About Diets and How to Stop Fighting Your Appetite

We often write our own story.

You buy slightly looser trousers with an elastic waistband or a longer top that cleverly covers your stomach. You go to a café, order your favourite coffee with sweet caramel and a slice of cake, and think: “Things are fine. I feel reasonably well, nothing hurts, and I’m living my life as usual.”

This is completely natural.

As long as our bodies are coping and everyday tasks are not too difficult, the desire to eat something enjoyable simply wins. After 50, how we look sometimes matters less to us than tasty food. The children are usually grown up, and we finally want to do something for ourselves. We are simply looking for comfort, peace and a little pleasure after a hard day.

The problem is that this quiet permission continues until the body starts sending its first warning signs.

The First Shortness of Breath and the Vicious Circle

It starts quietly. Tying your shoes takes more effort. Walking up to the second floor leaves you a little out of breath. You run out of energy more quickly at work, and your clothes feel tighter around the waist.

We start looking for a way out.

Most often, we return to familiar patterns. We look for a new diet, print out a strict meal plan full of rules about what we cannot eat, and promise ourselves that from Monday we will not eat anything sweet. We usually think: “Surely it isn’t that hard. I can do it on my own.” Sometimes that is true – some people have a lot of determination.

For the first two weeks, you manage to stick to the strict plan. But then you have a difficult day at work, feel tired or simply want something tasty. You eat it – and soon afterwards you feel guilty and think that you will feel bad again. You go back to your old habits, your weight goes up, and the yo-yo effect begins.

Strict Diets Simply Do Not Work

The problem is that strict diets are simply not effective in the long term.

We often think that all we need to do is download a ready-made meal plan from the internet and follow it. In practice, however, such a diet soon becomes boring. If it is poorly planned, it simply stops helping.

The body responds to changes very quickly. Often, after just a week, your needs, how you feel or your health measurements change, and you should no longer eat some things in the same amounts. A fixed plan on a piece of paper cannot take this into account. This is why so many people give up after a couple of weeks – they do not know how to adjust their diet safely on their own.

Let’s be honest: lasting change requires sacrifices.

There are no magic solutions. If you want to regain your health, energy and a lower weight, you need to permanently remove from your diet the foods that make you gain weight and harm you.

Telling yourself that “you can eat everything, just less of it” usually does not work. The same is true of ready meals from the shop and quickly prepared processed food. Let’s be honest with ourselves – we do not choose processed ready meals because we are looking after our health. We buy them when we are tired, have no time to cook and want a quick lift in our mood. And ready-made food is created mainly to taste very good and be addictive, rather than to give us the nutrients we need.

What Can You Do Differently?

Changing your relationship with food does not mean turning your life upside down overnight. Instead of thinking about what you have to take away, think about what you can add to make a meal more nutritious.

Take the First Step at Your Own Pace

Lasting change and regaining your health take time, consistency and a sensible approach. Do not be taken in by “miracle diets” that promise results without any effort.

Respect your body, approach the process thoughtfully, and remember that you reach your goal fastest and most safely when you believe you can do it and have someone beside you who watches over the whole process and knows how to adjust it to your needs.