Do Diets Work?

Hello World

How is it going this New Year?

Diet seems to be the hot topic on our agenda.

That word DIET brings up stuff for most of us.

Diet has two meanings according to our Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1):

1.      the kinds of food that a person, animal or community habitually eats.
2.      a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves to lose weight or for medical reasons.

Eating the same kinds of food constantly is a diet because the dictionary has told us.

What happens if we keep eating similar foods day in day out?
Are we changing anything by ‘habitually’ eating the same foods?
Are we actually supporting our body by sticking to the same foods?
Are we aware of what our body is communicating with our eating habits?

Are our repeated food behaviour patterns serving us?
Are our habitual kinds of foods offering us true nourishment?
Are our habits of ‘eating 3 meals a day’ working for us?

Are our food habits keeping us in our comfort?
Are our same same habits boring us?
Are our fixed food habits supporting us to truly evolve?

There is much here to consider if we think that a good diet is sticking to what you have always done and not going out of the box so to speak.

Next – the diet we need to follow because of medical reasons.

How do we honestly feel when we get told we have to change our food habits?
How do we react when a medical professional tells us we cannot eat this or that?
How do we start thinking when our health depends on what we put into our mouth?
How is life when when we are forced to change against our will, because of medical reasons?

This blog will focus on the meaning most of us relate to when we hear the word ‘diet’, which is weight loss.

Every New Year, the media is covered with the latest diets, which of course are different every single year.

WHY?

Have we bothered to stop and ask the WHY questions?

WHY is our priority suddenly the latest diet?
WHY is our focus placed on being slim and not healthy?
WHY is cabbage soup after a Christmas binge not feeling great?

WHY do we need another new diet?
WHY do we want an exciting diet?
WHY do diets change our moods?

WHY do we put so much pressure at each New Year on dieting?
WHY do we think the glossy magazines are real life pictures?
WHY do we struggle so much with our body shape?

WHY are we so fixed on changing our body shape?
WHY are we so fixated on food and dieting?

WHY are diet apps not cutting it for us?
WHY are there so many diet books to choose from?
WHY are we demanding others to tell us what to eat?

WHY are Fad diets not helping us with our weight issues?
WHY are the happy feel good diets not delivering happiness?
WHY are we constantly thinking about food when we go on a diet?

WHY are we committed to diet but no other areas of our lives?
WHY are diets not sustainable long term?

WHY has last year’s diet stopped working for us?
WHY has every diet failed to bring long-term satisfaction?

WHY do diet regimes damage our hormonal system?
WHY do diets make it biologically difficult to lose weight?
(2)

WHY can diets lead to eating disorders?

WHY do we keep coming back to the concept of diets, even though we know deep down they do not work?

WHY are our diets not working?

WHY are we so desperate to be thin?
WHY are calorie restricted regimes making us frustrated?

WHY are we ignoring our body most of the time?
WHY are we not asking how the excess got there in the first place?
WHY are we not prepared to look at the whole big picture?

WHY do we starve ourselves in the name of diet?
WHY do we embark on the latest diet as if it something different?

WHY do we want quick and fast results?
WHY do we diet for others to see us differently?

WHY are diet books so boring?
WHY are diet cook books not sustaining for us?
WHY are we following our favourite celebrity diet?

WHY do we discard our diets books so quickly?
WHY do we go on crash diets?
WHY do we diet for a special day?

WHY are we so dis-honest when it comes to diet?
WHY are our best intentions not enough?
Why are we piling on more fat when we go on that new diet?

WHY are our supermarket shelves filled with tempting foods?
WHY are we banging on about diets every New Year?
WHY are diets lacking inspiration in the long term?

WHY are all diets not giving us what we want consistently?
WHY are some of our ‘healthy’ advisors on food and nutrition not looking that great?
WHY are we listening to people who tell us to diet and cut out this and that but they are still doing it?

WHY do we have a set picture in our mind about what we want as the end result from our latest diet?

WHY have we not considered that our ugly choices might be the reason why we need to grab a New Year diet?

WHY do we crave the bikini body?
WHY do we have this false ideal to be thin?
WHY do we want to pump up the muscles in a false way?

WHY does dieting lead to over-eating?
WHY does the word diet bring up so many images in our head?

WHY are diet meal replacement drinks half price at New Year?
WHY are there so many diets out there and they just keep coming?
WHY are the media reporting on the dangers of fast diets at New Year?
(3)

WHY do we think a diet that our ancestors had is going to work for us now?

WHY do we always give up on diets at some point and move onto a new diet?

We all know we just don’t wake up one day with a big belly and a double chin overnight.

Most slimmers fail looking for a quick fix over a few weeks.
The excess weight probably took months, if not years to go on, so weight loss can take time.
Dr Alexandra Johnstone of the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health (4)

We all know that something is not right and on goes the weight.
We all know that our ‘common sense hat’ is nowhere on our radar and we seem to go on our merry-go-round every January doing the same thing.

WHY do we bother to convince ourselves that this year there is going to be change?
WHY do we know deep down that we simply don’t like the word diet?
WHY do we feel diets are not a natural way?

WHY do we get so down when the scales tell us the truth?
WHY do we want to diet for other people to notice us?
WHY do we diet and then it all goes back on soon after?

WHY do we keep going back to the concept of diets?
WHY do we spend so much time thinking about food when we diet?

WHY do we have this irresponsible way of thinking that says –
“Let’s get rid of that excess eating and drinking as party season is now over and back to real life”.

WHY are we not educating ourselves about metabolism?
WHY are we not learning that excess eating does not work for our body?

WHY is it that our bodies cannot deal with excess and then extreme dieting?

WHY has our relationship with food changed so much?

Could it be possible that restriction of foods is not the answer for our body?
Could it be possible that we need to adopt a sensible approach for our diet?
Could it be possible that our body is not designed to be abused with food?

Could it be possible that our body reacts to excess of anything that is consumed?
Could it be possible that we love our comfort foods as it helps us bury our hurts?
Could it be possible that we like the sugar in foods as it keeps us going?

Could it be possible that we want a diet to change the shape of our body because we don’t like how we feel inside our body?

Could it be possible that our diet books are a solution to our irresponsible eating habits?

Could it be possible that our emotions dictate what we eat?
Could it be possible that we crave foods when we feel empty and dis-connected?
Could it be possible that we eat when we are bored?

Could it be possible we eat to reward ourselves?
Could it be possible we eat foods that protect us from hurting anymore?
Could it be possible we go for the wrong foods to dull our awareness?

Could it be possible we shove food down us when we feel amazing?
Could it be possible our food choices are not allowing us to evolve?
Could it be possible that this is why we feel stuck in our lives?

Could it be possible that fast foods get us addicted as we do not register the food in our belly, so we seek more of the same?

Could it be possible that we have a habit of over-eating when we are not feeling great?

Could it be possible that our eating habits need refining – adjusting so to speak, depending on where we are at in our lives?

Could it be possible that foods that supported us in the past, no longer do?

Example – Bread
Could it be possible that bread is not needed because it contains gluten which is a glue?

Could it be possible that we eat fillers like bread, cake and pastries to fill ourselves up?

Could it be possible that we continue to eat foods that cause us discomfort because we just like the taste in our mouths?

Could it be possible that these gluten filled foods, leave us bloated and hungry soon after we have eaten them?

Could it be possible that these empty foods do not offer us any true nourishment?

Could it be possible that we opt for the convenient quick route when it comes to eating?

Could it be possible that we limit our foods to fit into what our limited mind is telling us?

Can we even consider life without toast and sandwiches?

Could it be possible that we go on a diet because we have a picture, an image of how we want to look and feel?

Have we ever wondered WHY animals only eat what they need to and never anymore?

2016 Global Weight Loss and Diet Industry Report is a professional in-depth detailed research report on the world major market conditions of the Weight Loss and Diet Industry. The focus is on analysing the main regions which are – North America, Europe and Asia. The main countries are United States, Germany, Japan and China. (5)

The market conditions analysed include the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc.

This 149 page report costing $2,850 introduces the Weight Loss and Diet basics: definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview; industry polices and plans; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures and more…

There are six parts dealing with:
1       Basic Information
2       Asia Weight Loss and Diet Industry
3       North American Weight Loss and Diet Industry
4       European Weight Loss and Diet Industry
5       Market Entry and Investment Feasibility
6       Report Conclusion

What does this mean to us jo public reading a blog?
What bit did we get lost at?
Who reads all this stuff?

Do we know that this report is because we the general public are spending big bucks and contributing to this Diet and Weight Loss Industry?

Can we get our head around the fact that this business is worth over $200,000,000,000? –
Those big numbers mean two hundred billion dollars!

How can something be worth so much but the truth is we do not seem to be getting anywhere?

Is anything in our world making any sense to us on the street?

