Start the Year Off Right, Avoid the Diet
Disaster
D.I.E.T = Disaster Imminent Every Time®!
By Dr. Rick Kattouf II
It’s that time of year again. Many
individuals will be setting weight loss goals. Will this year be a New Year,
New You or a New Year, Same You? If you choose to follow a diet/food fad, it’s
going to be a New Year, Same You. There is just one thing you need to
understand about a diet. A DIET is simply a, Disaster Imminent Every Time®!
There is no better way to sum it up.
Sure, go on any diet and you will
lose weight, guaranteed. But what is also guaranteed is that you will regain
some, all or more of the weight you lost, guaranteed. I’m going to go out on a
limb and say that 99.99% of individuals would not look at a weight loss
followed by a massive weight regain as a success.
Why do so many individuals choose to
go on diets? Well, it’s because the majority of dieters are afraid to succeed.
Yes, that’s right; afraid to succeed. Let’s look at the typical verbiage of a
serial dieter. A serial dieter is that individual that bounces from one diet/food
fad to the next. They are constantly in a weight loss/weight regain viscous
cycle. You will hear them say things such as, ‘I’ve tried everything and
nothing works.’ And then what ensues with such individuals like this is an
overabundance of sympathy, excuses and participation trophies from others. Family
and friends will respond with statements such as, ‘honey, it’s ok, you’re just
big boned’ or ‘you just have a slow metabolism’ or ‘at least you are trying;
you did pretty well on that diet’ or ‘all the weight you regained is probably
just muscle’ and the list goes on and on. Understand, this is a very comfortable
place for dieters to be. They have a number of built-in excuses to use each
time a new diet fails.
What does success bring? Success
brings about a lot of scrutiny. The more successful an individual becomes, the
more eyeballs they have on them and often times, an individua will feel like
they have a target on their back. In addition, success also brings a very high
amount of expectations. This is the complete opposite of constantly failing on
diets. In the aforementioned example above, there are no high expectations of
this individual; they are not expected to keep their weight off (hence all of
the sympathy and excuses).
Let’s say for example, an individual
transforms their physique (complete opposite of losing weight, more on this
later). They are amazing lean and well-muscled. It’s a whole new game now, this
is true success. This is a set up for achieving meaningful and sustainable
results for a lifetime. And therefore, the individual expects a lot more out of
themselves. They put more pressure on themselves (which is a good thing) in
order to maintain their results.
But with that said, here is what dieters
need to understand; embrace everything that will come with the success. There truly
is no added pressure at this stage, why? Because when body transformation is
achieved, you’ve turned the corner, mentally and physically. You have truly
embraced the lifestyle. No longer is this some short-lived diet and food fad
that you know will be a failure. Once you smell success, there is no turning
back; you are a completely different person at this stage and a lifetime of
success is yours.
So, how do we turn this corner? How
do we embrace success and not fear it? One of the first steps is to drop the
weight loss goal. Setting a weight loss goal is a disaster in the making, why?
Because losing weight is not the goal. Look, losing weight is easy. Let’s take
a look at some easy ways to lose weight (and NO, these examples are neither
recommended nor healthy. Rather, these are dramatic examples to reinforce how
easy it is to lose weight and why weight loss should never be the goal):
- Stop eating all
together
- Drink 3 glasses
of carrot juice, 3x/day
- Consume a bowl
of chicken broth, 3x/day
All completely ridiculous, right?
But, these ridiculous examples would also result in a dramatic weight loss. And
remember, these examples are neither recommended nor healthy. Rather, these are
dramatic examples to reinforce how easy it is to lose weight and why weight
loss should never be the goal. And all of these diets/food fads are just as ridiculous.
Now, often times, it’s at this point
in the conversation where the dieter has a knee jerk reaction and says, ‘but I
lost weight on that diet!’ Of course you lost weight on that diet; you were
overweight to being with. And those 3 bullet points above would also cause a
ton of weight loss; does that make them right? Of course not. Point being is
this, the ‘but I lost weight’, is not a valid argument for a diet.
Think of it like this. Let’s take an
individual that is overweight and out of shape. And they go participate in a 5k
(3.11 miles) and their finishing time is 50-minutes. And then over the next 3
months they walk/jog 1-mile, 3 times per week. And then they participate in
another 5k and they finish in 35 minutes. Does this mean the Ultimate 5k Run
Training Program is to walk/jog 1-mile, 3 times per week because this person
took 10-minutes off their time? Of course not, that’s absurd. Of course they took
10-minutes off of their 5k time with minimal running; they started at 45
minutes and out of shape. An individual trying to justify a diet worked because
they lost weight is no different than someone trying to justify a 3-day per
week, 1-mile walk/jog program as the key to increasing 5k run speed.
Therefore, let’s drop the weight
loss goal and change it to a body transformation goal. Let’s stop celebrating
these short-term weight loss, diet-induced body changes. And let’s start to
celebrate real success. Let’s start to celebrate body transformation success
that sets up the individual for a lifetime of success.
Folks, these are two completely
different worlds (weight loss vs. body transformation). Body transformation is
just that; you completely transform your physique, for a lifetime. Not weight
loss for a day, not weight loss for an event, not weight loss for your wedding
day, etc.; rather, you transform your physique for life. Once the goal becomes
body transformation and not weight loss, watch out…it’s Game On! It’s at this
stage that the diet is thrown out the window. You now think different, live
different and approach your health & fitness completely opposite of the Diet-life.
You start to focus on eating right and
fueling the body right, not dieting. You start to focus on good quality sleep
each night. You start to focus on strength training in order to build muscle
and burn fat (and not endless hours of cardiovascular exercise combined with a
calorie restricted diet).
And when we talk body transformation, we are talking about transforming the physique 100% natural. Not with the assistance of Prohibited substances as per the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) & United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) such as testosterone, pro-hormones such as DHEA, estrogen blockers, anabolic agents, etc. Workout Smart, Eat Right, Get Results®; this is how we transform the body.
Are you ready to turn the corner and
let this truly be the year of the New Year, New You? If so, let’s ditch the
diet, embrace success and everything that comes along with it. Let this be the
year of achieving meaningful and sustainable results for a lifetime and achieve
body transformation success that you could have only dreamed of before. Are you
in?
If you have any questions on how to
achieve your body transformation goals, feel free to call/email/text anytime
(864-382-8486, [email protected],
Skype @coachkattouf).
WORKOUT SMART, EAT RIGHT, GET RESULTS®!
Download the
TeamKattouf® Nutrition LLC app: Apple Android
Rick Kattouf II, O.D. is a 2x Best-Selling Author and Fitness & Nutrition expert and has been named one of America’s PremierExperts® and one of the World Fitness Elite® Trainers of the Year. Rick is a Sports Nutrition Specialist, Heart Rate Performance Specialist, Master Personal Trainer & Triathlon Coach. He has been seen on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates around the country as well as in the USA Today, Chicago Tribune, National Examiner, Ironman.com, Livestrong.com, Runner’s World, Bicycling Magazine, Men’s Health UK, FIGHT! Magazine, Florida Cycling Magazine and The Independent in the UK. Rick is the CEO/Founder of TeamKattouf® Inc, CEO/Founder of TeamKattouf® Nutrition LLC, CEO/Founder of Virtual Gym LLC, Creator of TeamKattouf® Nutrition Supplements, Host of Rx Nutrition, author of Forever Fit, Creator of 5-Round Fury® Nutrition Supplement, 5-Round Fury Fitness® workout app, Creator of Coach2CEO, Creator of Fuel Keeper®, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. Dr. Rick has personally coached individuals in 30+ states and 10+ countries.
