Diet vs Nutritional Plan

There is something about the word "diet" that reeks of a negative, short lived experience that is destined to fail. When is the last time that you went out for dinner with friends and, after ordering a grilled chicken breast and a salad with fat free dressing, exclaimed with pride "I am on a diet!" Nope, I did not think so. Instead, a diet is something that we feel like we need to explain... something to almost be sorry about. Sometimes it almost feels like a disease that we have. We do not want to talk about it and hope that it does its thing and goes away as quickly as possible. Then we can drop the diet and get back to a normal life. Right?

Why are we ashamed of diets? Why do they fail so often? Why are diets typically such a negative experience? I do not pretend to have all of the answers to this, but I do think that a part of the reason is the connotation that the word "diet" carries with it. For many, a diet is a short term action that has a very specific goal of causing weight to be lost. It tends to be an undesirable period where the tasty, enjoyable parts of eating are replaced with the bland and inedible. A period where we have to remove ourselves from our favorite restaurants, happy hours and bars so wicked temptation will not slay the cowardly diet.

If part of the reason for failure is the word "diet" itself, or the connotation it carries, then would changing the word used to describe the action of losing weight by changing our eating habits help? By moving to a new word or set of words, can we begin to shift the connotation to something more positive and long term, with a better chance of success? More importantly, can this shift in connotation convince us that we have a better chance of success? Will it stop us from being ashamed of what we are doing, and be proud that we have made a change for a healthier lifestyle?

What would this brave new word (or words) be? Nutritional plan? Eating regimen? Strategic consumption procedure? Tactical food policy? To be honest, I think that there are a variety of words that could be used to replace the ugly word "diet". New words that do not carry such a heavy meaning. Words that could have new meaning imparted upon them by those of us who wish to ditch the old idea of a diet and embrace a new concept for losing weight and keeping it off. Words that project ideas of health, freshness, longevity, flexibility and success.

Personally, after trying dozens of diets throughout my life, I finally decided that I was done dieting. I was tired of what a diet meant to me and I no longer wanted to go through the endless cycle of meeting new diets, only to break up with them a few months later. I wanted something long term... something meaningful. I desired a healthy lifestyle where I could still enjoy food and drink and all that they have to offer. I needed a new relationship with food where small missteps were forgiven, where flexibility was a vital component of the relationship.

I believe I have finally found what I was looking for with a nutritional plan. I have been using my nutritional plan for about two years now and have dropped 50lbs to get to a healthy weight. More importantly, I have kept my weight within about 5lbs for the past year. I am proud of my nutritional plan and like to tell my friends all about it over dinner. It is a long term relationship with food that I hope will last a lifetime. I had both good times and bad with diets, yet now that I have found a new set of words, a new concept, I do not think I will ever go back to a diet again.

-BeeHawk-