Check out these facts –

Britain’s diet industry is worth an estimated £2 billion (£2,000,000,000). (2)
Mintel reports that £1.18 billion (£1,180,000,000) of diet foods were sold in 2013. (2)

Our devotion to weight-loss foods shows that we are buying into the diet concept – not that we are eating more healthy.
It is an industry that thrives on failure.
The diet industry is a money-making industry and if people were not coming back to the diet groups, they would not have repeat business.
But eventually under all those diets, because they’re not sustainable long term, the majority of people will put the weight back on after five years with no effect.
Siri Steinmo, Health Psychology Practitioner
 (2)

The company was successful because 84% of customers can’t keep the weight off and keep coming back. That is where your business comes from.
Richard Samber, former Finance Director of Weight Watcher (2)

Fad diets leave people with no coping mechanisms or strategy for maintaining their weight loss.
Extreme regimes can create an unhealthy fixation with food.
Dieting makes you obsessed with food because it makes you hungry.
Dieting has a negative effect on mood because you are in a state of deprivation.
It impacts on your cognitive abilities because you need so much control devoted to dieting that it limits your other areas of activity.
Professor Jason Halford
Ph.D. C.Psychol. (Health) AFBPsS (2)

So here we have a bigwig who has been involved in heaps of studies and writes in many publications and presents globally on matters relating to physiology, behaviour, nutrition, obesity, food, diets and just about everything we need to know about. This man knows his stuff and it is well worth us paying attention to what he is saying here about diets and WHY they simply do not work for us.

WHY are Fad diets not working for us at New Year or any other time of the year?
What does Fad mean?

The internet definition tells us – an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived.

Our reliable Concise Oxford English Dictionary tells us simply – it is a Craze. (1)

WHY do we place such an extreme demand on our precious body?

Could it be possible that if we join the dots there could be a simple clue here?
Could it be possible the intensity comes with a force so it is not our natural choice?
Could it be possible that this un-natural way of living is WHY it is short-lived?
Could it be possible that the enjoyment is not real so it simply does not last?
Could it be possible that the ra ra is because others jump on the band-wagon?
Could it be possible that short-term distraction suits our lifestyle?

Could it be possible that Fad diets achieve widespread popularity but soon become last season, as it is replaced by the next new Fad diet?

Diets simply don’t work.
A recent US study published in the Journal of Health Psychology highlighted that around a third of adults claim to be dieting at any given time, with the majority of adults having tried to lose weight at some point in their lives.
Dr Sally Norton, NHS Weight Loss Consultant Surgeon (6)

In World War 2, Dr Ancel Keys conducted a year long study on 36 young men, who had been excused from the armed forces. Dr Keys placed them on a restricted diet. The purpose of the study was to see how people react under such conditions and to learn how to safely and successfully refeed starving nations. (7)

The men experienced –
Lethargy
Irritability
Anxiety
Dizziness
Intolerance to the cold (requesting blankets in the middle of summer)
Muscle soreness
Hair loss
Reduced co-ordination
Edema (swelling)
Ringing in the ears
Inability to concentrate
No sex drive
Obsession about food
Collecting recipes and cookbooks
Eating with elaborate rituals
Adding water to their plates to make their food last longer
Buying donuts for children so they could watch them eat
Excessive chewing of gum
Stealing food, including from bins
Stopping at shops and eating sundaes
Psychological stress – one became suicidal, the other cut off 3 of his fingers
Both were admitted to psychiatric hospitals

Research analysts Datamonitor found that after losing weight only 1 in 100 people successfully kept the weight off, a year after they lost weight. (2)

A typical dieter makes 4 attempts each year to try and lose weight. (8)

The global weight loss and weight management market is expected to reach $206.4 billion by 2019.

Factors such as –

Rising obesity rates
Increasing risks of lifestyle diseases
Increasing number of bariatric surgeries
Increase in disposable incomes
Increase in technological advancements
Strong government support and funding

ALL the above factors are promoting growth of this market. (9)

108 million American adults were estimated to be dieting in 2012. (10)

Americans spend over $60,000,000,000 to lose weight every year.
That is approx. $800 per person, per year.
Out of the $60,000,000,000, about $3,000,000,000 is for weight loss chains. (8)

Diet pills and meal replacement solutions are a $3,000,000,000 market. (8)

Home delivery services for diet food are a $1,000,000,000 business.
$300,000,000,000 fast food industry.
$100,000,000,000 junk food industry. (8)

Hello

Is this making any sense?
Can we join the dots here?
This is one country who has an obesity crisis and these figures confirm why.
Is diet simply a solution?

Is any diet a form of ‘reductionism’?
In other words, we go for the quick ‘band aid to the bullet wound’ approach because we want to fix the problem in the hope that it will just go away.

Why are we not stopping and asking how come we are consuming so much fast foods and junk foods?

WHY are we demanding more of the foods that make us obese?
What is going on for us that we need to eat junk food?

Does eating junk food give us a life that feels like junk?
Is fast food supporting our ‘on the go’ fast lifestyle?

Are we as individuals not willing to take responsibility for what we eat?
Are we making sure the diet industry makes money out of our ill choices?

What if there is another way?


Tim Bowyer was over 27 stone, which is morbidly obese.
Photo 1 is after a raw food detox in USA for 21 days where he lost over 4 stone (25kg, 55 pounds)

Photo 2 No diet and No exercise regime.
Just simple Lifestyle choices inspired by the work of Serge Benhayon.

After spending thousands of pounds to lose a few pounds (pun intended) on a 21 day intense raw food diet, with no TV or radio I lost weight daily. At the end of the detox, back at the airport I made sure I got there 5 hours early to reward myself with some “real food”. My first course was a hot dog, crisps and soda. Main course was a family size pizza. At the stop over flight change, I ate a Chinese meal.

The raw food detox is simply not sustainable because it just did not feel true to eat that sort of food. Cold raw food all the time never felt like nurturing or nourishing foods.

The detox is based on cutting out Gluten, Dairy, Sugar, Alcohol, Caffeine, Meat and Fish so the natural consequence of that is weight loss. But this weight loss was not sustainable because I could not see myself eating raw foods for the rest of my life. So I got back home and piled on the pounds eating plenty of gluten and dairy products and drinking alcohol most days. – Tim Bowyer

Dear World

Is it time we stopped blaming the diet industry?

Is it high time we got real and honest?

Is it time to change our priority in life?

Is it time to start making food choices which work for us?

Is it time we started to look at what the diet and food industry are doing as a collective to all of our nations’ bodies?

Is it time to look at what part we are playing in this game where we will never win?

Are we ready to take RESPONSIBILITY to make sensible eating a way of life that does not restrict us but truly supports us – like Tim Bowyer?

That simply means we call the shots as we start to listen to what our body wants.

We then commit to living a life that is about being honest about everything that is not working.

We choose to feel what to eat and then check in with how we feel after we have eaten.

We say no to abuse and our dis-regarding attitude when it comes to food and other lifestyle choices.

In answer to the title question – DO DIETS WORK?

NO – we just cannot sustain something that restricts us in anyway. We are a race of beings that are constantly changing. We are not the same everyday even if we force our food habits, day in and day out, into our tired exhausted body which is calling for change.

References

(1) Concise Oxford English Dictionary – Twelfth Edition. Oxford University Press. 2011

(2) Goldhill, O. (2014, August 1). A Nation of Weight Watchers: Is Our Obsession with Thin Making Us Fat? Retrieved January 6, 2017 from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11003614/A-nation-of-weight-watchers-Is-our-obsession-with-thin-making-us-fat.html

(3) (2017, January 3). Doctors Issue New Year Detox Health Warning. Retrieved January 7, 2017 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38495088

(4) Leaver, H. (2014, January 30). Companies Growing Fat as You Slim: The Growth of the Weight Loss Market. Retrieved January 4, 2017 from
http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/30/companies-growing-fat-as-you-slim-the-growth-of-the-weight-loss-market-4282903/#ixzz4UiuuZdAM

(5) (2016, June). Global Weight Loss and Diet Industry 2016 Market Research Report. 9Dimen Research. Retrieved January 9, 2017 from
http://www.gosreports.com/global-weight-loss-and-diet-industry-2016-market-research-report/

(6) Jackson, A. (2017, January 5). What is the Milk Diet and Does It Work? Retrieved January 7, 2017 from
http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/health/diet/what-is-the-milk-diet-and-does-it-work-11364130508837

(7) Dean, E. (2011, March 24). Dieting Can Make You Lose Your Mind. Retrieved January 4, 2017 from  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201103/dieting-can-make-you-lose-your-mind

(8) (2016, April 7). The Weight Loss Industry by Numbers. Retrieved January 7, 2017 from  http://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=post&id=57034AEE-364E-1DE1-4E44-B7BACFB5F72B

(9) (2015, April 23). Global Weight Loss and Weight Management Market 2015 – 2019 – Fitness Equipment, Surgical, Diet & Weight Loss Services Analysis. Retrieved January 7, 2017 from
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-weight-loss-and-weight-management-market-2015-2019—fitness-equipment-surgical-diet–weight-loss-services-analysis-300071062.html

(10) (n.d). Diet and Weight Loss Statistics. Retrieved January 7, 2017 from
http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/diet-and-weight-loss-statistics/

 

 

 

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Comments 46

  1. Although I have never had a weight issue in my life, I have tried different diets from books to help me with exhaustion issues and emotional stuff. None of them worked.
    I understand now that I was just avoiding listening to my body and did not want to take responsibility for my food. I wanted someone else to tell me what to do.

    It is interesting to me that I understand that my body knows exactly what it needs to eat. I use to watch sheep grazing and I wondered how they knew which types of forage to eat. Of course they did not think about it, the just knew when they had had enough grass and they needed a little dandylion. So why did I give away my power to a book written by someone that has no idea who I am? Do I actually believe they know better than me about what I need to eat?

