To have or have not?

That is the eternal question.

Should I diet or not?  Well, here's what I'm trying this time around.  I will NOT be dieting.  Diets work for me.  I fully support an Atkins lifestyle (of done properly).  In the past I have been very successful with dieting or changing my eating style using Atkins.  I've lost weight quickly doing so.  So why not diet you ask?  If it works why not do it?

The Atkins lifestyle or other dieting measures have worked in the past but they came with great difficulties and as you can assume didn't stick for very long.  I felt deprived all the time.  I may not have been hungry all the time.  That's the beauty of Atkins, it curbs your appetite.   However the selection and variety of food was a little limited.  The fact that I couldn't have that bagel, or I couldn't have fruit in this phase just made me want the food more.

Another thing that made it hard for me to stick to it was that I was the only one in the house doing Atkins.    I didn't really get the motivation I needed.  My kids and the Mr. still ate everything normally because they didn't need to be watching what they ate.  So the temptation was always there to eat something that was on the "No" list.  Believe me I gave into temptation many many times.  When it comes to food I always tend to listen to the bad angel on my shoulder, haha.  Plus I would tend to binge eat on the "allowed" food.  Not a good way to get healthy.

So I got some ideas and pointers from friends and family.  Many of which are very healthy and active and have been that way for some time.  Something works for them....I wanted to know.  I got a lot of very good ideas from a ton of people but 2 people stood out to me the most.  My sister, Stephanie, who has been a very healthy and active person for a long long time (since before high school); and my sister-in-law, Ileana.  She's an amazing role model.  She manages to stay very active even though she has 3 kids, a Mr., and a job.  So her life is a lot like mine in regards to being busy ALL OF THE TIME, haha!

Words of wisdom from Stephanie:
I quit dieting and threw away my bathroom scale. I eat whatev I want but *try* to be moderate, do cardio three times a week and yoga twice (no I'm not a hippy. I just do it because it's a super low-impact way of building muscle that does not include a gym membership and a creepy spray-tanned trainer). End result: lost lots of weight between senior year of college and graduating grad school. I think a combo of what I did and Ileana's advice is good. I think if you can stay stress-free, it goes a long way towards making it a habit. <--- To me this last line is key

Words of wisdom from Ileana:
Set small goals that lead to other small goals. I'm not talking about "if I lose 5lbs then I get a reward" kind of nonsense. Paying attention to numbers is a set up for failure especially when starting out. Instead how about, if I do the following every week then at the end of each week I get this reward. Like working out for 5 days, no sweets, drink 4 glasses of water every day, and then I get to have a single donut because I earned it and/or buy my favorite song. Start small, have patients, find a committed partner, and good luck.


So with all of that in mind here's what I'm gonna do.  I will not diet.  I will stay stress-free.  I will not eat obviously bad food (fast food, sugary stuff, fried stuff, etc.).  I will eat everything in moderation.  Portion control, portion control, portion control!