The Magic Systemic Diet

Honestly, I hate diets. I don’t like to feel hungry, I don’t like to eat only selected food, I hate to count calories and I don’t want to spent more time in the kitchen because I already have a very busy schedule. Guess what, I am also not a fan of exercising. On top of all I am an impatient person and want to see results fast otherwise I quit. And usually I don’t want people to know that I am on diet because I will fail for sure this one and would feel ashamed and guilty. And actually I like to enjoy life now why should I deprive myself for the rest of my life?

The only thing I don’t like about myself is my overweight.

I am a senior well resprected change manager with many years of experience on helping people and organizations to change successfully. But wait a moment in 2011 I had to bitterly acknowledge that despite all my professional experiences I was not even able to change and manage sustainable my own weight! How can I look into the eyes of my clients and tell them I know everything about change.

This was a final wakeup call and I started to look through all my resources, all the resources on change and weight change management. After a lot of trials and errors I finally came up with what I call the magic systemic diet. It is magic because you will lose weight almost effortless and in an automatic way and it is called systemic because it takes the system into account in which you live in. Actually it is not even a diet, because you don’t deprive yourself and follow a very strict plan, it is rather a set of little adjustments that won’t require much effort to implement. It is not a diet for all those who have an eating disorder or other health related problems, therefore please consult a health care professional.

When I had this triggering revelation in 2011 I was totally overwhelmed first. Basically I did not know where to start. In my life I had tried so many different diets. I lost weight but I always gained more back at the end. Usually I went for the diets that someone else just had success with. After a few days or weeks once I lost weight I became bored or even frustrated with the diet. It just seemed to absorb all my energy and didn’t feel naturally at some point. I felt like I am missing out on life just because I follow the strict regime of a new weight loss program. But each time I stopped these programs I felt ashamed of myself because I failed. Also during the period of dieting I became a very moody person. It didn’t take much to get me angry. This of course is not ideal for my relationships.

In 2011 when I embarked on my quest to ask my friend’s and colleagues again how to lose weight and keep it off for ever wasn’t an option. They would just have told me about a new diet they were currently following with success. And how many of them have I seen yo-yoing during the time I got to know them. They go on a diet and one year later they are on the next diet because they regained all the weight they lost. So it didn’t matter if they followed the most prominent or the most exotic diet the result at the end was always the same.

When I consulted the research on nutrient and dieting the same picture emerged. It does not matter which diet to use over time the weight loss is the same. Some let you lose weight faster in the first weeks some help you lose weight more in the later part of the diet. Yet when looking at the long term results 98% regained their weight. What a statistical success factor is that?  The odds to lose weight and keep it for longer term is just 2% versus 98% chance to regain all of the weight lost. Shouldn’t I give up right now here? Would you bet on a horse if you knew it had a 2% chance to win versus a 98% chance to lose?

Personally I like the odds against me. These are the challenges I love and maybe it is the nature of my work. How many change projects do you know where the big majority of people are in favour of ? Not many to what I know off.

Clearly the first thing to adress was to increase the chances to win versus the chances to loose. What looked so obvious to me, still did not tell me what buttons to push, what steps to take. I was sitting in the dark.

Of course having decided not to consult my friends or colleagues I turned to Google instead. I used various search strategies, tactics and terms and at one point I had to admit I was looking for the famous pin in the hay stack. Basically there was no satisfying answer. Honestly I was in despair and I was about to give up.

It needs luck sometimes. And luck strikes when you least expect it. It was at the shopping mall in Switzerland when I was waiting for my wife. She informed that she will be late, so I strolled around and found a bookstore. I like to visit bookstores and glance at their offerings in the various categories. While I made my round from the best sellers to the self helps books on to the cook books, I finally ended up with the shelves filled with endless numbers of diet books. I was starting to yawn scanning through the titles of these books. They promise you everything but all focus only on a strict eating plan of a certain food group or food item. I was about to leave when something odd caught my eyes. The title was really strange and I was debating if I should still waste more time with a subject I actually was frustrated with or if I should give it just one more try. Slowly I walked over to the shelves and picked up the book. First I was laughing about myself and thought it is a joke, then I turned the book and red the description of the back cover. I started to tremble. Heurka I was shouting inside. This is the lead I was probably looking for so desperately….

“More Myself, Less on the Scale”.

Further Reading:
101 Magic Tricks To Make Your Weight Loss Diet Easy Unconcious To Follow and Automatic and Sustainable 

Tags: Atkin Diet