At Fitness Mantra we’ve always talked about eating healthy instead of flash-dieting and looks like more Americans are getting on the same page. MSNBC reports that the in-thing these days is eating the good stuff more often while not focusing on any particular diet:

29 % of women and 19 % of men are on diets based on the responses of 26,000 American adults, compared to 10 years ago when 35 % of women and 23 % of men said they were dieting, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc. [MSNBC]

This is a step in the right direction in more ways than you can imagine. Now diets themselves are not wrong and in the short-term almost all of them show promise in helping people lose weight. The real issue is in keeping that weight off and few offer any guarantees in that department - not because they don’t work in the long term, but because almost everyone on a diet tends to discontinue it after a while:

“The problem with diets is most people feel deprived, or they’re disappointed with the results. Of course, results will come if you stick with it,” NPD Vice President Harry Balzer said in a telephone interview. “But people see dieting as not a long-term healthful way to live.”

The survey also found that achieving a magical weight or shape is no more the primary motivation for eating well, but rather it was to improve overall health and fitness. You yourself would arrive at this conclusion if you conducted a “Why Experiment” on your actions …

I am going to the gym.
Why? So I can do cardio-vascular and strength-training exercises.
Why? So I can lose fat-weight and gain muscle weight.
But seriously, Why? So I can be more active and energetic when I perform my daily activities.
Aha!

True, looking good in your clothes (or on the beach!), improving your internal body chemistry (blood, triglycerides, cholesterol), boosting your self-confidence … these are all great benefits of exercising and eating right. But really the biggest place you will notice a difference is when you do your daily activities like lifting, stretching, twisting, turning and generally any form of moving! That is when you’ll notice how much easier it is to do the things you used to dread.

And you don’t really need to be “slim” to be at your physical best. The survey showed 8 out of 10 would rather be healthy and fit than “thin”.

Unfortunately, the survey also revealed that, atleast for now, convenience still ruled over eating habits:

“The problem with fresh vegetables is they’re not easy. Most important is how much does it cost and how easy it is to get it? A secondary factor is how healthy is it?”

Well, one battle at a time …

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