My best friend Steve and I were enjoying a mid-afternoon meal today when a great part of our conversation started to become very clear to us. Before we begin the journey in our lives toward living healthy and living free, we must take the time to realize a simple, yet profound, truth. Diets never work, only a lifestyle shift will.

Let me clarify that a bit though. Actually diets do work, for a period of time. But since the majority are mostly all based upon unhealthy restriction of calories and macronutrients, they are very rarely, if ever, sustainable. When we have a “diet” mentality to weight-loss and nutrition, we will most of the time find ourselves hoping and praying for the diet to come to an end so that we can eat again. They are a temporary fix to a long-term problem, and that problem is often the way we view food.

By the time we feel we are in need of diet, we see food as the enemy, something to be avoided at all costs. And even when we are “allowed” to eat on a diet, we feel the constraints of what we can’t have instead of the freedom of what we can, and should, consume.

So as I started my journey towards weight-loss and overall health, and as my friend Steve is just beginning his, I learned that the first step in my success would be for me to adopt a total lifestyle transformation. My view of what I should and should not be putting into my body had to RADICALLY shift, otherwise I knew that any hard work to I put forth would only end in disappointment because the change would not be SUSTAINABLE!  There would be no way for me to perpetually deny my “cravings” for an extended period of time. Eventually I would cave in, fall off the wagon, and then right back where I started, only with a heavy dose of guilt and disappointment to add to the image I saw in the mirror everyday.

Yes, I did begin my transformation with some fairly radical steps, I knew that those radical moves were the catalyst I needed to simply gain forward momentum. I knew that I would not have to count calories forever, or weigh myself every morning right after a trip to the bathroom for the rest of my life, or measure all of my food to learn my portion size. But I did realize that those steps were necessary to set me up for success for the rest of my life. I KNOW beyond the shadow of a doubt that I will NEVER return to that weight level or state of unhealthiness again. And it is because my entire lifestyle has changed, the way I look at food and exercise too. I also knew in the beginning that there were several diets that I could have embraced and achieved some great, maybe even outstanding, results, however I knew that sooner or later I would revert back to the old “me”. I was what needed to change, not my food or exercise routine.

So we will talk more soon about the freedom that a lifestyle transformation brings versus the constraints of a diet and we will debunk many myths surrounding our views of nutrition and fitness. Even as I write this and remember my conversations today, I realize more and more how truly passionate I am about the transformed life…. transformations in body, mind, finances and spirit. I can’t wait to share it all with whoever is listening!