Jonathan Steedman (00:03.063)
team.

Today I want to talk about all of the silly diets that you and I have done over the years. Because you've probably done at least one of them, if you're here. This seems to be the corner of the internet that people come to when they've tried lots of other things and they're frustrated and they don't know what to do. And that's great. I love working with people like that because I do know what to do and I can help.

But if we're not careful, those diets, maybe it was, I quit sugar. Maybe it was low carb keto carnivore, the Atkins. Maybe it was a detox. Maybe it was, I don't know, I don't know, every day almost. I feel like I'm learning about a new diet. And so maybe it was one of those. And even though, I guess, at the front of your mind, the intellectual part of your brain,

I know nothing about brain regions, so that could be the wrong thing. But anyway, the intellectual part of your brain.

knows that that diet was silly and you didn't know any better at the time and that's okay but you wouldn't do it again now because it's you know that it is silly but the emotional part of your brain is probably thinking yeah but it worked if i could just do it one more time if i could just get back to that if i could just get back to how i was if i could just stick to cutting out sugar for six more weeks i'd finally be able to lose the weight

Jonathan Steedman (01:32.428)
Which is technically true, but I think you should let that go and stop trying to do that because that is not a helpful mindset. Because the reality is, if that diet really worked, you wouldn't be having those thoughts. You would be in a body you're comfortable with for the large part. You might have to make minor adjustments from time to time, but you would be in the body that you like. Whoa, that's a strong one. You'd be in a body you're comfortable in.

you would know how to manage social events, you'd know how to live your life, you'd know how to bring your weight back a little bit if you had a really fun trip away or you'd know how to bring your weight back up if maybe you realized you hadn't been eating as much as you need to. You'd have all of those skills. And if you don't have all of those skills, that's okay. This is not an attack at you, but it's just hopefully gonna make you see that that diet actually didn't work at all and it was not helpful, right? It helped you learn

What not to do, maybe? But what it didn't do is teach you skills for life. It helped you drop weight in a short amount of time, being super restrictive and hyper-focused, but in a really unrealistic...

unsustainable way. And so I wanted to make sure that if you did have that diet sitting in the back of your mind, you're thinking fondly of it. I want you to ask yourself a few questions about that diet. So hopefully we can finally let that diet go. We can let that old flame die, if you will. You know, you always, I don't know, maybe there's a partner in your past life that you have this very, you you're still.

feel like maybe they were the one, they probably weren't, just like that diet wasn't. Because I'm sure when we take our rosy colored glasses off, you notice all the flaws and incompatibilities with you and that partner. And you can do the same thing with the diet. So the first thing with that diet is I want you to ask yourself, it tell you, tell you, teach you what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat, right? That's the basics. A lot of diets do do that, but some don't. Some just say things like, don't eat sugar. That's not helpful.

Jonathan Steedman (03:44.174)
Right? What else am I supposed to eat? And what if I want some sugar? Are you saying I can literally never eat it again? some diets fail this test upfront. Other diets will teach you what, when and how much. Particularly maybe you got given a meal plan and told to just follow this plan. Or maybe you were given some numbers to track. You got told to just track. And you did that. And so those pass that test. They tell you what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat. So that's great. That is really important. Test two is, did it teach you what to do?

when you couldn't stick to it due to being away, due to the kids being sick, due to work being busy, due to not getting to the shops in time, due to any number of things that can get in the way of you being able to stick to your original plan. This is where I find most, if not all, diets fail because flexibility is never really something they mention.

You have to do exactly what they say. And if you're not doing it, you're not on the diet and therefore you failed. So have a think. your diet, does your, does that old diet pass the flexibility test? The only one I can think of springing to mind at the moment is people might say that tracking is flexible because you can fit in whatever you want. And to a degree that is true, but having to specifically hit three numbers doesn't also doesn't sound super flexible. So tracking is not always as flexible as you.

as we kind of first think. The final pass or check rather that your diet needs to pass is, did it teach you what to do afterwards? Did it teach you how to transition from a weight loss focus to a weight maintenance focus? Did it do that in a couple of different steps? Or did it just say, hey, you're finished, keep doing what you've been doing. Or did it say, hey, you're finished, eat more. Or even worse, did it not even say anything after you were done? And again,

I mean, like I said, most diets have already failed at this before this point, but they also typically fail this. They are focused on what you're doing while you're following that diet. But if you started the keto diet to lose weight, but in the back of your mind, you always knew you were going to stop it at some point. It's kind of never going to work long-term, right? Because you didn't adjust the fundamentals. You didn't adjust the foundational part of that diet. And so

Jonathan Steedman (06:05.078)
Those are the three pillars that I believe every good nutritional approach should use. You should have a foundation of what, when, and how much to eat. You should have then the flexibility built in on top of that. What to do when I can't stick to the plan, when I'm tired, when I'm sick, when I'm running late. And then you need to have that forever piece. How do I take everything that I've learned? How do I take everything that I've achieved, you know, from a...

body composition standpoint, a health standpoint, a mood standpoint, a performance standpoint, how do I take all of that and keep it forever, but still live my life, right? How do I relax into life and enjoy food with my family and friends and balance that enjoyment and that important aspect of nutrition with those, what sometimes feels like competing, it shouldn't be though, but with the other side of things of maintaining my health, maintaining my performance.

maintaining my body composition. And so every good diet needs those three things. Foundations, some flexibility, and then teaching you to transition to forever. I know one that does that because I couldn't find one, so I built it. And that's what weight off is basically. And so if your old diet has passed those checks, then yeah, I would probably go back and give it another shot when the time is right. But if it didn't pass that check, but you do want to do something about your weight.

You know where to find me, presumably. If you don't, it's at Instagram at John O. Steedman or GoogleBiteMeNutrition.com or there's a link in the show notes. otherwise, please let that old diet go. It didn't serve you then, it won't serve you now. You're better than that and you deserve something better. That got a really bit, that got too heavy and too emotional. and it's the way too many food it feels. can, I'm awkward, see, I'm stumbling over my words. So I'm gonna go now.

and I'll talk to you next week about something less heavy.