Where are all the diet recipes? The "Never Get Fat Again Diet"! (revised)

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle



Where are all the diet recipes?  Let's look at one of the definitions of "diet"....the simple one, the first one....

"The usual food and drink of a person or animal."

And let's stop here.  My own personal diet is how I eat, and how I live.  I'm not "doing" something. I'm not "on" something.  I'm not "acting" a certain way, I've become a certain way.  My usual foods and drinks, my eating habits, follow a certain pattern (I like patterns!).  That's what a habit is, it's a pattern!

"A behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance.""An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary."

The way I chose my foods and drinks follow a pattern. I was motivated to write about this because I realized that most of the pictures I post on my facebook fan page are either pictures and video of my training, or images food, lots of images of food!  Not recipes, but ingredients for recipes, that's what real food is. Safeway, a major grocery chain here in CA, promotes it's business as the place to buy "ingredients for life".  I like that!  And for me getting to know food, by learning to cook and prepare my own meals using real ingredients, helped to establish the habits, the pattern for health and happiness, and is the key to my permanent weight loss...or should I say, my permanent "never get fat again diet"?

Looking over the photos of foods I've posted on facebook, I notice how the order of foods/nutrients I chose in my everyday meals is reflected.  Lots of vegetables, proteins, fruits and beans/grains.  No desserts.....and that is on purpose.  Do I eat desserts?  Cookies, cakes, candy?  Sure I do, but dessert is easy. Desserts are so easy that lots and lots of people regularly start their day out with a dessert!  Cakes, scones, muffins, even breakfast cereal is dessert.  I don't care to glamorize dessert, I care to glamorize foods are the building blocks of a strong healthy body.  And yes, dessert can be part of a healthy body and a healthy life, they are for me, but dessert does not come first, and certainly not for breakfast!

Become a smaller, healthier person by creating the habits, the patterns of behavior, of choosing good quality foods, and in doing so the action becomes nearly or completely involuntary! You don't have to think about it, it's a given, it's who you are.  Here are some of my habits for my own "never get fat again diet".

I choose vegetables first, and the freshest ingredients I can afford in both time and money (time is valuable too!)
I home cook and prepare my foods and meals regularly (like my training, consistency is key)
No ingredients in my home to bake cookies, cakes or pie crust! (no flour)
Choosing foods and meals I can plan and prepare in advance.
If I don't buy it, I don't eat it!  (this is the one that I practice the most!)

My favorite answer to the question, "how did you lose all that weight" is this one;

"I stopped doing what was making me fat!"


I was in the habit eating and choosing foods that made me fat, and I took responsibility for it.  It was never a mystery to me.  And because I knew exactly why I was fat, and how I got there, I know without a doubt now that I will never be that fat again. I know it, without a doubt, because I am not acting in that way anymore, not even close.  I have no fear because it's impossible for me to be anything else but the new, and much improved, happier, for sure healthier, never fat again self, my habits support it!

Food is not the enemy, what is is your habits that don't support who you want to be.  And don't let anybody tell you that old habits are hard to break because that's bullshit....a future post....

PS....I write this post not in the tone of "look at me and what I did, aren't I special!"  But for you to see that your current condition, if you want to change it, is simply a result of your habits.  It's not a judgement about what you are or who you are inside.  Changing our diets is not rocket science.  We have likes and dislikes when it comes to foods, and trust me, there are enough choices in our world to accommodate our palates and a healthy body weight simultaneously.  Find what those choices are, establish the habits and routine that support you making them regularly and you will become, and create the body, the health, the happiness you know you are deserving of....that's all.