Moderation isn't sexy or exciting.

You know what IS though?

Trendy diets, fad diets, detoxes, and cleanses -- ooohh yes these are exciting!!!

The quick fix and the easy way out is exciting.

Doing as little as possible and seeing results is exciting!!

But the truth here is they are exciting until they aren't - which is usually a really short amount of time. But these are the sexy and appealing diets that we do constantly. We have to try the new diet we saw in that magazine or online. A friend of ours had amazing results on some crazy diet so we give it a try. Maybe it will work for us too??

We are always searching for the new “thing.” What can we try next, right?

Here is a small list of popular fad diets/ diet plans:

• Low Carb/ No Carb
• HCG
• Grapefruit Diet
• Liquid Diet
• Hollywood Diet
• 3 Day Diet
• Cabbage Soup Diet
• South Beach Diet
• Mediterranean Diet
• Atkins
• Nutri System
• Weight watchers

The list goes on and on and on... I bet you anything you can name a few more!! Have you tried any of these?

We do these diets over and over and if one doesn't work we try the next.

But the kicker here is that sometimes it DOES WORK. Wait what?!

Yes! Sometimes we do lose weight on these plans. So then we feel successful and we feel good about ourselves. And we think it worked!!

But the diet we were on wasn't sustainable long-term so it doesn’t take long for us to go back to our old ways of doing things. Not long after this, the weight starts to slowly creep back on and we wonder what WE are doing wrong. We feel like a failure. Why can't we keep the weight off, we were able to lose it, but why can't we KEEP it off? What is wrong with me??

We feel miserable for a while and say fuck all of this. We abandon all of our inhibitions and binge.

Why not? We suck.

Then we decide enough is enough. We get fed up and decide to try again. We heard from someone who said they lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. This is EXACTLY what we need. A reset, a jump start. We are in!!

And the cycle starts over. AGAIN! So here we are trapped in this vicious cycle.

Moderation may not be sexy and this may not be what you want to hear but - IT WORKS.

Adopting moderation and balance as a lifestyle will help you to feel good about eating the foods you love ALL the time rather than eliminating them and eventually feeling guilty for bingeing on them.

Moderation takes practice.

Deciding that NO foods are off limits can be a big deal. And it can be very scary.

You will most likely worry about how you will control yourself around these foods once you make the decision to add them back in rather than forbidding yourself from eating them ever.

Did you know the more that you think about NOT eating something the MORE you actually think about eating it. If you are telling yourself “No Ice Cream, No Ice Cream!” All you’re really hearing is “Ice Cream! Ice Cream” so simply allowing yourself to have ice cream occasionally helps you to better handle your cravings for it. Have some ice cream and then you can move on. Or some cake -- cake is my favorite!

Practicing balance, moderation, and holding yourself accountable will not be easy and will take some time to figure it out but the first step in making this a lifestyle change is ditching the diets. Don’t get sucked in, don’t get distracted by the shiny new fad that everyone is talking about.

Remember that what you have been doing is not working. You have tried it over and over and seen the same results. Try a different approach, it might not be as immediately gratifying but it will be sustainable long term.

Finding the “way” means simply finding YOUR WAY, what works for you and finding what makes you feel good.

Bottom line - If you can't maintain this diet/this way of eating long term then it's not the right way.. Ask yourself: Can I do this forever?