Here’s the thing.

I hate diets.

Please keep that in mind as you read through this post…

Diets I Hate

I know, “hate” sounds a bit strong but I do hate restrictive diets. I hate “no carb”, “no sugar”, “no fat” or “no”-anything diets. I don’t like being deprived. I want to eat what I want to eat. Sounds crazy? Well, I’ve lost weight eating the foods I love so I’ll argue that it’s not.

I hate restrictive diets for a number of reasons:

1. They don’t promote healthy eating
2. They don’t last – it’s very hard to stick to these diets where you’re depriving yourself. Once you fall off the wagon, it’s all too easy to put the weight back on.
3. They’re not fun. I don’t believe in depriving yourself of foods you love.
4. You can’t have a social life. Ever tried to go out with friends when you’re on one of these diets?
5. Not all of them work. Some do, but most don’t and are just fads.

So now that I’ve gotten that little rant off my chest, what does work?

Healthy Eating Diets That Work: “Diets” For the Rest Of Us

I believe in healthy eating. But what does that even mean?

A lot of us put on weight without even realizing it, often thinking that we’re eating right when we’re not. Or we have a hard time “balancing” our diet.

Most of us have some favorite foods that are healthy, but when we go on a diet we eat rabbit food! That’s mainly because we have a hard time differentiating between real treats, and yummy food that’s also very healthy.

As I talked about in my “about” page, I put on weight mainly because I learnt some very unhealthy habits. It took me some time to “un-learn” them, and the Anything Goes Diet guide really helped me out. You can read my complete review here:

Anything Goes Diet Review (coming soon)

In short, AGD is kind of an “anti diet” in that it teaches you to love your eating choices, make healthy decisions, and lose weight while still having fun.

When I started losing weight, the main thing that helped me to lose weight fast was doing intermittent fasting. The guide I followed for this is called the Eat Stop Eat diet. You can read more about it here:

Eat Stop Eat Diet Review

I like Eat Stop Eat because it’s very flexible, and I can eat what I want to.

I like to combine AGD with ESE to have a very flexible eating schedule. Combining these two diets means I ate what I wanted and still lost weight.

There are other diets out there that are similar to AGD and ESE, but these are the two that I’ve used with success.

The only “diet” that I’ve actually liked is the Cheat Your Way Thin diet, so if you want some guidelines to follow, you could try this diet. I prefer a flexible approach for my own eating, but some people are disciplined and can follow guidelines. I enjoyed reading this book and I incorporate “cheat days” as described here into my routine, and hopefully that helps me to keep the weight off while still having fun.

You can read my detailed review here:

Cheat Your Way Thin Review (Coming Soon!)

As you can see, just one single approach didn’t work for me, I combined a few things together. I’m a great believer in individual solutions to problems. I mean, there are always general guidelines that work, but I like things that can be easily customized.

Yeah, I sound a bit spoilt, haha! But learning to follow a healthy diet and then sticking to it has helped me lose weight and keep it off without stressing or feeling deprived.

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