It’s Time To Break Up With Your Diet. Here’s Why.

The following is adapted from Becoming Mindstrong, by Rachel Freiman.

Remember that relationship you stayed in way too long?

You bitched about it to your friends constantly. You told yourself repeatedly that this fight was the last straw. You fantasized about a new life outside of it. After each breakup, you swore you wouldn’t go back.

And yet you did. Over and over again. You knew it wasn’t what you wanted or deserved, but convinced yourself that this time would be different. You tried again and again and again, only to experience the same feelings of unhappiness, unfulfillment, and frustration, again and again and again.

Until the day you didn’t.

Ah, that glorious, freeing day when you decided, “This is it!” and you finally left for good.

Yeah, it sucked at first. Big time. You had lost your sense of normalcy. You constantly questioned your decision. Your world was shaken.

But what happened? Within a few months, you looked back and thought, “What the hell took me so long?!” Once you saw it with clarity, you couldn’t unsee it. You fully realized just how unhealthy that relationship had been and were left wondering why you didn’t make this decision earlier.

I’m here to assert that you’re currently in an unhealthy relationship. In fact, you’ve been there your entire life, and, if you don’t make some serious changes, you’re destined to stay there for the rest of it.

This unhealthy relationship is with food.

If it helps, you’re not alone. Most people will spend their entire sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred years on this earth stuck in this unhealthy relationship and not even realize it.

What the hell?! Karen in Accounting lost twenty pounds this month by cutting out carbs?! I’ve eaten nothing but salads for as long as I can remember, and I gained five pounds! That’s it. No more carbs. Ever. Carbs are the devil.

Ugh. Pasta bar day at work. What, are they trying to torture me? I’ve gone three days without carbs, and now I have to resist this?! Well, maybe I should just have one little scoop of pasta salad. After all, I’ve been so good for the past three days. I deserve one little scoop.

I can’t believe I caved. I was crazy to think I could keep this going. Why would this time be any different? I’m just destined to be overweight my whole life. May as well go drown my sorrows in pasta.

Does any of that sound familiar?

Is this how you want to go through the rest of your life? Because I promise you, unchecked, you will.

Fortunately, just like that ex you look back on with regret, once you shine the light of awareness on this unhealthy relationship, there’s no unseeing it. When it comes to nutrition, the answer, the key, the Prince or Princess Charming of this new life, comes from getting educated.

Taking the time to get educated about how nutrition really works is one of the most important decisions you will ever make for yourself.

Once you understand how food literally fuels your body, you can begin to make choices aligned with your personal goals. That means no more living off willpower. No more cutting out entire food groups. No more “starting over” after eating a “bad food.” It means eating guilt-free by making informed choices, not relying on a person or company to tell you what or when to eat, and living with crazy amounts of energy and a better mood consistently.

In short, taking control of your health and living like a badass all the damn time.

They say step one is admitting you have a problem. In our case, step one is acknowledging the unhealthy relationship you’ve been stuck in your entire life and deciding it’s time for a change.

To do so, we have to understand what’s real in the world of nutrition and what’s bullshit. We need to understand how nutrition works, not according to mass marketing, but true, nonnegotiable math and science.

We need to get educated, once and for all.

For more advice on sustainable weight loss that doesn’t suck, you can find Becoming Mindstrong on Amazon.

Rachel Freiman is the CEO of MindStrong Fitness, a lover of lifting heavy things up and down, and a coach passionate about helping others unleash their strongest, most empowered selves through education and mindset training.

With more than fifteen years of classroom instruction and certifications in personal training and sports nutrition, Rachel developed MindStrong Fitness with an inside-out approach, focusing on both the mental and physical sides to building healthy, sustainable habits.

When she’s not in the gym, Rachel enjoys exploring the world, snuggling with her puppy Charlie, eating, and thinking about the next time she’ll be eating.