The Best Diet Plan Is No Diet At All

A common qustion that people ask is "What is the best diet?" It's really not that surprising that people ask this question when you take a look around at all of the different diets that are available. And there are some pretty crazy ones out there. 
My firm opinion, and that of many nutritionists, is “The best diet to follow is actually NO diet at all.”
When you break them down to their core, most traditional diets are really just varying forms of deprivation, meaning that you deprive yourself of calories, carbohydrates, etc. And by doing so, you also deprive yourself of nutrients. It’s difficult to understand how anyone could consider a diet to be healthy.
Diets simply DO NOT work. They’re unhealthy at best and almost impossible to stick to long term. That’s because your body will actually begin to crave the nutrients that it’s missing. And when the cravings get strong enough, it becomes too tempting to just give in. To make matters worse, many diets will have the unintended effect of causing your body to go in to “starvation mode” and actually store fat.
The reason that so many people have difficulty losing weight is that they follow diets instead of simply eating nutritious foods. But with all of the junk food, false advertising and false information being pumped out every day, how is it even possible to know what foods we should be eating?
Well it is possible to eat healthy, feel satisfied and lose weight, all at the same time. And there’s no need to starve yourself. All you need is to be armed with the correct information.
To answer the question at the beginning of this article, the best diet is one that actually includes plenty of delicious foods; one that will actually produce results; one that you can be happy with; one that you that you can stick to (for more than just a week) and maintain for a lifetime.
Here are a few tips that will help you develop the Best Diet for you:
No, this isn’t the “Cookie Diet” or the “Twinkie Diet.” What I mean here is don’t establish a crash diet of cottage cheese and grapefruit if you absolutely hate those foods.  Healthy food does not have to be akin to bird seed. How about scrambled whole eggs in butter with your favorite vegetables and 2 slices of sprouted grain toast? French toast made from healthy bread, and eggs?  A juicy hamburger or steak for lunch or dinner? How about making your own pizza from healthy ingredients? I could go on and on with a long list of delicious foods, but the point is that you don’t have to eat like a bird or eat bland, tasteless food to be healthy and lose weight. Find the healthy foods that you enjoy and get creative. You’ll quickly find that you have an incredible amount of delicious food options.
2.  Don’t go cold turkey.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? You don’t have to change every single one of your habits overnight. Establish one healthy eating habit each week, or eliminate one “not so good food.” This will prove to be life changing in just 1-2 months.  It will also eliminate any stress or anxiety you may have over changing all of your habits overnight. Start with the easiest one for you.  How about drinking water? Can you replace your sugar drinks with water for just one week?  How about just cutting down on a few sodas and replacing them with water? One small step each week will make your transition simple and easy. This is a great method for people who feel that they don’t have a lot of willpower.
Another very common mistake that I see is people starving themselves in an effort to lose weight quickly. The truth is you don’t need to feel hunger in order to effectively lose weight. Actually, the contrary is true. You must give your body enough nourishment (good nourishment, that is) in order to see weight loss results. Make sure to feed your body consistently throughout the day.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all important, but so are snacks in between. Munching on things like raw nuts, fresh fruits and healthy trail mixes can really keep you from experiencing any hunger throughout the day and help control any cravings that may come up.
Remember that the Best Diet you can begin today is an eating plan that does NOT resemble a diet at all. Tell people that you had French toast for breakfast, chicken stir fry for lunch and a juicy steak with potatoes for dinner and they’ll wonder how in the world you’re losing weight and looking great. Just say “Easy, I stopped dieting and found the Best Diet for me!”