by Matt Weik, BS, CSCS, CPT, CSN
Far too many people think they need to go on a diet — and the majority of the United States should. With around 70% of Americans considered overweight and over 40% being obese, you can say the US is “livin’ large.”
That said, if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you may need to go on a diet that doesn’t involve food at all (even though some of the examples below will toss them in to further explain the point I’m trying to get across). Now, that may sound pretty crazy, right? But hear me out on this one, and by the end of the article, it will all make sense.
Let’s look at how you can go on a diet that doesn’t involve food for better results.
Should YOU Go on a Diet?
Absolutely! And I don’t even care if you currently have visible abs. Why? Because in order to get the best results out of life and make things easier on yourself, you need to cut out a bunch of the things that don’t bring value to your life. You need to go on a diet that eliminates waste, negativity, and cancers from your life.
Below are five things you need to eliminate when you go on a diet (you can look at this as the new “lifestyle diet”).
1. Remove Negativity
An interesting fact that not many people think about when it comes to weight loss is stress. When you have negativity in your life, it can cause stress to build up around you. If this becomes a daily occurrence and chronic, it can raise cortisol levels and cause you to store body fat more easily.
Look at everything around you and go on a diet. Eliminate the stress from your life. That means getting rid of negative people in your life and anything that is creating negativity and causing you to stress or worry.
2. Eliminate Poor Habits
When you go on a diet (in the traditional meaning), you need to change your habits by becoming more active and cleaning up your nutrition. Let’s take things a step further.
You need to focus on eliminating poor habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, sitting around watching television all night, going out to clubs and bars, and anything else that you know isn’t healthy for you or doesn’t put you in a position to get ahead in life.
If the habit doesn’t move you forward in life, it’s dragging you backward. Eliminate it from your daily habits.
3. Minimize Bad Choices
Humans are impulsive. And when we go on a diet, we expect to see changes take place immediately. Unfortunately, this rarely ever happens. To succeed in life and even weight loss, you need to look at the net positive or net negative.
If you consider yourself unhealthy, overweight, obese, etc., you weren’t put in that position due to bad luck or poor circumstances. Any negativity that plagues your daily life is a culmination of bad choices. The great thing about your life is that you’re in control. No one can dictate how you live your life, how successful (or unsuccessful) you are, whether you’re skinny or fat, or how much money you make. Your actions and choices dictate the outcome of each.
Going back to the net positive or negative, look at your daily life. At the end of each day, are you net positive or net negative when it comes to moving closer to your goals? If you find yourself net negative, go on a diet. Eliminate the bad choices that are holding you back. This can be getting rid of junk from your daily nutrition, putting money into savings rather than spending it on alcohol or junk, etc.
4. Only Surround Yourself with Winners
When you go on a diet, you need to eliminate unhealthy food in order to see any sort of results, right? The same goes with the people you surround yourself with. Just like food, people can cause you to fail in life.
They say that you are the average of the five people closest to you. If you hang out with five obese people, you’ll eventually be the sixth. If you hang out with five wealthy individuals, you’ll eventually be the sixth. Get it?
Look at your circle of influence and go on a diet. Eliminate the people who aren’t helping you move forward in life or who are complacent or fine with being average. Average doesn’t cut it. Being average doesn’t get you anywhere in life.
You need to bring in successful people and allow them in as part of your inner circle. It may be difficult to get rid of friendships that have lasted years, but if you want to reach your full potential, you can’t let anything or anyone get in your way.
5. Cut Out Stupid Purchases
The last part you need to follow when you go on a diet is cutting out stupid purchases. This can be anything from unhealthy fast food meals to a luxury watch that you really can’t afford (and everything in-between). Don’t allow emotions to drive your daily life, or you’ll crash and burn.
When emotions take control, you’ll find yourself eating junk food. You’ll find yourself buying things that you think will make you happy, but you’re only trying to impress people who you don’t even like. You’ll find yourself with a bunch of things that don’t bring you any true value.
Go on a diet and cut out the stupid purchases. Think long and hard about what you’re about to buy and ask yourself how it will improve your life and move you closer to your goals. If it doesn’t, walk away and move on.
