By Kathy Emiko

A LONG TERM VIEW
A frighteningly common occurrence in recent years is to find yourself stuck in a vicious circle of yo-yo dieting. Too many magazines and books offer the elusive holy grail of ‘lose weight quick’ – which simply doesn’t exist. All you end up doing is putting all the so-called ‘weight’ (usually more water than fat) back on and mucking up your metabolism in the process.

A big display of healthy vegetables isolated on white, including savoy cabbage, cauliflower, vine tomatoes, flow tomatoes, broccoli, green courgette, yellow courgette, jalapeno peppers, leeks, sweet potato, potato, aubergine or eggplant, garlic, red and white onions, butternut squash gourd and miniature peppers.

All these diets focus on a short-term policy of ‘don’t eat this for a few weeks and all your wishes will be achieved’. This is blatantly untrue, and anyone who advocates such measures should be ashamed. You should be looking at long-term goals based on what you should and can eat to stay fit, healthy and slim.

On top of all this is the physiological impact that results from constantly ‘failing’ at diets. I spend a lot of my working life undoing both the physiological and psychological problems that long-term yo-yo diets bring – namely, incredibly low self body image and metabolisms that don’t know whether they’re coming or going.
The good news is that all this can be undone with a little love and patience – from you, that is. It requires time and effort to do so, but think of the reward – how about never having to stand in front of a mirror and feel ashamed, disgruntled or worried about how you look? It is fantastic to feel positive about your body (even if it has, as everybody does, a minor sag or a dimpling of cellulite) and to enjoy feeding it with healthy nutritious foods.

My philosophy is that we all know (albeit sometimes very deep down) exactly what we shouldn’t be eating, and it is this way of thinking that has helped me give many people long-term and happy weight loss. You are also the one who knows how much of the excess fat you want to burn off, and what your exact motivations are. Now, with all that experience and knowledge bound up inside of you, shouldn’t you be able to lose that fat once and for all?

Of course, we all need a helping hand, which is exactly what BodyPerfect is designed to offer. Over the next few weeks I want you to spend time writing things down and thinking issues through. By working through these questions and exercises, you will achieve a long-term approach to healthy eating; helping you to become and stay the person you wish to be. No matter how keen you may be to get started on any food diaries or meal plans, make sure you see your doctor. There is a lot of important information to take on board, and it would probably even be worthwhile reading it through a couple of times to make sure it has all sunk in.