    It all comes back to taking responsibility for my life and regaining the trust I had in myself when I was a baby and knew exactly what I needed to eat.

  2. The outrageous amount of money spent by dieters and raked in by the diet industry show that we have a huge desire to lose weight… but the statistics also show that none of that is working… why do we put up with this futility? What don’t we want to see?

    Is it possible that there is a true way to lose weight and it is mentioned in this blog?
    Is it possible that Simple Living Global is sharing the truth about diets because there is a known way to live which leads to a natural return to healthy weight and is sustainable and being lived by many?

    For me, I know there is a way that is true because I am one of the many who, with the support and inspiration of Simple Living Global,has worked hard to get more honest about everything I was doing and choosing that was not working for me and one of the many positive responses my body had was I dropped a stone of weight I carried for 20 years.

    It seems that holding one’s self accountable on a level that brings real change is not part of our mainstream consciousness but this web site is for humanity, so it is all being laid out here for us…

    I caused myself a lot of trouble skirting around the truth that I have always know (inside) because true truth is so simple and it leaves me no room to avoid dealing with the fact that I use food to medicate and dumb down so I do not have to ‘feel’ and know so much and then take responsibility from that place of greater awareness…

    The work I do to continue getting more self honest and take more responsibility for myself has real purpose and implications for us all.

  3. Amazing blog Simple Living Global. Tim Bowyers true story is an inspiration for us all – one to be shouted from the roof tops. I know for myself I tried many diets – not because I was overweight but for other reasons, e.g. because I felt uncomfortable in my own skin and felt I needed to ‘cleanse’ or ‘detox’. When I wanted to ‘cleanse’ or ‘detox’ I realise now it was not so much the physical aspect I wanted to clear – as by then I was eating organic no dairy home cooked foods, and my weight wasn’t a problem, it was because of the emotions that ran wild through my body, the buried hurts that I hadn’t healed, and my general discomfort with being out in the world – and they made me feel ‘unclean’ so I would detox to try and feel better – but no detox ever changed how I felt emotionally or dealt with the buried hurts I had. So weight, and our relationship with food, and diet is not all it seems, there is more to it than meets the eye. By changing our food for a few weeks and ‘dieting’ we are only putting an Elastoplast over something that is un dealt with about the way we are living. By looking at our life lovingly and the choices we make, and making new lifestyle changes, and taking responsibility for our un dealt with hurts , deepening our self-care and becoming more aware of ourselves, and more self-honest, that in itself starts to support us in re-learning how to eat, what to eat, when to eat.

    1. Thank You Jane for confirming another amazing blog from Simple Living Global.
      Tim Bowyers story really is something different and it is amazing and an inspiration as you say for all of us. This is not photos that have been doctored, tampered with or airbrush business going on. The other thing is the man looks alive after the weight loss and joyfull.

      I just saw an advertisement with before and after weight loss saying a certain type of foot wear was the reason this person lost loads of weight but the after photo looked like the man was not full of vitality and so it begs the question, do we need to look at the whole and not just focus on the weight loss?

      You mention relationship with food and this is a biggie for all of us if we are going to be honest and hence why so many questions are being asked in this blog which is presenting another way to live and have a relationship with food. No perfection needed but time to get deeply honest and real about what we are choosing to shove down our mouth everyday without even thinking.

  4. I have seen recent news articles where there are now more people with obesity and over weight than those who are in famine/malnourished. Also in the news I’ve seen articles about how those who are obese or over weight, and those who are under weight, or even the supposed correct weight are malnourished as we have a problem with malnourishment – in that we may be eating but are we eating the correct foods that truly support our physical and physiological body at this time? We have vast arrays of choice of food in parts of the world in supermarkets, coffee shops and so on, but how much of the food out there is actually nourishing? A dental hygienist I know says she is observing in people’s mouths deep disregard with food, type of food, the way people are eating their food (as you can tell by looking at teeth and gums) – and that she has never seen so much disregard as she is seeing now. So this is a much needed conversation – whilst we may have food, technology, more research than ever, more access to online solutions etc – our relationship with food is not as it could be.

  5. I just saw a news article (from June 2016 in the Telegraph) that said “Currently around 18,000 Britons a year develop cancer because they are overweight but the figure is set to treble within two decades. It means that by 2035, more than 56,000 people a year will develop cancer simply because of they are too fat.” So there is definitely much to do as regards food, nutrition, dieting, and weight loss.

  6. Thanks for this blog, it covers a lot that needs to be said.
    It made me think about a 2 week yoga retreat that I attended nearly 20 years ago. The diet we were put on was raw food plus a few cooked vegetables, no coffee, tea or alcohol.. The first thing I did when I left the retreat was to stop at the first cafe I could find to get a hit of coffee, later that day I just couldn’t wait to eat meal with meat and have a cold beer. I just returned to the way I ate previously. I didn’t enjoy the food at the retreat and couldn’t wait to get back to ‘normal’.
    I have though, lost weight during the last few years, not by dieting, but purely through paying attention, being aware of how my body reacted to different food and drink. It is quite simple when you listen to what the body is communicating, I stopped drinking alcohol and coffee because they gave me heartburn. I started to experiment with other areas, gluten and starchy foods made me feel heavy and lethargic, I stopped eating them and I started feeling lighter and more alert. I had, for many years struggled to breathe through my nose, particularly at night, I stopped all dairy products and after a few months, I had much clearer airways.
    When I experience these gifts, that enable a much better quality of life there is no way I can return to eating and drinking these products. I have also lost nearly 3 stone (17kg) during this process. I feel fitter and healthier than I have ever done before and I will continue to refine my foods and listen carefully to the messages my body is sending to me.
    Being aware and more present with my body and taking responsibility for my own health and wellbeing.

  7. Something that comes through loudly for me in this blog, the statistics and in your comment, Michael, is how sold out we are to pictures. In this case, pictures of what we’re ‘supposed’ to look like – of what an ideal body type is. We get bombarded with these pictures in the press, on tv, in magazines, on bill boards: ‘perfect’ people with ‘perfect’ bodies. No wonder the diet industry is so huge: we’ve sold out to an image and it has nothing to do with true vitality and it has nothing to do with taking responsibility for our own wellbeing first, with our weight as a direct result of those choices. Imagine if the next diet craze was to “look at what food represents to us and how we use it to cope with the stresses of daily life”. It could well toll the death knell for the entire industry.

  8. I read in the news – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/07/more-spent-on-treating-obesity-related-conditions-than-on-the-po/ that there is more spent on treating obesity related conditions now than there is on the police or fire service. So even with all the diets that we have in our world today, the multiple books, millions of dieting recipes, and websites, we still have an obesity pandemic. There is obviously a need for another way – otherwise surely if the diets and diet industry had worked we wouldn’t have the obesity we have?

    1. Thank you Jane Keep for this link, which is spelling out to us that we have a serious problem.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/07/more-spent-on-treating-obesity-related-conditions-than-on-the-po/

      The kingpin of the National Health Service in England is telling us that 40% of their work is because of excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and lack of exercise.

      He then adds that £16,000,000,000 per year is spent directly on medical costs for diabetes and other conditions related to being overweight or obese.

      So this is where a huge chunk of the British taxpayers’ money is now going and incase the world hasn’t noticed, the figures are increasing.

      Experts are warning us that with the current rate of increase, one fifth of the human race will be obese by 2025.

      Is it time we started asking the WHY questions?
      WHY have we got childhood obesity in the first place?
      WHY are we not educating our young children about obesity?
      WHY are our kids consuming foods that give rise to Diabetes?
      WHY is our food industry happy to sell cereals full of sugar?
      WHY is our soda industry content making billions when it is killing us?
      WHY are we blindly eating sugar and not bothering to check what it does to us?
      WHY are we so mis-guided when it comes to looking at the quality of our true health?
      WHY are we not informed that alcohol contains sugar?
      WHY are we not aware that alcohol is a scientific proven poison?
      WHY are our governments not able to nail it with solutions and action plans?
      WHY have we not taken action sooner regarding obesity-related issues?
      WHY are we not getting to grips with what Diabetes actually is?
      WHY are we not taking Responsibility for what we are drinking and eating?
      WHY are we not able to join the dots and see that maybe our choices are the reason we have an obesity related issue?

      Next – this article also says there is evidence that sugar tax ‘simply will not work’.
      Lasting change in people’s diets will happen via a long-term cultural shift, by focusing on education and encouraging personal responsibility.
      Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance

      Is this personal responsibility what Tim Bowyer has lived and is sharing in our diet blog?

  9. Also in the news I saw that a group of workplaces in Northern Ireland had a challenge to lose weight and they did – “Collectively, the employees lost 9,467 lbs (676 stone) – this equates to the weight of 52 average-sized UK men, or more than the weight of the average killer whale! In total, participants lost 1,509 waist inches which is almost the same height as Victoria Square.” (http://www.publichealth.hscni.net/news/employees-lose-9467-lbs-during-lb-challenge) – which also shows that anything is possible. It would be interesting to see how they go a year, two years after and whether they have made changes to sustain their new weight.

  10. I have done so many ridiculous diets over the years and as mentioned by Simple Living Global, the results were only, temporary.

