dieting itself that’s the problem; instead, it’s how we approach it and our often misguided quest to outsmart fat loss. We’ve turned weight loss into something that seems a lot more complicated than it should be.

Think of popular diets like a schoolyard bully. Initially, they offer quick rewards, like rapid weight loss. It always seems too good to be true, which is usually the case. It builds trust and creates commitment. But it’s all a facade; before you know it, you’re left frustrated and disheartened, having realized you’ve been conned out of your money, time, and energy.

And then, just as you start to recover from the shame and disappointment, you dive into a new diet that appears different and promises even greater success. It feels like you are finally on the right track... only to discover it’s the same old trap, except now you’re out more money, time, and energy.

The vicious cycle of dieting can be a tricky trap to find yourself in, and often, it can feel like there is no way out.

These diets construct an illusion: they make you believe that drastic measures are necessary for positive change. But that’s not the reality.

Extreme restrictions often lead to breakdowns and rebounds. It’s essentially Newton’s law applied to nutrition: for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. If you white knuckle through a dieting phase and restrict the foods you love, the equal and opposite reaction is inevitable, and it always hits harder than you expect.

Many diets make you start seeing food as an adversary. Instead of forming healthier habits, you hop on a hamster wheel to nowhere. You lose control over your hunger, feel excessively constrained, and view anything outside a meticulously restricted list of foods as a misstep or a failure.

To be clear, the food environment is a significant challenge. There’s an abundance of temptation and highly processed foods that encourage overeating. However, the food industry is not going to change, and that piece is out of our control. What you can influence are your own habits, strategy, and mindset.

And here’s the thing — the world’s healthiest cultures don’t engage in dieting. They regularly consume pasta, bread, and rice. And yet, their rates of obesity and chronic disease pale in comparison to where we stack up in the good ole USA.

The key takeaway? By jumping from one diet to another, you’re essentially playing a game you can’t win. To achieve better results, it’s crucial to step away from the old game of dieting, restrictions, and extremes. Instead, it’s time to embrace a completely different approach.

It’s about learning to make small changes that transform into habits. It’s about understanding which foods help control your hunger and not overanalyzing every minor dietary choice. Your body can handle a little sugar, gluten, and seed oils (*gasp*).

When you channel more of your energy into these habits, your stress levels decrease, compliance rises, and you move away from a mindset of punishment and fear. This shift leads to confidence and consistency — and that’s when real, sustainable change begins to happen.

Together with Noom

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