| Forget dieting if you want to lose weight permanently |
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| Health | |
| Written by Danny Penman | |
 Every June half the population of Britain renews its promise to lose weight and begins dieting ready for the long sun-drenched days of summer. Everything goes brilliantly for the first few weeks. The pounds melt away, a hint of firmly-toned bottom makes an appearance, happiness rears its head. But a few weeks later, it’s all going horribly wrong. The first sign may be a chocolate biscuit sneaking into a tea-break, or a bag of crisps at lunch time. And before you know it, the diet has collapsed into a heap of smouldering rubble, leaving only guilt and self-loathing in its wake. Right now, it may not seem like it, but this is wonderful news. Dieting is not only a thoroughly miserable thing to do but recent research says it may also wreck your health and help you pile on the weight even more. In fact, around 95 per cent of people who go on a diet end up just as fat, or fatter, a year later. It turns out that the best thing you can do to lose weight permanently is to ditch the diet habit completely. And if you really want to maximise your weight loss, you should grab life by the throat and enjoy it to the full. These heartening findings come from ground-breaking research done by Professor Ben Fletcher at the University of Hertfordshire. It seems that the ‘naturally’ slim and the overweight do not differ so much in what they eat, but in whether or not they are driven by a collection of hidden habits. It turns out that if you break these hidden habits then you naturally slim down to your ideal weight. A diet isn’t needed at all. And breaking these habits is relatively simple, involving such daily tasks as taking a different route to work or switching off the TV for a day. In clinical trials, people lost two pounds a week and continued losing weight until their body’s healthy figure emerged. Some people lost over 40 pounds and virtually everyone kept the weight off. So how do you break these hidden habits that force you to over-eat? It all comes down to making small simple changes in your daily routine. Such things as stopping and noticing things on your way to work rather than rushing to the office. It means spending a few moments looking at the flowers in the park, the leaves on the trees, the grip of a baby’s hand on your finger, how your loved one looks when they concentrate, the way a musical tune rises and falls, the colour of your friend’s eyes, the full moon in a black sky. Yes, stopping and enjoying life really can help you lose weight. And won’t that be a nice change! The No Diet Diet by Professor Ben (C) Fletcher, Dr Karen Pine and Dr Danny Penman is published by Orion. (You can buy it via Amazon by clicking on the advert to the right) Here’s a sneak preview of the first seven steps of the No Diet Diet. You should aim to do one each day. Step One: Don’t watch the TV – all day. If you’re not a TV viewer, cut out the radio instead. How do you use your extra time? Step Two: Write something for 15 minutes. It doesn’t have to be War and Peace. The idea is to encourage you to start thinking and dreaming. Step Three: Don’t have your favourite drink. It doesn’t matter whether it’s tea, coffee or a fizzy drink. How does your body react to breaking this habit? Step Four: Go for a 15 minute walk. Think about your life and what you want from it. Notice how walking clears your head? Do you feel re-energised? Step Five: Get up one hour earlier. Habits find the morning cosy and warm. Chase them away by conjuring up more time in the morning. Do you still feel rushed and on the back foot all day? Step Six: Make a list of the things you want to achieve by this time next year and think about the concrete steps you’ll need to take. How much would you like to weigh? How would you like your personal relationships to develop? Step Seven: Do a good natured deed for someone else, one that could change their life a little for the better. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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