    I wasn’t that fat but my head had this image I needed to look in a particular way AND I used work outs six days a week as an excuse to eat more, I loved food! I was addicted to eating food and some foods I consumed would have a memory attached to it or an emotion,

    For instance, I loved aubergine curry and whenever I was sick or returned home after being away, I would need to eat this curry as a reminder of being back home It kind of represented a sense of comfort, fulfilling, satisfaction, I was worth more. Food was always feeding something within me and I wasn’t referring to nutrients either.

    I hadn’t realised my relationship with sweets / desserts was a form of reward for being good or working hard so I awarded myself, no one else was giving it to me so I might as well, it was fulfilling me with empty calories and emptiness.

    Over the last 6 years I had the choice taken away by my body’s loudest signal, the deterioration of my ears and diagnosis of hypothyroidism. I slowly started to omit the foods that contained gluten, diary, alcohol, coffee, sugar, and salt. I have naturally changed shaped and becoming more acquainted with my body and its language.

    I am forming a new relationship with food and what its reflecting within my everyday life, something I ponder on often. I still have a way to go and with the inspiration of Serge Benhayon, I am making changes to nurture and feed my body with more responsibility.

  11. A 2 Hundred Billion Dollar industry…this is staggering. So much is being invested in an industry that clearly isn’t working for anyone. Tim Bowyer’s example of living in a way that truly supports him and hence his weight balanced out naturally clearly is a simple and responsible way to deal with this, no diet in sight. This is inspirational and something everyone can do for themselves.

    1. Thank you Ruth for the reminder of this multi billion dollar industry. The thing is it is a revolving door business because we cannot sustain this way of living so we keep going back but in the end there if we are being honest, there is no real evolution.
      Also reading in the press about a slimming coach award to someone obese who runs groups for a slim program in different locations. Are we joining the dots and does this make any sense?
      How can someone run groups and be awarded when the person presenting and managing is very overweight?
      Is that the same as a smoker telling us to give up smoking?
      I once heard a Pythagora’s quote – may be true or maybe not but it makes sense.
      ‘If it is not lived in our body, it is impossible for us to impart it’
      In other words, when we live what we are presenting then others feel that quality because it is like we have ‘seen it, done it, been there’ a life experience so we KNOW.
      We are not talking empty words, we are not asking others do live something we are not prepared to choose for ourself.

  12. An article in the magazine ‘The conversation’ asks ‘does using smaller plates make us eat less’?

    http://theconversation.com/do-smaller-plates-make-you-eat-less-no-74181

    It came to the conclusion that ‘No’, it didn’t make us eat less and in fact, in some cases, it made us eat more simply because with a smaller plate we are more likely to go for seconds or even thirds.

    It says that there is accelerating evidence that if the food manufacturers made the food with less calories then, as a nation, we would be eating less. Making food with less calories will certainly affect the profits of the food manufacturers and so make them very resistant to change.

    If this change could be made, I still feel that it wouldn’t reduce the amount that people ate because as someone who weighed over 27 stone and now weighs 15 stone, I know that diets do not work and eating food on a small or large plate had no effect on how much I ate.

    The thing with food that I never understood until I started to attend the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is that we use food so much more than to just give us energy. I was given an understanding of how different foods affected our bodies and why we ate certain foods.

    We eat food to push down our feelings.
    We eat food for comfort.
    We eat food when we are sad
    We eat food when we are bored.
    We eat food when we are happy.
    We eat food at the wrong times.
    We eat food when we are anxious.

    With this understanding I could make choices that truly supported my body and the weight loss was a by-product of this new way of living.

    I feel that just reducing calories in food will not make that much difference.

    We need to look deeper into our food issues and until people start to look at why, what and when they eat what they eat, no true change will come about.

  13. Another fad diet to hit the headlines endorsed by celebrities and even the founder of this new diet says “sticking to just 600 calories in 24 hours was a challenge for even the most committed”

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/founder-52-diet-announces-changes-10012458

    As someone who has lost over 12 stone in weight, I can say that diets do not work

    One of the reasons for this is that when we have reached our target weight loss goal, we then go back to the foods that put the weight on in the first place.

    Why do we do this?

    Simply put, we get instructed that certain foods are high in calories, fat or sugar and are no good for the body and to some degree we get an understanding of why we shouldn’t eat them, but at no point does anyone ask us to look at ‘why’ we started to eat these types of food in the first place or ‘why’ we eat certain foods to excess – whether it be comfort eating, eating to push down our feelings, eating because we are sad, etc.

    Someone may argue that diets do work, just look at the weight loss pictures, and yes, in the short term, we will lose weight.

    Common sense tells us that if we reduce the amount of calories, fat and sugar that we eat, inevitably the weight will fall off but because we haven’t dealt with the underlying issues of ‘why’, we start to miss the foods that we were used to and start to eat them again.

    Consequently, what we see and hear about from family, friends and in the media outlets, is the ‘YO-YO dieter’.

    Another reason we cite as not sticking to our diet is that we are always hungry or starving and thinking about food.

    Looking at the word ’Hunger’, are we really hungry or starving or is it something else?

    The human body can go up to 21 days or more without food as long as you are still drinking water.

    Are we really starving if we go without food for 24 hours?

    Is it possible that when we say we are hungry or starving we are in fact having a craving?

    Diets like the one above will come and go and there will always be those of us who jump on them and claim their amazingness, but until we truly start to look at ‘WHY’ we eat certain foods or more truth-fully, why we ‘NEED’ certain foods, we will always be at the mercy of our ‘Cravings’.

  14. One of the things that is not generally talked about when someone loses a lot of weight is the fact that the person is left with a lot of sagging skin, especially after weight loss surgery or if they have lost weight very quickly.

    Of course it depends on how heavy you were in the first place to how much saggy skin is left.

    The reason we are left with this excess skin is because the compounds that help promote skin elasticity, elastin and collagen, become stressed in the process of extreme weight loss. The faster the weight loss, the less the elastin and collagen are able to bounce back and provide skin firmness.

    Yo-Yo dieting also has the potential for sagging skin as the repeated stretching of weight gain and then weight loss will wear out the skin’s elasticity and eventually the skin wont bounce back.

    Extreme exercise doesn’t help the body either as the link below shows an obese 25 stone man who was left with a saggy six-pack after losing half his body weight.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/obese-25-stone-man-left-9999635

    This is not to say that we shouldn’t exercise, but exercise should not be the main focus in weight loss.

    At my heaviest I was over 27 stone and now weigh over 15 stone so I have lost nearly half of my body weight with no sagging skin and a gentle exercise routine at the gym, which entails 20-30 minutes on the treadmill (at normal walking pace) and weights or treadmill and X-trainer or a daily gentle walk for a minimum of 15 minutes.

    The main reason for the fact that there is no sagging skin is the time it has taken to lose the weight. The weight loss has occurred over several years and was never seen as a ‘DIET’ but is a by-product of gradually eliminating foods that I knew were not healthy for my body.

    Because the weight loss was very gradual, it gave my body’s elastin and collagen time to bounce back and maintain that elasticity.

    Losing weight this way seems to be more natural and by gradually coming off unhealthy foods we are more likely to never go back to it.

  15. I was talking with a friend and the topic of food came up and he was saying how eating meat was bad for you. He was going on about all the health risks. I interrupted him when I got a chance and said I believed the only person that knows what I need to eat is myself. I am not sure that he even heard me, he was so intent on what he was saying.

    Afterwards I realized that he did not even want to consider what I was saying. How is it that many people are not open to another way of looking at things? I am not saying that what I said is the truth but if we are not open to talking about something and looking at another way, nothing will change.

    Also when someone is so intent on what they are saying, I feel it limits there ability to really listen and have a real conversation and connection with another person. Every person has so much to share, and it makes my day when I have a real connection with someone.

  16. This makes so much sense. If it takes a long time for the weight to go on, the skin/body won’t be able to keep pace if you lose it artificially fast.

    The way you write about your weight loss, Tim, is not only inspiring but it feels enduring – a true change and not achievement-based or a quick fix to meet an image.

    Reading about it, it feels like you really took care of your body and committed to doing so consistently.

  17. “We eat food to push down our feelings.
    We eat food for comfort.
    We eat food when we are sad.
    We eat food when we are bored.
    We eat food when we are happy.
    We eat food at the wrong times.
    We eat food when we are anxious.”

    I feel so many of us could agree this is 100% true.

    For example, I will often find myself thinking about or turning to food (any food will do) when I feel tense about a piece of work that needs doing. It’s like something inside is asking for a boost to get me through what is needed.

    What is really happening there though?

    If I eat, I have no chance of knowing, because I won’t make the enquiry – the food will mask the feeling.

    If I pause and notice the fact that I’m tense, then the opportunities open up. I can get honest. I can see that I’m pushing myself and I can reset.

    Thank you for this blog and this comment to help me see this so clearly. It’s game-changing.

  18. Thank you Simple Living Global for highlighting the incredible amount of money spent on the dieting industry.

    Your bigwig, Prof. Jason Holford, makes a good point when he says, “Dieting makes us obsessed with food because it makes you hungry.”

    This makes a lot of sense and it is a sure-fire way of ensuring we don’t stay on that diet.

    I know when I tried diets, all I could think about was food and, of course, it wasn’t long before I succumbed to the temptation of the foods I was trying not to eat, and consequently, another diet goes by the wayside.

    Diets will never work because they are depriving us of food.

