Three Phases of Diet Disaster

With my clients, I have observed that when they decide to lose weight they throw themselves into diet hell hoping for protection from a fragile shield of willpower. As their willpower shield melts from the heat of their descent, their retreat back into their old ways of behaving seems to go through three predictable phases.

*               Phase I: “Nope, Can’t Have That.” When you start a diet, you exclude all but “allowed” foods. It is the ultimate in deprivation. However, you are resolved and you have willpower! Oddly enough, it does not seem to matter what exactly the diet does allow, since most people focus on avoiding the huge list of what they can’t have. This works because your food choices are so limited that you simply eat less. Amazingly, by eating less, you lose weight. After a while, you even get tired of eating the stuff you can have. Out of pure gastronomic boredom, you eat even less food and you lose even more weight. This accounts for the weight loss claims of the absurd ice cream diet.
*               Phase II: “WOW, That’s on My Diet? I’ll Take 10 with Fat Free Whipped Cream!” You endure phase one for as long as you can, and then your boredom sends you on a quest to discover all the wonderful things you can have on the diet. As a result, you discover plenty of stuff you can (and do) eat guilt free because it’s “on the plan.”
The food industry is quick to oblige us in phase two by marketing huge lines of celebrity endorsed, “diet-approved“ food. During this phase, a person on a low-fat diet might eat an entire non-fat raspberry cheesecake a la mode (non-fat ice cream, of course). I know because I have been that person. Phase two is full of awareness avoidance. Sometimes, the truth really takes a dive and people start to believe that their version of staying on the plan entitles them to frequent rewards. They think it is just fine to eat fat-free cheesecake all week long and reward themselves with regular cheesecake a la mode with chocolate milk on the weekend.
*            Phase III: “This Diet Sucks, I can’t Lose Weight on This Diet.” Fresh from the wasteland of deprivation, and beguiled by all your new food choices, you end up eating plenty and gaining weight. Surprised, you give up, resolving that the diet failed you. As a result, you go out and get yourself some fried biggie combo meal and resolve never to eat fat-free cheesecake again.