{"id":44403,"date":"2011-03-19T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=44403"},"modified":"2011-03-17T13:37:28","modified_gmt":"2011-03-17T18:37:28","slug":"learning-moderation-puts-an-end-to-the-dieting-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/learning-moderation-puts-an-end-to-the-dieting-cycle\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Moderation Puts an End to the Dieting Cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Heather is the author of Not a DIY Life<\/a>, where she shares her journey of healthy living, parenting, faith and everything in between. After all, life is not a Do-It-Yourself project.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not really a professional dieter, but I have struggled with my weight most of my adult life. I\u2019ve tried several different \u201cdiets,\u201d including a low-fat diet<\/a><\/strong>, Atkins<\/a><\/strong>, and South Beach<\/a><\/strong>. Even though I am losing weight currently, I am not on a diet in the same sense. I am on a journey of healthy living, and that includes learning moderation<\/a><\/strong> in all things.<\/p>\n

When I was in college, I lost 50 lbs on a low-fat diet with lots of activity and exercise. During that time, I gave up bacon. Oh, how I missed bacon. But it wasn\u2019t \u201clow fat\u201d so I thought that I \u201ccouldn\u2019t\u201d eat it. I did not eat bacon for SIX years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After college and graduate school, after gaining back some of that 50 lbs that I lost, I tried the Atkins diet. You know, low carb, high protein, fat doesn\u2019t matter. Woohoo! I could eat bacon! And I did. In addition to all the other delicious protein that was allowed.<\/p>\n

I rediscovered my love for bacon. But there was nothing \u201cmoderate\u201d about eating bacon during that period of my life. I did lose 30 lbs, but I still had not learned moderation.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2026. After getting married, being happy and gaining weight, and two pregnancies, I was approaching a milestone birthday. A light bulb finally went on for me. Yes, I needed to lose weight. But more importantly, I needed to learn to be healthy. And I wanted to teach my family to be healthy too.<\/p>\n

Finally, I am learning moderation. I am learning proper portion sizes<\/a><\/strong>, and that whole foods are better fuel for my body than processed foods, no matter how many healthy claims are on the label. But nothing is off-limits. Including bacon. I don\u2019t eat a lot of it because I know it\u2019s not the best choice for me, but I enjoy bacon when I have it, and I don\u2019t feel guilty.<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s the biggest lesson that I\u2019ve learned: when all things are done in moderation, there is no room for guilt and for mentally berating myself for \u201cmaking a mistake.\u201d There is more self-love, more self-belief. And sometimes, there is more bacon.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Guest Blog Series: Look for the following badge on your favorite health sites to see if they have been a featured guest blogger on DietsInReview.com<\/a>. See other posts in the Guest Blog series<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Diets<\/a><\/p>\n

If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please contact us<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heather is the author of Not a DIY Life, where she shares her journey of healthy living, parenting, faith and everything in between. After all, life is not a Do-It-Yourself project. I\u2019m not really a professional dieter, but I have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695,58],"tags":[628,23,7912,2601,629,7911],"class_list":["post-44403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","category-womens-health","tag-atkins","tag-guest-blog","tag-heather-underwood","tag-moderation","tag-south-beach-diet","tag-under"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44403"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44751,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44403\/revisions\/44751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}