    Yes we need to reduce our food intake but we also need to make sure that what we are eating actually nourishes us so we don’t crave food and constantly think about food.

    Until we realise that simply just reducing our food intake is not the answer, diets will never work.

    We need to look at why we want to lose weight and just as important, why we put the weight on in the first place.

    As this blog says, it is time to stop blaming the food industry. They are only responding to a demand from us and ultimately it is our responsibility to look at WHAT we eat, WHEN we eat and WHY we eat.

  19. When I was eating more than my teenage sons, I realized I was eating for other reasons, then supporting my body. But I felt hungry. So what was going on?

    Simple Living Global introduced me to the concept of ‘eating to fill my emptyness’. I feel this is all about using food as a way of not feeling something that is uncomfortable.

    Yesterday I came home for lunch and felt hungry, but I did not know what to eat. I stopped before I grabbed the corn chips, and thought, if I do not know what to eat, maybe I am not really hungry? So I laid down and connected to my body (Simple Living Global has supported me in how to remember how to do this), and felt some old feelings of sadness.

    When I got up and felt hungry again I knew exactly what I needed to eat. What a great understanding that my body knows what to do, I just need to truly listen to what it is saying. This process of listening to my body on a deeper level, took some time to get, but it has supported me to trust myself more and not look outside of my self for answers.

  20. This diet business was a waste of time for me but nevertheless I went with it as the world and its mothers were on some kind of diet.

    When I was a teenager, I tried this milkshake thing you drink instead of a meal.

    My whole focus was on food and so I was eating food and drinking these shakes. Of course, it made me put on weight but I kept going back to it as I liked the dairy and the chocolate flavour tasted just like a malt milkshake.

    Around 30 years ago my friend suggested these diet pills and even without the Internet there were always the dodgy people who you could buy them from.

    Well they worked. I was buzzing day and night on zero sleep and never felt hungry. So yes the weight was instant loss but of course it never lasted. I started getting headaches and my moods were up and down.

    In summary, no diet I have ever tried worked and today I know why. More often than not I was eating to drive and push my body past its natural limits so it needed the extra food to keep going. I was exhausted beyond words so sugar and carbs were always on the menu. Snacking on crisps and chocolate was because I needed sleep not food.

    Finally I had no understanding about food, our digestion process or the fact that our body has an internal sleep wake cycle. Drinking water was flat and boring, so I literally drank no water all day. Fizzy soda drinks were my thing.

    Joining the dots things make sense now and no surprise, I can write articles on chocolate, gluten, dairy and diets.

    This is nonsense, because that is what it was to my body and now it is off my radar.

  21. I have been away from work and home for a few days and I can see from that distance how the happenings of my life influence what I eat.

    For example, at home I will often eat way more than I need in the evenings, either as a reward after a full-on day or because I’m tired and trying to fuel my body up after pushing it too hard.

    While I’m away, that is not happening at all. I am just feeling what to eat and when.

    For me, this just goes to show the truth of what is presented in this blog.

    If we look at what’s really going on behind our food consumption, we’ll likely come up with a completely different answer to the current ‘solutions’ offered by the diet industry.

  22. There are articles every day about food, diets, obesity. Two in the news this morning:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/5-million-investment-for-new-obesity-policy-research-unit
    “The Department of Health has announced £5 million of funding for a new obesity policy research unit at University College London. One year on from the launch of the childhood obesity plan, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Obesity Policy Research Unit has been set up to provide resource for long term research into childhood obesity. It will give independent advice to policy makers and analysts, and develop understanding on the causes of childhood obesity, looking at social inequalities, the early years of childhood, and marketing to children and families.”

    and

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/18/pizza-and-crisps-makers-urged-to-reduce-fat-to-tackle-childhood-obesity

    “Over 40,000 deaths a year – one in 10 – are linked to people being dangerously overweight, health experts say.”

    And with all this investment into research, medicine and diets we haven’t begun to turn the tide of obesity around – why is this? what else is going on?

  23. Something else today regarding food and diets in the news –

    “Sugar ‘is as addictive as cocaine’: Warning cutting it out may lead to withdrawal symptoms similar to a drug addict going cold turkey”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4821706/Sugar-just-addictive-cocaine.html#ixzz4qmigYAS4

    As we have substances in our diet e.g. sugar, coffee which are addictive – not only do we have to contend with changing our food, we also have to contend with the symptoms of the addictive substance.

    Why on earth would we have any foods that are addictive? Anything that is addictive would surely have big warning bells on it for our body?

  24. In the news today The Guardian has an article – “UK needs to perform thousands more obesity operations, say surgeons”.

    “Reducing stomach size prevents people eating more than small amounts at a time, leading to dramatic weight loss. It can also reverse type 2 diabetes, which carries the risk of amputations, blindness, heart attacks and strokes.”
    “Severe and complex obesity is a serious, lifelong condition associated with many major medical conditions, the cost of which threatens to bankrupt the NHS.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/01/uk-needs-to-perform-thousands-more-obesity-operations-say-surgeons

    Diets aren’t working, nor are the various offers of weight loss programmes – so we have had to resort to this not just in the UK but world wide – to curb the continuous rise in obesity.

    We really do need to take a pause and ask what is going on here – regarding weight, obesity, food, – and the many illness and diseases in the world today.
    Using sticking plasters to sort this out isn’t going to work.

  25. An article in ‘The Telegraph’, 22nd October 2017, talks about how “Club 18-30 (stone) launched to help the overweight cope.”

    It is the club 18-30 with a big difference – the guests at this resort are on the large side.

    A new hotel has opened catering specifically for guests who weigh between 18-30 stones so they can enjoy a holiday without worrying about taunts from fellow travellers.

    The resort, on the Caribbean island of Eleuthera, is custom built for large sizes, with chairs that are a metre wide, extra wide room doorways and steel reinforced bedframes and sun-loungers.

    It also features an eat what you want buffet serving comfort food three times a day.

    The resort, which claims to be the world’s only hotel built exclusively for plus sized people, is designed to help guests not only feel more comfortable on holiday, but re-evaluate their bodies and their self-image.

    The owner of the resort says: “It’s a sanctuary. It’s a place where you can come and have a good holiday without any judgement whatsoever.”

    A group of British tourists are set to test his promise as part of a new ITV series. The programme says the group will undergo a “radical new approach to confronting the prejudice they often encounter because of their size. They’ll be challenged to face their innermost fears, and inspired to find a new confidence to overcome their inhibitions.”

    Activities at the resort, which has it’s own five mile beach away from prying eyes, will include group therapy sessions, sharing their worst photographs and receiving counselling from a size 27 model.

    Where is the responsibility in this?

    Is it possible that this is just another gimmick from the producers of reality TV?

    The ironies here are clear for all to see.

    They say ‘it’s designed to help guests feel more comfortable on holiday and re-evaluate their bodies and their self-image’ but then they feed them three times a day with comfort food.

    There are group therapy sessions to ‘overcome innermost fears’ about being seen in public but then they have a secluded five mile beach to hide in.

    Is it possible that this sort of exercise will never work if we don’t address the root cause of why people are so overweight?

    As someone who was once morbidly obese, I know full well what it feels like to have a fear about taking my clothes off in public and it wasn’t until I addressed the reasons why I was so overweight that I started to become confident enough to bare all.

    The participants may well drop some of their inhibitions whilst they are in the bubble of this resort but what happens when they get back to the real world where the judgement and taunts become reality once again?

  26. An article in the Daily Mail, 29th July 2017, talks about how only 1 in 5 people go for a long walk.

    The survey revealed the number of adults taking long walks has fallen by a fifth since 2002.

    The average Brit walked 95 miles last year – excluding walks under a year – a drop of 19% in 14 years.

    More alarmingly, one in five of us go on a walk lasting longer than 20 mins once a year or never at all, according to the study of travel habits by the Department of Transport.

    A spokesperson for the walking and cycling charity Sustrans, said: “It seems incredible that a fifth of people don’t walk. There is a growing concern that the environment is just not conducive to walking. Air quality is a real problem and people just don’t like to walk next to a dirty road.”

    Is it possible that we are just getting lazier or are we spending our spare time on social media or other distractions?

    Is it possible that if we walk with and for ourselves, it really doesn’t matter if the road is dirty, there is too much traffic or there is too much noise?

    Like all things in life that are worth doing and that actually supports our bodies, it takes commitment and dedication.

    We can blame it on the environment or any other reason, but if we don’t want to do something, we will always find an excuse that we will justify so as not to do it.

    Walking, apart from being a beneficial all round gentle form of exercise, doesn’t cost anything except our time.

    From someone who really didn’t like and couldn’t be bothered to walk, I now look forward to going on walks and have made it a regular part of my life.

  27. Metro – 20 December 2017

    ‘A pill that gives all the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet is set to receive a scientific patent.’

    The article then goes on to say that ‘It means people at risk of heart disease now have access to the first all-natural over-the-counter product clinically demonstrated to slow down the furring of the arteries that leads to heart disease.’

    Why the perpetual search for medication to deal with our health problems, when lifestyle choices can make a significant difference?

    We only need to read the story in this blog, of Tim Bowyer to understand what is possible.

  28. In answer to the title of this blog, I am living proof that diets do not work and Tim Bowyer mentioned in this article is also proof that there is not diet on earth that is going to work until we get to the root cause of what we are up to when it comes to what we are choosing to eat and why.

