Why Diets Don't Work - The Diet Saboteurs!

You’ve made a start, created a goal and everyone is allowed to live as long as you don’t break your diet! And yet, how long before asking yourself why diets don’t work – It’s the diet saboteurs!

There’s a big holiday planned or a special social event. Perhaps some designer jeans that were on sale but are two sizes too small?

We all need an incentive to shed some weight from time to time. Whether it’s a few inches, or 40lbs in the next two weeks. We’ve all been there and are fully aware of the struggle, tricking your body into thinking it’s not going to expire if we eliminate some excess body fat.

The Quick Fix Diet

Rather than diet pills, scientists need to come up with a way to tell our bodies that this is a temporary arrangement and to just go with it!

How else are you going to stick to the most unnatural demand we can make on our bodies … stop eating, lose the reserves!

I’m sure my body covers its ears and goes into a four-day lockdown…

The Four Day Lockdown

That period of time between starting a diet and your body finally accepting it. During which time you can expect a lot of stomach grumbling.

So, you set the date, you took the plunge and you may or may not have passed Day 4.

If I haven’t made it to day four and I break my diet I usually blame myself: lack of will power, perhaps the time isn’t right, perhaps I didn’t look too bad in the shop window today. Never mind, I’ll start again tomorrow, or Monday, or the first day of next month…

If I have reached and surpassed Day 4, I am serious. I’m on a roll and tunnelling, straight-faced and focused, into the flickering light of success.

So what (or who) pushes you off your parade float? When you stepped out that morning you were dressed up and ready for the show. Usually, it’s evident why diets don’t work … the Diet Saboteur!

Why Diets Don’t Work – The Diet Saboteurs! But who are they?

I know them, I guarantee you’ll know some, we all have them in our lives. We don’t like to acknowledge them because it makes us look weak.

They’re everywhere, a bit like spiders! Expect them to hide behind a face of concern, you can’t always see them. They seem to take pleasure in jumping out when you least expect it but perhaps they realise how scary they are? Or perhaps, they are as afraid of us.

They mutate into many life forms: mothers, partners, children, good-willed neighbours, gift-givers, family dogs. Then there’s the worst offender of all diet saboteurs …. the co-worker!

The co-worker shares your daily strife. They have the ability to control and steer your day into a good day or a bad one. They know things about you that you never intended to reveal. Hence, the overwhelming desire to keep them on side is sometimes gruelling and ponderous.

They can’t openly be blamed for anything. So when they shove that fat-stacked coffee-dunker onto your open file, announcing it would be rude not to join them in their own self-indulgence, achievement, a birth, promotion or bowel movement.

However in fairness, many people in your life don’t actually know that you’re trying to slim down.

It’s rare for a person of size to openly proclaiming on Facebook that today is the last time we will ever see this fuller version of themselves.

The Diet Saboteur – Why Do They Do It?

But the co-worker is fully aware.

They only vaguely disguised their censorious grunts when you marked off your holiday dates onto the company calendar.

What it all boils down to, is power. They do it because they can. Then afterwards, even before the donut hits your duodenum, they powder-puff your disappointment with condescending comments like, ‘You don’t even need to diet”, and “That’s what bold and busy patterns are for” and “Men don’t notice these things, my lovely!”.

The Final Solution

Let’s not finger-scroll and delete half your contacts list just yet.

It’s human nature. We like to feel good with food. We celebrate with it, nourish our bodies with it, cuddle up with it, bear gifts with it. To offer one’s share of food was once the ultimate gesture of human kindness.

Unfortunately, the only way to fend off the diet saboteur is to say ‘No’.

So now you know … this is why diets don’t work – the diet saboteurs! But the next time you come face-to-face with this sumptuous fiend, kindly inform them that they now have a title … and their hiding days are over.