The Vicious Cycle of Crash Diets and Grinding Workouts and How to Break Free

As I was enjoying working in my garden yesterday, I thought to myself how one’s health and fitness is much like a garden.

As the warmer weather breaks after winter here in Ohio, it is common for most people to get out into their gardens and pull weeds that are starting to pop up, check on their hardy perennials as they make their way through the dirt, and start planting annuals for pops of color. 

The warmer weather also sparks the desire to clean up one’s nutrition and start exercising in order to feel better in their summer clothing or get that leaner body for summer vacations at the beach. 

But pulling weeds once won’t keep those pesky, unwanted guests out of your gardens. Simply planting flowers and then leaving them won't create a beautifully colorful garden that you’re hoping for. Similarly, fixing your nutrition for a few weeks or months to prepare for summer fun won’t be the full solution to the health and fitness that you want. 

A garden takes constant and consistent weed-pulling, watering, dead-heading of flowers, and TLC up until frost in the late Fall months. Your health and fitness takes even more diligence. Your gardens will hibernate under the snow, but if you leave your health and fitness goals out in the cold for long stretches of time, you’ll feel like you’re starting from scratch again and again, year after year. 

This was my vicious cycle for about 7 years. 

As Spring approached, I would hunker down on my nutrition and deprive myself of things I loved (mostly desserts and Mexican food!). I would torture myself with workouts that were neither fun nor strength-building. By June, I would feel better about myself physically, go on the vacation that I was preparing for, then revert back to my old ways until I’d feel flabby again and hate myself.  

The self-talk in my head was very cruel. 

You can see in the pictures below where I found myself in May of 2012 and then where I started up again in October. That June, after a cruise, I went back to old habits - no exercise and no awareness of what my nutrition did to my physical and mental health.

I’d try to restart the new regimen in October - Another go round on the ruthless cycle of crash dieting and torturous workouts that didn’t give me any joy or sustained benefit whatsoever. It wouldn’t last past Thanksgiving. I was eating and exercising for one simple reason: LOSE WEIGHT and LOSE IT FAST! 

I didn’t tend to my garden, and my physical and mental health grew weeds.

“If you do it for a result in the future, you aren’t doing it.” ~Alan Watts

This quote by Philosopher Alan Watts can be confusing. Aren’t goals meant to be reached in the future? Doesn’t someone work towards something they want to achieve in the future? Yes, indeed! However, if you are ONLY doing it with your eyes set on an endpoint, then you aren’t in fact living the life you want. Striving for an end doesn’t help create habits that stick beyond reaching that end. 

So…how can you break free from the unpleasant cycle of crash dieting and exercising for good and sustain the progress you deserve? 

1. Create a habit of exercising to celebrate your strong body.

It is very common for someone to workout for the sole purpose of speeding up the weight loss journey. When this is the mindset going into, workouts can feel daunting and less enjoyable. When you make the mindset shift of enjoying your workouts because they are a celebration of all that your body is capable of doing, you will want to continue exploring more growth in your health and fitness. Goals are great benchmarks with workouts (for example: being able to do 1 push up from your toes or deadlift so many pounds), but try to view them as a measure of your progress as you continue to reach more. 

2. Continue to enjoy eating meals and treats that bring you joy, but plan them out in moderation so they feel more special

Who doesn’t love a flex meal of pizza or a cheeseburger and french fries? How about some chips and salsa and a barbacoa bowl at your local Mexican restaurant (this is my husband and my weekly Friday night flex meal!)? When these flex meals are planned in advance, it gives you time to look forward to them while you still enjoy nutritious meals throughout the other days. Planning a few meals out as you begin your journey is all you need to do. As this becomes a consistent habit and you start to notice your progress, you’ll naturally start to plan out more healthy and nutritious meals and those special flex meals will continue to feel special.  

3. Course correct often rather than just once or twice a year

This was one of the most useful skills I developed on my fitness journey. It’s comfortable to go off course on a Wednesday and think “I’ll start again Monday”. It feels like making a plan, right? Well, effective course correcting happens as soon as possible after going off course. This creates a feeling of control and keeps away feelings of torture and anxiety around it. As you get repetitions in and continue to raise your awareness to what needs to be corrected, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t work, what you won’t give up and what you can kick to the curb. Practice course corrections as often as you need and you’ll feel more in control of your health and fitness.

4. Become aware of the script in your head - what things are you telling yourself?

This may be the hardest part. Usually crash diets and gruesome workout routines can be accomplished for a short-term, but focusing on the self-talk is much harder. You talk to yourself more than you talk to ANYONE else, so changing this habit will be one that takes a lot of time, repetition and awareness. This can’t be fixed in the short-term. For this reason, most people will give up and resort back to the old script. KEEP GOING! Don’t stop being kinder to yourself just because you don’t feel the effects right away. You will thank yourself down the road for cultivating a healthy inner dialogue and being kind to yourself.

Get away from the cycle of yo-yo dieting and extreme workouts for short-term, unsustainable results. 

Take the longer view - grow a garden of mental and physical self-love and you will bloom!  

Xo,

Katie