    Next – the previous comment talks about a pill that is going to give us the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet. How can anything coming out of a lab or pharmacy be natural and what is it about us humans that like to mimic something that comes from nature?

    If we applied some common sense, would it be true to say that we are once again looking for a solution to support us in our ill choices when it comes to furr on the arteries? We all know our food choices can lead to this so WHY do we not educate the world and its brothers about that instead of the next pill.

    We all know that unless there was a demand the supplier would not be able to supply, so on some level we are asking for this. We want the quick fix remedy because we love the foods that furr up our arteries and we want to carry on eating what we like because we can and there is a solution – it is an all natural product.

    Are we fooling ourselves when it comes to all this diet stuff or is it that we cannot admit or accept that we are being fooled?

    I say it is high time we started asking all these questions and talking about this at every dinner table, as there is much rise in illness and disease and they keep telling us a lot of it is because of lifestyle choices and that would include our Diets – in other words, what we are choosing to eat.

  29. I have just been reading a news story about Gastric band procedures and I can see how people can be persuaded into having them done when they are overweight and are desperate to lose weight.

    Flashy marketing including before and after pictures where the after pictures are very glamorous are part of the set up.

    In addition loans are readily available with some bariatric surgery clinics and a loan can be arranged.
    What is interesting here is that the same director as the clinic is also the financial company director.

    I can relate to the desperate need to have a life situation changed and through that desperation accepting anything that comes along that claimed it would fix the problem.

    However what I have learnt is that nothing happens by accident and nothing comes our way by chance and so as I have taken more responsibility for my life and am choosing to see my part in why I get into certain situations, I can also see that change is possible and in my hands.

    So is it possible that there are choices that we make that lead us to become overweight and then there are choices we can make that lead us to be a natural size and weight without the need for gastric band surgery and diets?

    As presented in this blog by Simple Living Global, Tim Bowyer is a man who has taken true responsibility by making simple lifestyle changes.

    Is there more that can be learnt from his story or are we comfortable accepting an irresponsible way of living which goes along with poor lifestyle choices?

  30. Just now I read this blog through along with Tim Bowyer’s recent post and followed that up by reading all the comments he and others have contributed. It is incontrovertible that diets, weight loss programmes, gastric banding, the latest slimming gimmicks, extreme exercise – all do not work.

    Tim’s lived experience, the fact that he has shed the excess weight he was carrying, that he didn’t require skin-fold reduction surgery, that he did it through choices incorporated into his everyday living – without pills, supplements, slimming teas, radical dieting or any other kind of ‘magic bullet’ – should be front page news.

    Of course Tim’s approach has a ‘hiding in plain sight’ simplicity that we all want to overlook in the rush to find solutions to the obesity epidemic.

    So taking Tim’s example: firstly he developed an understanding as to why he was eating and living the way he was – he followed this by eliminating sugar, stimulants, alcohol, gluten and dairy and adding in sensible exercise – all of which he lovingly incorporated into his living life (not as something added on). This has such a plain truth in it that it is understandable that no one is really listening.

    How do you market and make money from the increased awareness and responsibility that Tim outlines. As Tim says:

    ‘But the thing here is…I was the one that chose to eat these foods.
    I was the one that chose the comfort
    I was the one that chose to not cook for myself.
    I was the one that chose convenience.
    I was the one that chose to not nurture and nourish myself.’

    This realisation that ‘no-one is doing it to you’ – that it is you that is buying and eating the myriad of junk food on offer, that it is you that can’t wait for the next sugar hit, that it is you that ignores how that feels, that it is you that looks for weight-loss miracles – this is the beginning of responsibility and the awakening of awareness. Only when we look and feel into our own lived intelligence and develop an ongoing relationship with our ‘inner knowing’ do we stop looking for external solutions and so allow true change to begin.

  31. We have a plethora of diets with none really doing any true good in supporting us to be healthy and eat foods that are nourishing for our bodies.

    Today I have been reading about tests that are used to work out, based on our genetic make-up, which diet is best. As a result some may be told to eat more carbs, including bread; others prescribed a low fat diet; good fats diet; low calorie diet; high sugar diet; or an eat more diet.

    This feels strange to me as I read it as for me, now much of the time I choose to eat foods depending on how they feel in my body e.g. do I feel nourished, has it digested well, has this left me craving more, do I feel sleepy, etc.

    So to read now that someone else can prescribe a diet based on a person’s genes makes no sense. Right now if anyone were to prescribe any diet for me and I were to follow it, it would feel like I am ticking boxes and doing something from my head rather listening to what my body wants.

    Unfortunately these gene tests can be brought over the counter from pharmacies and so my question is – have we asked for these tests en-masse because we do not want to have a relationship with our bodies and take responsibility for what we eat and our whole well-being?

  32. Telegraph – 2nd February 2018

    Crash Diets May stop the heart from pumping properly – new study from Oxford University has revealed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/02/02/crash-diets-may-stop-heart-pumping-properly-oxford-university/

    The study involes people who consumed less than 800 calories per day. The recommended calories are 2,500 per day for men and 2,000 a day for women.

    ‘“Crash diets, also called meal replacement programmes have become increasingly fashionable in the past few years,…

    These diets have a very low calorie content of 600 to 800 kcal per day and can be effective for losing weight, reducing blood pressure and reversing diabetes. But the effects on the heart have not been studied until now.”’
    Lead author Dr. Jennifer Rayner, clinical research fellow, Oxford Centre for Magnetic Resonance, at the Oxford University.

    In the first week of consuming the low calorie diet the heart fat content in participants rose by 44% and there was a noteable deterioration in heart function, including the heart’s ability to pump blood. However heart function improved over time.

    The article goes on to say that recent research has found that –

    66% of British people are on a diet, most of the time and there are 800,000 people living with heart failure and nearly 2,000,000 living with chronic angina.

    This study confirms that dramatic calorie reduction has a significant impact on the health of our heart.

    The study lasted for 8 weeks and so after week one heart functioned improved, but I wonder what the impact on the heart would be long term, if this reduced calorie consumption continued?

    I ask, as I remember a time when I inadvertently reduced my calorie intake over a 1 year period as I had eliminated a lot of foods. Although at the time I was in denial about the impact on my body, I can say now that my cholesterol levels increased, during that time and it was very difficult for me to walk up stairs, as my heart would be beating very fast.

    Now I know that my body was struggling to deal with day to day activities because I was not eating in a way that supported my body to be fit for every day activities.

    I had to stop listening to what my mind was saying and start to listen and honour what I felt to eat to understand what works for my body.

    This is still a work in progress and requires further refining but I am sure that my heart is in a much healthier place now than it was back then.

  33. The Metro – 2 October 2018

    Yo yo dieting more than doubles the risk of an early death, according to new research.

    Scientists say that seesawing levels of weight, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar may be even more dangerous than staying fat.

    The study of 6.7 million people – the largest of its kind, raises concerns over a popular way to slim.

    It shows that heart attacks and strokes are more common among those who shed and regain pounds repeatedly.

    Yo-yo dieting is defined as gaining or losing more than 10lb on four occasions, regardless of time period.

    Reading this blog and what it presents, it is staggering to read that we have a study with millions of people telling us something that most of us are already aware of.

    Those who diet know it’s hard to hold it off and those who observe those who go on diets can see how it is not a natural way to maintain stability when it comes to our weight.

    Could it be possible our bodies have an intelligence and it knows what it wants, but we as the masters of this human frame seem to think we can do what we want, as we own that body?

    We have a world, geared at making us eat foods that our digestive system is not designed for?

    We have a trillion dollar food industry constantly coming up with the next thing to keep us munching, without any regard for our precious body.

    We have addictive foods and beverages that keep us stimulated and wanting more.

    We then want a solution – a quick fix so we get the diet that we think will give us the image we have in our head of what we want for our body – shape, size etc.

    If we just put our common sense hat on – how on earth is that going to work?

    We blame the diet industry making millions but it only exists because it has the customers.

    That means the demand is there and they supply.

    Nothing changes unless we stop, question everything and ask IS THERE ANOTHER WAY because SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT.

    If we just consider what diets are doing to our health systems in terms of bringing on extra burden that could quite easily be avoided.

    We hear over and over again that lifestyle choices are a big contributable factor with so many illnesses and diseases.

    Is it time to listen and study websites like this which offer wisdom in every single blog?

    Dear World – are we ready for a quantum shift, to turn the tides and go back to our natural way of living and being?

  34. Metro News – 21 November 2018

    A low-protein, high carb diet may protect against dementia and help us live longer according to scientists in Australia.

    Are the tests on the hippocampus of mice, going to give us all the answers?

    Is a high carbohydrate diet the answer here and is any diet going to work?

    Are we 7 billion + individuals each with a different need for what type of foods will support our true health and vitality that each day requires a review?

    OR do we just find news stories that may just suit us and go with it because it is a convenient truth and actually serves us to not make true lifestyle changes with the word Responsibility?

    Many of us rely on what the media tells us and this could lead to problems as we are not discerning what is needed and what is not.

    This website aims to present the stats, facts and more – this being by way of questioning and asking the reader to consider IS THERE ANOTHER WAY.

    Yes we need research and even more research but is it high time to consider anecdotal evidence and fund independent research?

