To Diet or Not To Diet

As you know, I've been on a very successful weight loss diet, Start Fresh, for a few months already. So why this great rhetorical question?

Most people think of "diet" as a temporary solution to a weight problem. But if it's temporary, the problem will just return post-diet. Statistically, that's what happens to most of us.

Over the years I managed to lose weight and look great, and then... I'd gain it back plus. I got tired of following whatever rules had helped me slim down.

Now, my aim isn't a diet, it's to change my eating habits. I keep telling people that I don't feel like I'm dieting. I'm not hungry. I don't suffer from food cravings. I no longer have to preplan my day's meals. I have a pretty good picture in my mind of how many of each types of food I've eaten and have left to eat. I do not count calories and have pretty much deleted my mental calorie counter from my brain.

In a general sense I'm following Start Fresh. Its guidelines are similar to most of today's conventional weight loss diets with the added advantage for me that it takes into account Jewish Holidays and Kashrut, Jewish Dietary Laws. I've always taken the option of planning my own meals, since the sample meals don't suit me. And also, the minute someone else tells me what I must or mustn't eat, I have a physiological need to rebel.

So, on one hand, you can say that I'm on a diet, but it's not planned to be temporary. I'm working hard on permanently changing my eating, so that I'll never be obese again.