It’s true, dieting can actually trigger you to overeat.

There have been thousands of diets, yet there has not been one diet that ultimately works because, for one thing, it is not possible to maintain someone else’s way of eating. If you grew up eating your family’s ethnic food, and now, you are not allowed to eat that food because it is not on some diet plan, you are not being true to yourself. It doesn’t feel right, because the diet is not about who you really are. There is a sense of a loss of identity, and eventually you must go off of the diet to return to “homeostasis” or your true self.

“Dieting” can actually trigger us to overeat. We can become overly focused on not allowing ourselves to have food by saying things like “I want that, but I can’t eat it.” In the end, we wind up wanting it even more because of feeling so deprived. When we suddenly allow ourselves to eat the “forbidden” food, we usually indulge because it is so special to us. It tastes so good we gorge ourselves and end up back where we started.

Excerpt from the award-winning book Lose the Diet. Copyright by Kathy Balland. Get Lose the Diet now on Amazon!