    That means we have no bias and no need for a result to be a certain way.
    We take note of those who have lived experience to tell us how it is, so we can all learn and evolve from such ills and dis-eases that we have created in our bodies.

  35. At a talk by a behavioural scientist last week, she shared a diet-related example of how the brain does not hold the intelligence with which we credit it.

    When we go on a diet, our brain knows this and sends messages to our body that we are not getting enough food. So we produce more of a hormone called Ghrelin. Its job is to increase appetite.

    So when we ‘go on a diet’, we get more hungry.

    She joked that you should tell yourself when you are eating lettuce, that it is calorific and bad for you, then your body would not get the message to produce Ghrelin.

    But the truth is, you can’t stop it that way.

    If we were consistently eating what we knew our body needed, our brain – and our hormones – would get in line.

  36. Great question that you ask here Simple Living Global regarding ‘Do Diets Work?’ The answer is definitely no.

    I remember being on diets for a good 20 years and it would always mean that I would binge eat and when I wasn’t doing that, I had constant thoughts about when my next food items would be and what it would be. I would constantly need to eat.

    Now that I have much more understanding of my body and a deeper relationship with myself as a woman, I know that these behaviours were coming about as I was restricting my food intake. There was a constant battle and tug of war inside me about what I could and could not eat. This is not something that can be maintained and so of course this resulted in binge eating.

    Have we considered the harm that we are doing to the human frame by promoting and selling diets?

    We have just started a new year and diets are all the rage as we try to ‘reverse’ the damage done to our bodies over the Christmas period, but we know they do not last.

    Have we ever questioned why diets don’t work and if they don’t, why we keep creating more and more?

    Is it possible that if something is not working then it can’t be right for us?

    Why are these sorts of questions not the norm when we are making choices?

    What is it that stops our ability to question the status quo?

    Is it possible as Tim Bowyer is presenting here, that we can lose weight without putting ourselves on a diet and this can be the norm?

  37. The Times – 22 June 2019
    p4

    Schoolgirls on Extreme Prom Diets During Exams

    Teenage girls are going on extreme diets during GCSE revision so that they are thin enough for school prom.

    Pupils start planning their prom outfits up to a year before the events, which are held at the end of GCSE exams.

    Social media groups are set up nine months in advance so girls can avoid having the same outfit by informing each other which dresses they are thinking of buying.

    Some are designer gowns costing hundreds of pounds. This can lead to pupils falling out and social ostracism of those who do not conform, according to Ceri Stokes, assistant head at a school in Cambridgeshire.

    Ms Stokes is quoted as saying

    “How high can the heels go?

    Which hair extensions should they consider?

    And don’t forget the fake nails and spray tans.”

    With the exam season in full swing, how many of us can be honest to say we have seen this occurring around us?

    Is this an indictment on our society and what we have allowed to dominate and rule?

    Have we considered the detriment to one’s body from not eating to support ourselves?

    This can affect all aspects of a person’s life including their mental health as well as physical well-being and so the question is how have we allowed this to happen?

    There has always been pressure on young people to look a certain way and be a certain size and so that intensity around dieting and what we eat has been around for a long time but now it seems even more intense, confirmed by the creation of social media and its use in this instance for prom preparations.

    How is it that how we look and what we wear has become the focal point as to who and what a person is about?

    Have we ever considered that we have our focus in the wrong place and that if from day dot we supported our young to know who they truly are and how to connect to their bodies and take deep care of themselves, we would not have this situation where we have proms taking over teenagers’ lives?

    What if this way of raising children would enable them to live from the essence of who they truly are and whatever size and shape they are naturally would be born from this?

    What if this way of restricting and calculating what we eat is not true to our bodies at all and is causing a great deal of harm?

  38. The Harvard Gazette – 11 February 2020

    Dietary Supplements Largely Unregulated, Accessible to Children
    https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/newsplus/dietary-supplements-largely-unregulated-freely-accessible-to-children/

    According to a Boston Globe column, pills and powders claiming to boost weight loss, energy or sexual performance – available to customers of all ages on drugstore shelves – face little government oversight of their safety and efficacy.

    Because of legislation passed in 1994, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been unable to demand testing before a dietary supplement is brought to market or to stop companies from making unproven claims.

    Young people are especially vulnerable to the marketing of these products.

    A professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences and director of STRIPED (Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Boston Globe: “We have young people growing up believing the way they appear physically is their defining feature. That sets them up for escalating weight control methods, and for any kind of pill or potion they can find that will keep them from gaining weight.”

    A recent study by this professor and her colleagues found that use of diet pills increases the risk of eating disorders in young women. They also found that consumption of dietary supplements for weight loss, muscle building and energy was associated with increased risk for severe medical events in children and young adults compared to consumption of vitamins.

    It seems very dangerous that companies are allowed to sell these products without any regulation or checking the efficacy of their advertised effects.

    But, of course, where there is a product to buy, there has to be someone to buy that product.

    Americans are buying these products to the tune of $50 billion a year and, as manufacturers do not have to declare what is in these products, no one really knows. A doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance, who is an expert on dietary supplements said: “If a company says its product is safe, The FDA has to take their word for it, unless somebody ends up in hospital or dies.”
    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01/29/metro/dietary-supplements-largely-unregulated-deserve-states-skepticism/

    With the influences of social media, magazines and TV, the youth are very susceptible to how they perceive themselves in society.

    With the pressure they feel in having to conform to what society portrays as the ‘perfect model’, they will naturally jump at the opportunity to make themselves look and feel better.

    Is it possible that it is irresponsible to give them, or anyone for that matter, the choice to buy products that are supposedly there to help them but has the potential to harm?

    Why is the government allowing this practice to continue?

    Is it possible that the government will only start to take the appropriate measures when people start dying?

    Is it possible that, when asked, every government would profess that the health and safety of their citizens were paramount?

    But, paradoxically, the government allows these companies to produce products that have the potential to harm their citizens – this doesn’t make sense to me.

    Is it possible that, having an organisation like the FDA is unnecessary if they are powerless to do the job they have been created for?

  39. Health Day News – 14 June 2020

    https://consumer.healthday.com/fitness-information-14/misc-health-news-265/female-athletes-shortchange-themselves-on-nutrition-758472.html

    Many female athletes lack knowledge about nutrition, which could put them at risk for health problems.

    The study’s author found “a lack of general knowledge among athletes, coaches and other sports team specialists.”

    Other factors included poor time management and food availability, disordered eating behaviours such as chronic dieting or a drive for lower body weight. If nutrition does not meet the needs of energy output for sports or for proper body function and growth, female athletes’ bone and reproductive health can be affected. Deficiencies in vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, calcium and B vitamins can occur from exercise related stress and inadequate dietary intakes.

    Recent reports suggest that up to 42% of female athletes have insufficient vitamin D levels and up to 90% fall sort of the adequate intake for calcium. These two deficiencies can increase the risk of bone stress fractures and also place these athletes at risk for osteoporosis later in life.

    “Some female athletes may purposefully restrict their calorie intake for performance or aesthetic reasons, while others may unintentionally have low energy expenditure due to increased training or lack of education on how to properly fuel themselves for their sports’ demands.
    In addition, specific sports, such as gymnastics, distance running, diving, figure skating and classical ballet emphasise a low body weight; thus, making these athletes at greater risk for inadequate calorie consumption, poor body image, disordered eating or a serious mental health disorder diagnosis of an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.”

    This is serious and what do we do now that we know and have this awareness.

    It is very simple to point fingers and blame and it is also easy to avoid what is actually going on by continuing ‘business as usual’ and hoping it will all sort itself out, so let’s just mind our own business.

    We could all start with saying SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT.

    Any form of dieting is simply not going to work, as this blog presents very clearly. We can try any way we want to look at this but diets are not designed to maintain true health and wellbeing and take into account that each of us are different and that means we need different foods to eat that support us.

    It is very serious to know that 90% of the female athletes do not have the adequate levels of calcium and this increases their risk of bone stress fractures. In other words, their lack of understanding and knowledge in nutrition and the need to diet is putting their bodies in danger as they are training at athlete level, which is intense.

    The fact these women want to subscribe to chronic dieting is speaking volumes and with coaches and other team specialists equally not in the know about nutrition, this is a cocktail for serious health damage in the future.

    Real education with real role models would be a start and that means those who live it and that is walk the talk. They live what they are sharing and that way we have real education being presented from a body that lives what they are expressing.

    We all seem to want the ‘quick fix road or shape me up and make me look good’ when it comes to a diet, but without real proper knowledge and understanding of how the human frame works and what it needs and how to learn to connect with it, we are simply getting nowhere and studies like this just highlight the dangers of our choices.

  40. Metro News – 6 August 2020

    https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/06/how-lose-stone-21-days-eating-disorder-charity-calls-13092967/

    A controversial TV show about losing a stone in weight in just 21 days because it was a diet of low calories. It was advertised on social media as a ‘lockdown diet programme’.

    An Eating Disorder charity received 51% increase in calls soon after the show was aired. They are concerned that a national program was once again promoting extreme weight loss and crash dieting.

    Regardless of the fact that a doctor was at the helm of this show – let’s all be reminded that the TV channel is interested in viewers because that is what their business is all about.

    Firstly, read this blog before answering the question – Do Diets really work?

    Do we blame the doctor for promoting what he chooses for his own health?

    Do we consider that the demand has to be there first for this type of Television show and that means us, yes us the masses want it and so it is there?

