The Key to Weight Management
We manage various aspects of our lives from finance to careers to time. We see management as a necessity because without it, there is often chaos.
Although we can see the importance of management in many aspects of our lives, we tend to overlook its importance in our diets. Diet management is the key to weight management. Like anything else, little or no diet management often leads to chaos in the form of being overweight or obese. The good news is diet management not only keeps our weight in check but can also reverse the chaos.
There are three important elements to diet management; they are knowledge, implementation and consistency. Knowledge means more than just having a basic knowledge of nutrition. Knowledge also means having a livable dietary plan and having a sense of awareness of type and amount of food we eat. Having the knowledge, plan and food awareness is great but means nothing if they’re not implemented. How many nutrition and fitness experts have you seen that could stand to loose a few pounds? Like Henry Ford said “You can’t build success on what you’re going to do.” Consistency is the essence of getting things done. I don’t know who said it but I like it. Consistency is the final principle of the trio. Simply put, when we talk about consistency, were talking habits. Aristotle summed it up best, “Success then is not an act…but a habit.” Over two millennia later, it still holds true.
When it comes to diet management, one of three components generally needs to be managed, fat intake, carbohydrate intake or calorie intake. Although only one component needs to be managed for good weight management results, there are times when combinations and in some cases all components need to be managed. A perfect example would be contest preparation in physique sports. Bodybuilding, Figures and Fitness contest dieting are perfect examples of diet micro management. It produces quick and dramatic results and fortunately is not required to get the results desired by most people. Of the three components, I tend to favor calorie management for clients which allows for broader food selection and broader client appeal.
Each component has its own set of rules. Calorie management rules cannot be applied to carbohydrate management or fat management rules. This is why in diet promotions the diet merchants will advertise eat all you want or eat whatever you want, but they will not advertise them both in the same sentence.
Although component rules are not interchangeable, the component themselves are. I believe most people are inherently dual component users between the calorie and carbohydrate and the calorie and fat combinations. This is particularly important when we get tired of managing a particular component. Instead of selecting another component people tend to stop managing all together often with expanding results.
Any good manager knows there has to be a time to loosen up. It’s no different with diet management. Having goodies in many cases is absolutely essential to good diet management. When have you ever seen 12 weeks of tuna and rice advertised on a Nutrisystem commercial? Their success stories boast of having chocolate every day, however, they won’t say how much.
With good diet management, we can manage our weight; have our cake and on occasion someone else’s. Don’t make it a habit!