What is a Diet?
If you look at the word diet, according to dictionary.com, there are a few different definitions. So what is a diet?
noun
- food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health.
- a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease.
verb (used without object), dieted, dieting.
- to select or limit the food one eats to improve one’s physical condition or to lose weight.
If you mash all the definitions together it comes down to selecting foods that will improve YOUR health, weight, physical condition, or prevent a disease. What this says to me is that diets are meant to be ways to change your life. Diets are meant to IMPROVE YOUR LIFESTYLE. I always say If you’re “just dieting” then you’re not doing it right. Dieting is not some 21 day fix that you can complete and then go back to your old habits. Dieting needs to be your new lifestyle. Making a lifestyle change will ensure you do not go back to your old ways and ensure that you make the changes necessary to improve your health, weight, and physical condition.
The Ancient Greek origin of the word Diet is diaita, which means way of living. When you change the way you are living, is when you will notice the improvements made to your body. These daily decisions take overcoming a mental and physical barrier. This barrier doesn’t have to be broken down alone. Support systems can be made so you can break the barrier and change your lifestyle. Once you’ve made the switch from just “going on a diet” to “optiminally eating for myself” is when you can also switch to helping others through that barrier.
