




This is not a diet.
Let’s start with three things I don’t believe in:
- Willpower
- Detoxes or cleanses
- Weight loss Diets of any kind (unless medically required)
Willpower
It’s just not a helpful concept. If we think of willpower as something we have or have not, it seems hopeless but it isn’t.
Here’s what ‘willpower’ really is:
People who we think have ‘willpower’ can focus on long term goals and resist short term temptation.
People who we think have no ‘willpower’ find it hard to resist short term temptation and find long term goals hard to focus on.
What that actually means:
If you want to run a marathon you focus on that as a long term goal and resist the idea of lying in bed, using the marathon goal to encourage you out from under the duvet. This looks like our idea of someone who has willpower.
If you find snuggling in bed too hard to resist and postpone the early morning run until the next day? This is our image of someone who lacks willpower. It’s relatively easy to change. Make the long term goal really clear. Remind yourself of it. Over and over again. Photo on the fridge stuff.
Set yourself short term goals… if you can get up for three mornings in a row – have a lie in on the fourth and really enjoy it.
Enjoy your treats, reward yourself. Keep motivated and keep focused and the changes you want to happen will take shape.
![1910113_923866104294156_7124613525749794218_n[1]](http://www.thisisnotadiet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1910113_923866104294156_7124613525749794218_n1-225x300.jpg)
Ohh and, no need to look glamorous when you’re exercising, just do it!!
Detoxes
Sure we might feel better for cutting out some toxins, such as caffeine or alcohol for a while. Drinking lots of water and eating nice fruit and veg is great, let’s do it but buying a cleanse plan? Spending £££ on something which your liver and kidneys do every day for free? Let’s not do that. It’s a con.
Companies show us aspirational pictures, make us lust after flatter tummies and then sell us a ‘solution’ – only it isn’t. In the short term you may lose some inches but it’s just not sustainable, and there is almost no science to support the idea of detox. In short, it’s a marketing plan.
Here’s a suggestion for you to start you off: just drink lots of fresh water.
Here are some ideas to make it more fun and add flavour more naturally. Add a herbal tea bag to freshly boiled water, allow to cool and then add flavours.
- To a green tea bag, add sliced lime and lemon.
- To peppermint tea, add fresh mint leaves.
- Chop up strawberries and kiwi fruit and use with a berry fruit tea bag if you like.
- Sliced cucumber, lemon and lime.
- Add strawberries and mint for that Pimms kick without the alcohol.
- Citrus fruits (this one can become a little cloudier but tastes delicious).
Use filtered water if you like, add ice if you wish or keep at room temperature. Use as much or as little fruit as you like and make sure it cools or leave for at least 30 minutes before drinking to allow flavours to infuse.
Don’t believe anything which tells you this will melt fat. It won’t. Body fat doesn’t melt. This will refresh, invigorate and hydrate – isn’t that enough?
Diets
I never met anyone yet who went on a diet, achieved their target weight and stayed at that weight five years later. I’m not saying they don’t exist – just that I haven’t met any…yet.
Don’t diet. Make changes that suit your lifestyle to maintain indefinitely. Adapt your attitude to food and wellbeing and keep adapting it as your life changes and you learn what suits you best.
And, as Forrest Gump explained “that’s all I have to say about that.”



