Why Planning A New Years Diet Is The Worst Decision Of The Year

If you’re considering yet another holiday season of pigging out and lounging around followed by a rigorous New Years diet, check out the top ten reasons why planning a post-holiday diet is the worst decision of the year!

1. It's the most magical time of the year---you should be nice to yourself!

Picture this- twinkling lights, a warm fire, a hot chocolate, holding hands with your lovey, yet being obsessed with "muffin top this" and "flabby" that, when you glimpse yourself in the mirror or in a holiday snapshot.

We are so flipping mean to ourselves, and it doesn't have to be that way! You don't have to ruin your holidays with being unsatisfied with your body.

Even if you could be a little stronger, or would feel better if you fit in your pants, that doesn't mean you have to be such a bitch to yourself now.

Enjoy the holidays with the one you should love the most- yourself! Be kind, be gentle, and you'll soon realize that no one else gives a hoot about your muffin top.

Mags Baker / Via magsbaker.com

2. Diets don’t actually work.

I'm guessing this isn't your first dieting rodeo.

I bet you're planning to make 2015 THE YEAR where you actually lose the weight and get in shape (not to mention start eating kale and stop drinking so much coffee). Haven't we all been doing this same song and dance since 1999?

If dieting worked for anyone, we'd ALL be rocking out at the gym at 6am with our 6-pack abs and a whole-lotta confidence. Unfortunately (or, fortunately!), it doesn't work that way.

3. Deciding to diet later means giving up on eating well NOW.

Let's be real: "the Holidays" are truly only 4 days (and including Halloween is generous). 4 special days shouldn't have the power to make you completely give up on yourself for 1/6 of each year.

Procrastination plus denial are a recipe for disaster starting with the bowls of Halloween candy and ending with a champagne-induced hangover (and self-hate!) 2 months later.

Don't procrastinate: Over the holidays, remember to eat nutrient rich healthy foods that make you feel good.

4. A future diet creates a “cram it all in” mindset now.

You definitely know this one. Oops I ate one pancake for breakfast, better eat 2 cinnamon rolls, a meatball sub, kettlechips, curly fries, hot cheetos, fro-yo, movie theater popcorn, and pizza… you know, because I'm starting the diet tomorrow.

Well, same deal. If you plan to start a diet after New Year's, you automatically go into this mode. It may not be quite this extreme, but you can rack up a ton of extra junk over 7 weeks.

5. Junk food’s best friend is guilty guilt.

Whether it be society, culture, or family upbringing- we are taught that "fat is bad, and junk food makes you fat". Years of dieting reinforces this monstrous cycle in us, and we just can't help beating ourselves up after eating too many french fries. How F'ed up is that!?

During this time of year, our culture throws sugar filled-pies, fatty gravy, starchy potatoes (yummmm, potatoes), and more sugary treats our way. We eat, we feel guilty, and then we eat some more. If we plan on dieting in January, we live the months between Halloween and New years in a guilty-crappy food cycle.

6. Planning to diet LATER means you don’t have to work out NOW.

You don't need to work out like a maniac every day, and you probably wouldn't really want to have an over-stuffed pecan pie belly everyday. Moderation is the key here, and moderation cannot exist in a world where we are going to be dieting "later".

So stop waiting to join a gym later and start moving your body today. Move for endorphins. Move for more energy. Take a walk to score some downtime, alone-time, or one-on-one time with a long lost cousin. Move to boost your mood. Move to be stronger.

Just move today!

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7. Listening to your body goes out the window---when a diet's on the horizon.

Dieting is the opposite of trusting and listening to your body, so cut it out and your true body will tell you exactly what she needs.

Having a diet on your new 2015 calendar means that you already don't trust your body, and it completely shuts off all brain signals including being satisfied from one cookie (yes, just one!), wanting to go for a walk, craving vitamin filled vegetables, and knowing true hunger and fullness.

Your body is a genius miracle machine and CAN tell you all those things, and will if you trust it.

8. The crappier you eat, the crappier you feel…the crappier you eat.

When you're planning a diet in the future, you are drawn to junk foods more often. And the more you eat sugar, processed foods, animal fat, and junk- the more you want it and the worse you physically feel.

9. Vegetables, schmegetables.

Diets are inherently filled with mountains of vegetables (only vegetables!) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you're going to be eating your way through kale in chard in a month, why eat any now? Why waste a single chew on something not filled with sugar!?

Well, remember all that biz about feeling crappy?

Vegetables and other nutritionally dense foods make you feel great. They give you the energy to dance all night, kiss under the mistletoe, build a snowman, go ice skating, collect leaves, and cook for your family.

But hey, if you want to just sit inside under a blanket with a tummy-ache… you do you.

I don't think I actually wanted vegetables for a good 6 months after I gave up the dieting lifestyle, because they're so poorly instituted in diets, but now I completely love and crave them, and their effects. Try them. See how you feel. And trust your body to tell you.

10. Don't waste time on crappy cookies!

Quit the dieting charade and actually enjoy the realllll good stuff!

You know what's not so delicious or "worth it"? Store bought cookies. Office kitchen leftovers. Anything you don't truly LOVE.

With a diet on the horizon, we cram anything within reach in our pie-holes and are too full (and crazy!) to enjoy the truly special things.

Secret: Naturally thin people and mindful eaters choose to focus on the best of the best and enjoy that stuff immensely.

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RE-CAP: What Should You Do Instead of Gearing Up for a Diet?

1. Plan to NOT diet in January (or ever!)

2. Listen to your body---right now

3. Shower your bod with appreciation and gratitude

4. Eat whatever you want and truly enjoy the good stuff

5. Move your body in ways you love

6. Create lasting memories

Need a little extra inspiration?

Via magsbaker.com

Mags Baker helps women find their true bliss by giving up dieting and learning to love their lives, all while helping their bodies find their healthy, natural weight.

Through group programs, articles, videos, and the Mags Baker community, women learn to live the rest of their fabulous lives without the bullshit of dieting and hating their bodies.