The dreaded “D” word by Dev

The D word may send people into fits of fear: “no, no I don’t want to do that thing”, or: “there is nothing wrong with me, my bones are thick!”. Yes, I am taking about the post popular word in our vocabulary: Dieting. Dieting advice website ‘informationdiet’ describes dieting as “about your personal health, and the health of society”. The word tends to crop up when you are eating (which could be the worst moment), from friends (“you’re looking a bit chubby down there!”) or from your GP, which would medical and to do with health risks.

If you go on Google and type ‘dieting’, you will probably find millions of search results. But it doesn’t stop there; for an overweight person, no matter if you are obese, morbidly obese or just chubby, you start to look at your body whilst questioning yourself: “Is this really fat? I just thought it was a bump.”

Suddenly, on an annual trip to the doctors, the dreaded BMI (Body Mass Index) chart popped up. This is measured by finding your weight and your height on a chart, and can lead to some “hard to hear” words about your weight problems if you are found to be obese or morbid obese, including issues about blood sugar levels and diabetes. Yes, it sounds bad to hear and it might cause you to think ‘why did I do this in the first place?’ Now comes that D word again and an appointment with the dietician.

Dieting, from what I can gather, means eating healthily: more fruits, vegetables, less fatty food and lots of exercise. These are the most likely things that the dietician will recommend. For a person who has a “weight problem” admitting that you have a problem with your weight is the first important thing. For most people it is not easy to comprehend the realization that you have to shed that weight, regardless of how it is done. Now comes the fear of dieting, and the fear of exercise. The fear continues whilst you start to loose your breath, thinking “I cannot do this, it’s too much!” You give up and go for something sweet to give you comfort. Hence the term ‘comfort food’. Gradually you might loose interest in doing the “D” word.

Sometimes it is easy to take a step back and think to yourself: ‘How am I going to tackle this problem?’ I should say at this point that I am not a dietitian or a doctor and before dieting you should look what suites you physically, and don’t put your health at risk. Don’t over do it or under do it; it needs to be a gradual process that suites your body. Eat vegetables, after a while they taste better! Here is something I thought I would never say, but here goes: Dieting is not such a scary word when you take it slowly (but not too slowly!). I understand that I might sound like a dietitian or a person who just took this information off a website, but this is rather from my own experience. I went from 27 stone down to 15 stone over a period of 3 to 4 years, and that was by exercising more and eating less bad food. It needs to be a new approach to healthy living; it’s not just about not eating.