    We like to indulge in foods that are really not supportive to our body and we hate having to make much movements in the name of walking or even gentle exercise or stretching. We like to blame the pandemic and all the restrictions forced on us for WHY we have overeaten consistently everyday and watched TV every night with no routine or rhythm as this is how it’s been for the nation. We then panic at the thought of life going back to normal and that means facing the world again so bingo – a new TV show telling us we can lose a stone in a few weeks and that’s exactly what we want. A year to pile on the weight and live in comfort and then a jolt to the eating habits so we can get the beach body or whatever it is we seek in the form of a picture in our mind of how we want to look.

    Before we finger point, judge and criticise – it is always worth bringing the whole thing back to us, ourselves and start with questions starting with How and WHY and dig deep with a huge dose of honesty.

    The thing is we all know that food and dieting is not the only thing going on – there are other factors to consider about what is going on in our life and why we have a weight issue in the first place.

  41. Medical X press – 13 November 2021
    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-low-frequency-intermittent-fasting-prompts-anti-inflammatory.html

    Intermittent fasting is currently known to be a dieting trend but according to a new study, it may have health benefits, including evidence that it is prompting the body to fight inflammation.

    Previous research has shown that intermittent fasting may improve health markers not related to weight.

    Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating.

    Inflammation is associated with higher risk of developing multiple chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.

    The participants of this particular study were prescribed an intermittent fasting schedule: twice a week water only 24 hour fasting for 4 weeks, then once a week water only 24 hour fasting for 22 weeks.
    This study states that the best routine is one where patients stick to this over the long- term but even occasional fasting can have positive effects.

    This is unlike other diet plans that are restrictive and promise magic weight loss.

    Could it be possible that our bodies benefit from ‘time off’ processing and digesting all that we ingest and water supports to cleanse out what is not needed and gives the organs a much needed break?

    Could it be possible that our focus and emphasis which could be on food and eating is not the same if we are to be on a schedule of not eating anything for 2 days a week for a month?

    Could it be possible that our bodies have the time and space for ‘correction’ and this is why this study is showing lower rates of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome?

    Could it be possible that we could all benefit from a proper break from not eating and allowing our body to adjust from all that we consume that may not be for our true health and wellbeing?

    What if this is not a diet but actually a sensible lifestyle choice for those that have used foods to bludgeon their body with little or no regard to the consequences that follow?

    Reading this blog, the reader is left in no doubt that our diets never work, simply because they are not natural for the body and they come with an agenda – we want the body shape, the weight loss or whatever our influencer on social media is doing or our latest celebrity star, but we forget that we are all different and we all need to be aware of what the word “diet” means for us.

  42. Yes it is early January and we just went over the top with our indulgence as we do every year with the over eating and excess consumption of alcohol, piled on the weight and now want a quick change to get rid of what we don’t like.

    Does this sound familiar and is this not what the masses – the majority of us do year in and year out expecting change but not really making the movements to bring about any lasting change. I for one was in this adult population category for decades.

    Then we get bombarded with the latest fad diets and now we have a new name “meal plan” and it gets advertised as one of the most healthiest and personalised plan ever. That means we still get to have our treats – the stuff we know is not really going to sort our weight issue out but nevertheless, we fall for it because the picture of pancakes, blueberries and a large dollop of cream gives us the licence to jump on the bandwagon hoping this time this diet (meal plan) is going to work. Really?

    Who on earth are we fooling and why is it that no diet yet has long lasting duration as we seem to give up before we get started, half way, of even a few years later?

    In the old days, I used to tell my clients to shape up their life and the body will sort itself out. These days I would say ditch the diet and let’s look deeper at WHY you have the need to bludgeon your body and continue abusing it. Whats going on, what is coming up that food and alcohol bury and why?

    In 2005, I met a man presenting on a one day workshop. His name was Serge Benhayon and his organisation was called Universal Medicine. He talked sense and the audience had permission to leave at any point and get a full refund. There was just no fake talk or advertising or marketing going on. Over the years, I have seen enormous changes in myself, my husband of 35 years and many many others. On the topic of food, he talks about what foods do what to our body and it was all making sense. That did not mean I took on board everything and went along with it. 15 years later, I still try things out and work it through with my body. There are foods now that are an absolute No and others where I know it is best I avoid them, but nevertheless, at times I still go for them.

    My weight dropped to a size I feel natural and comfortable with and it has pretty much stayed the same since. Yet before this – with my yo yo dieting, miserable life, mood swings and exhaustion, no diet on earth was going to work or has ever worked. My husband lost over 90 kg which is huge and the size of an average man. Incredible really considering there was no diet or meal plan.

    I would rather open up a weekend newspaper magazine in January and see a before and after photo of people like my husband, who has kept the weight off long term, than a pudding satiating my mouth like it is luring me to open the pages and follow the meal plan, which I absolutely know will get me nowhere.

    Serge Benhayon talks simple and common sense stuff. Take it or leave it as he has no investment if we get it or we don’t. How many world presenters do we have like that today with zero marketing and yet a worldwide audience of thousands like myself where our lives are incredible and amazing to say the least?

    Let’s get real Dear World, no diet is going to work where pancakes and cream are what we desire and seek. We need the sugar element in the carbs to give us energy because we are exhausted. We have never addressed our sleep issues or got a deep understanding what it means to rest and work in balance and in harmony with our natural state. Enough said, there is so much more to be said about food and one day this website may cover that topic.

  43. NC State University – 29 January 2024

    Study urges people to think twice before going on a Diet

    https://news.ncsu.edu/2024/01/think-twice-before-dieting/

    A new qualitative study highlights the negative and interpersonal and psychological consequences associated with “yo-yo dieting”, also known as weight cycling. The work underscores how toxic yo-yo dieting can be and how difficult it can be for people to break the cycle.

    Lynsey Romo, a corresponding author of a paper on the study and associate professor of communications at North Carolina State University said: “Yo-yo dieting – unintentionally gaining weight and dieting to lose weight only to gain it back and restart the cycle – is a prevalent part of American culture, with fad diets and lose-weight quick plans or drugs normalised as people pursue beauty ideals.”

    “Based on what we learned through this study, as well as the existing research, we recommend that most people avoid dieting, unless it is medically necessary. Our study also offers insights into how people can combat insidious aspects of weight cycling and challenge the cycle.”

    All the study participants reported wanting to lose weight due to social stigma related to their weight, and/or because they were comparing their weight to celebrities or peers.

    Romo says: “Overwhelmingly, participants did not start dieting for health reasons, but because they felt social pressure to lose weight.”

    Regaining the weight led people to feel shame and further internalise stigma associated with weight – leaving study participants feeling worse about themselves than they did before they began dieting. This, in turn, often led people to engage in increasingly extreme behaviours to try to lose weight again.

    “For instance, many participants engaged in disordered weight management behaviours, such as binge or emotional eating, restricting food and calories, memorising calorie counts, being stressed about what they were eating and the number on the scale, falling back on quick fixes (such as low-carb diets or diet drugs), overexercising, and avoiding social events with food to drop pounds fast,” says Romo.
    “Inevitably these diet behaviours became unsustainable, and participants regained weight, often more than they had initially lost.”

    Katelin Mueller, co-author of the study says: “Almost all of the study participants became obsessed with their weight.
    Weight loss became a focal point for their lives, to the point that it distracted them from spending time with friends, family, and colleagues and reducing weight-gain temptations such as drinking and overeating.”

    Participants referred to the experience as an addiction or a vicious cycle. Individuals who were able to understand and address their toxic dieting behaviours were more successful at breaking the cycle. Strategies people used to break these toxic behaviours included focusing on their health rather than the number on the scale, as well as exercising for fun, rather than counting the number of calories that they burned.

    Participants who were more successful at challenging the cycle were also able to embrace healthy eating behaviours – such as eating a varied diet and eating when they were hungry – rather than treating eating as something that needs to be closely monitored, controlled, or punished.

    However, the researchers found the vast majority of study participants were stuck in the cycle.

    Romo says: “The combination of ingrained thought patterns, societal expectations, toxic diet culture, and pervasive weight stigma make it difficult for people to completely exit the cycle, even when they really want to.”

    “Ultimately, this study tells us that weight cycling is a negative practice that can cause people real harm. Our findings suggest that it can be damaging for people to begin dieting unless it is medically necessary. Dieting to meet some perceived societal standard inadvertently set participants up for years of shame, body dissatisfaction, unhappiness, stress, social comparisons, and weight-related preoccupation.
    Once a diet has begun, it is very difficult for many people to avoid a lifelong struggle with their weight.”

    When this article talks about the toxicity of yo-yo dieting, I completely agree – but dieting of any kind does not work.

    It doesn’t work because of the mentality behind why we are going to diet.

    When we embark on a diet, we have a set goal to reach, a set target that we want to hit, and we put all of our focus on achieving that target.

    And when we do this there is only guaranteed outcome – failure.

    Failure because it is too hard to continue with the diet or we may hit our desired weight loss target but when we achieve that milestone, what happens is that we generally start to go back to the foods that we were eating that gave us the weight gain in the first place, and before you know it, we are back to piling on the pounds.

    Until we look at the underlying reasons why we eat the foods that we do, and how foods affect us internally, we will never get away from that cycle of weight loss – weight gain.

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