KEY INSIGHT: Diets fail not because you lack willpower or discipline, but because they put you in direct conflict with your body’s survival mechanisms – a battle you’re biologically programmed to lose. Your body cannot distinguish between intentional calorie restriction and actual starvation, so it activates the same powerful defensive responses that have kept humans alive through millions of years of evolution. When you understand this, you can stop blaming yourself and start looking for approaches that work with your biology rather than against it.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Make a mental list of every diet or weight-loss attempt you’ve tried. Now ask yourself: Did any of them feel sustainable? Did any of them feel like something you could happily do for the rest of your life? If the answer is no, that’s precisely why they failed – not because you failed, but because the method was flawed from the start.
TODAY’S EXERCISE:
Write down every diet or weight-loss program you’ve attempted. Next to each one, write:
Look at this list as evidence. Not evidence that you’re weak or undisciplined, but evidence that the approach itself doesn’t work. This realization is liberating – it means the solution isn’t trying harder at the same failing strategy, but finding a completely different approach.