1. Say NO to all commercial diet aids, products and plans – basically say NO to DIETS!

2. Say NO to all unhealthy foods especially in unhealthy proportions.

You don’t need help, and being desperate is what keeps you on the Yo-Yo cycle of gaining and losing and gaining more. Be good to yourself, you were made to eat good food in a normal and natural way.

It’s That Simple!

For every NO there is also a YES. Yes to an unlimited amount of vegetables and fruits of a wide variety! Yes to healthy whole grains, legumes and lean meats in moderate proportions. Yes to a very limited amount of healthy oils and sweets. That’s 3 yes’s to 2 no’s, and there’s still more yes’s to come (we didn’t talk about drinks yet).

The most difficult part of food for me is that I don’t like to cook, I don’t even like to be in the kitchen. Don’t show me a cookbook and especially don’t expect me to follow a recipe. Those are 3 more No-No’s for me, so here are 3 more yes’s:

1. Make meals and snacks simple and fresh, 1/2 hour prep or less
2. Eat when I’m hungry (not bored, tired, or feeling a “need” for something)
3. Drink plenty of non-sweetened fluids, especially water and teas

The Quick Diet Fix Won’t Help You Live Well

Did you know that doctors used to think that food had no relevance to your health? Many of them still don’t know much about diet and healthy eating so they will tell you to consume less calories and exercise, or they will refer you to a nutritionist or special weight loss program. The problem is that a “program” is just that, it’s a time limited, lifestyle limiting regime to get you back to what is perceived to be the “right” weight.

Most people gain weight back, even with the best of diet programs. It can be a quick yo-yo or a slow yo-yo, but either way “weight loss” diets put you on a yo-yo cycle. The solution is to create a healthy lifestyle, learn what normal healthy eating and activity is and do it for the rest of your life. I learned this from a healthy 100 year old lady.

Do you think you have a special problem?

Believe me, I’ve been through it all. From the day I was born 7 weeks premature I struggled with food. For months my mother struggled between breast milk and formulas to find something I could digest. Finally she settled for goats milk as her own had gone dry.

In early childhood I had stomach aches all the time, and occasional hives. Ended up in the hospital at 9 years old with colitis. They did allergy tests and said that I couldn’t eat dairy products or eggs, or anything made with those ingredients. Now that is what you can call a very SPECIAL DIET.

Imagine being a kid and not being able to eat cake and ice cream, pizza, bread, cookies, chocolate, breakfast food, almost all baked goods – what doesn’t have eggs or dairy products in it? I had to go to school with a special note so the lunch ladies wouldn’t force me to take milk. I used to feel sick in the lunch room just from the smell of milk.

Do you think it’s hard going gluten free? Try egg and dairy free. But the doctors told my parents to gradually try to reintroduce these foods after I became a teenager. So by 15 I could eat small amounts of cheese, but none of the others. By 18 I could eat baked goods again, but not straight up milk or eggs.

Searching for Wellness

By the time I was 12 I was chubby, probably from all of the substitute type products the doctors told my mom to try. When I was 13 I went on my first weight loss diet and lost 21 lbs. Gradually it started to creep back, but I kept most of it off until I was 20.

Since I had these dietary problems, as a teenager I wanted to find my own solutions. I became a vegetarian when I was 14 because I really didn’t like meat or chicken anyway. You could say I went vegan because I didn’t eat milk or eggs anyway, but we didn’t really separate these concepts in those days. However, by the time I was 20 I was experiencing protein deficiency and decided to include fish in my diet.

Lifestyle changes the way we eat

As a young adult (25) who was traveling all the time in relation to my work I began to frequent fast food restaurants. I didn’t gain weight at first because I was very active, but I did start to have gall bladder trouble and had to change my diet. Due to changing work and lifestyle circumstances I became a little more relaxed about what I would eat, and challenged old ideas about what I could eat. At this point I decided that anything in moderation was okay, and that worked as long as I remained really active.

While having 3 children from my early to late 30’s I experienced the typical 10 lb. per pregnancy weight gain, which meant that by the time I was 40 I was 30 lbs overweight. During my 30’s and 40’s I was doing the yo-yo thing, trying every diet plan that was out there, and none of it stayed off. This was not only unhealthy physically, but it was mentally and emotionally disempowering.

Then suddenly when I was 47 I gained 30 lbs. in 3 months and almost had a heart attack, literally. I was diagnosed with Thyroid disease, an autoimmune disease. It became harder than ever to lose weight. Then about 9 months ago I went gluten free to curb the inflammation that comes with this disease.

To Your Good Health

Since then I’ve focused on health. What is normal health? What is normal eating for optimal health? What would life look like if we never heard of a diet plan and if we didn’t have unhealthy food choices waved in our face day and night? What would the world look like if people understood what healthy nutrition was ages ago and unhealthy food practices and industries had never developed. Yeah, I’m creating my own reality, it’s called the No-No diet.