My New Diet Book

The picture above from a recent visit to my local bookstore. What I saw was amazing! Over 200 books dedicated to dieting or some form of nutritional fad.

Primal, paleo, juicing, fasting, detox, blood typing , vegetarian and many more. They all have one thing  in common, for the most part they are all a heap of sensationalist rubbish. They will tell you about magic and evil foods, creating unnecessary restrictions and therefore causing potentially  unhealthy relationships with food.  But in a cryptic way, they will create a calorie deficit, meaning yes, you will lose weight in the short term.

BECAUSE CALORIES COUNT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE WITH WEIGHT LOSS/GAIN.

But, at what cost??

When you see a book titled ‘the fasting recipe book’ even the most hardened yo-yo dieter must feel a bit cynical. But, as a very clever colleague said to me recently, sensational sells.  People are desperate to be told that all you have to do is skip breakfast and lunch and dinner for one day, then the rest of the week you can do whatever you want. Or eating a giant plateful of only Brussel sprouts for dinner will detox your body. Sure, because the body is so toxic. Both these examples are simply packaged calorie restrictions. Sadly, they are both also potential contributors to orthorexia, an unhealthy obsession with eating. Yes, eating well and focusing on getting good nutrition on a daily basis is vital for a healthy mind and body. However, when it becomes an obsession it can have very unhealthy consequences.

So I have decided to write my own diet and exercise book.  Hey, considering what I have seen on the bookshelves I don’t think I could do any worse. All, I have to do is take a basic concept, spice it up a little bit to make it sound complicated and introduce a needless evil food to create a calorie restriction. Then create a funky workout routine, one that ‘burns fat’ better than any other. Then, then off we go. I should be a millionaire in no time.

So far I have written the following chapters

• Why no food should be demonized
• Eat whole foods ‘most’ of the time
• Do whatever exercise you enjoy
• Learn to prepare and cook your own food
• Chill out and relax

I don’t expect to hear from publishers any time soon.

No matter how hard I try, I cannot get away from the fact that the simpler and more enjoyable  a healthy lifestyle can be made, the easier it will be to maintain in the long term.