You don't need a diet to get healthy, you need a plan

Happy New Year. Hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Christmas, enjoying time with family and friends. If you're like me, a lot of that quality time also included food. A lot of food!

Whether you stuck to your plan, or things got away from you a little bit, I do hope you all enjoyed a few holiday favourites—guilt free.

And now you're back on plan. At least that was the plan, right?

With so many get-togethers involving food, drink and treats over the holidays, it's no wonder this is the time of year when temptation to resort to trying a diet is the strongest.

Even some of my FITlifers have confided that, in a moment of desperation, they have entertained the idea. But when you get right down to it, we all know diets don't work. They lie. Because even though diets will get you some results up front, they won't get you results you'll be able to keep for life.

So why would you want to do it? Trust me, you don't.

What if you could learn how to eat the foods you love in a way that promotes health, something that works with the way your body was designed to function and something to optimize your health while at the same time allowing you to achieve your weight goals? Well, you can.

Here's the deal. Today being Jan. 1, many of you are likely setting, or thinking about setting, New Year's resolutions. And, as a quick search showed some combination of weight loss, exercise and health topped polls for the past three years, it's safe to say that will likely be the case for 2022 as well.

Although health and weight loss resolutions are trending, it's a trend without traction. Clearly whatever people are doing isn't working. And really, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

But it's not your fault. Diets don't work. Oh sure, you'll always get some results at the start, but it's keeping them that counts. I think by now most people know diets don't work long term, they just don't know what else to do. So they make resolutions and try again, thinking, “If I could just have more willpower.” Sound familiar? You're not alone.

Simply making a resolution won't make that diet work any better this year than it did last year. Because diets set you up to fail. Diets make you believe that you're the problem, when in fact, they make you follow an impossible set of rules.

Diets make you eliminate food groups, count calories, keep you from eating the same dinner as the rest of your family, and flood you with guilt for that tiny sliver of birthday cake you didn't even enjoy at your kid's birthday.

Diets require you to be perfect. No wonder people give up after a few months. Who wants to live like that? No one. What you need is a resolution with a plan and a program to make it happen.

Diets use food to lose weight. Period. A plan focuses on using food to create health. And when you put it together with a program that teaches you how to eat the foods you love in a way that enables a healthy inflammatory response, promotes circulation, naturally balances blood sugar, optimizes digestion and supports collagen resilience, you get results you can keep.

Statistics say that people will buy a new diet book every 90 days. Having a plan and a program means you don't have to be perfect to get results. It means when life happens—and it will—you have the know-how to get yourself back on track. Things to keep in mind this weekend scrolling through social media and Amazon.

So how do you know if what you're considering is a diet selling you snake oil or a plan and a program for success? Consider these three things.

• Is it based in science?

• Does it make sense and can you do it for life?

• Would you let your child, or any child, do it?

If you can answer “yes” to all three, you have a plan and a program that will set you up to win with your health and make 2022 your last weight loss resolution ever.

If you're looking for a plan and program to kick off 2022, join Tania's 8 Weeks is All it Takes group on Facebook.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.