The Best Diet for Sustainable and Long-Term Weight Loss

Many of us have long wondered what is the best diet for sustainable and long-term weight loss. 

Should we be following keto, the Mediterranean diet, paleo, Weight Watchers, Atkins, low carb, vegetarian, vegan? The list could go on an on. 

For those of you who have been following along with I Only Came for the Cake for awhile, you know that I don’t believe in traditional diets. 

So you’re probably asking yourself, “Danielle, why are you writing an article about the best diet when you don’t believe in diets.”

Well, that’s because I’m letting you know that mindful eating is the best diet for sustainable and long-term weight loss. Mindful eating is not a traditional diet {really, it’s an anti-diet}. It’s basically your own body’s way of eating the foods it knows it needs. And why that’s truly the best for sustainable weight loss. 

Moving away from a traditional diet as the best diet for weight loss

For over five years I followed Weight Watchers. Some of the habits it instilled in me were amazing. I focused more on vegetables and fruits. Drinking lots of water and exercising. 

Some of the other habits were not so great. Constantly counting my food and how many points I had left for the day. A fear of food that was so deep I would cry thinking about eating something that wasn’t on the plan, or was outside of my points allotment for the day. Exercising a lot because I knew it would earn me more points. 

In the end, those not so great habits wore me out. Plus, while I was maintaining a healthy weight, I never felt like I was reaching my weight loss goals. 

I knew there had to be an easier way to live my life, enjoy food, and see sustained and healthy weight loss. 

Mindful eating was that answer for me. 

Why mindful eating is best for sustainable weight loss

Trust me, I’ve been tempted to try the keto diet. It’s a buzzy word running around the internet lately.

You hear of people losing lots of weight from it, feeling really good and over-all enjoying it. 

But then I hear the comments from people who say, “I cheated today. I ate something I shouldn’t have because it wasn’t keto. I feel terrible for not following the plan. I couldn’t go out with a friend because the restaurant didn’t have anything that was keto friendly.”

And that’s where I draw the line. All of those feelings are reasons why I can’t trust diets and 100% believe in mindful eating. 

Mindful eating is sustainable. It’s your body’s natural way of knowing what it needs and doesn’t need. 

For instance, I know I shouldn’t eat a lot of refined sugar. My body tells me so by providing me with breakouts when I eat too much of it. Do I still enjoy a cookie or brownie? Heck yes I do!

I pay attention to what it is my body is craving and provide it with those foods. In essence, that’s what mindful eating is all about. 

I’m no longer concerned about what I “can’t” eat, but rather focus on all of the good foods I can. I don’t dread going out any more. I don’t focus on how much a chicken taco is going to cost me in points or calories. I enjoy my food and the company I’m with. 

How you can practice mindful eating for sustainable weight loss

For someone who’s just starting out, moving away from a well-known, traditional diet can really be hard. Trust me, I definitely had my doubts that not counting calories or points was going to help me lose weight.

But your body starts to regulate. It starts to tell you what you’re craving and how to feed it those foods. 

The mindful eating journal will definitely help you start this mindful eating journey. You’ll learn what steps to take towards stopping calorie counting and how to sustain weight loss without those trackers. 

Now, just as a reminder, mindful eating isn’t about eating yourself into oblivion with the foods you’re craving. It’s about enjoying your food and stopping eating when you’re full. It’s really about portion control. 

If that’s something you need help with, I would highly suggest buying a set of these portion control containers and downloading the 21 Day Fix Official app . It will help you keep track of your portions, without limiting anything {the most important part about mindful eating}. 

A reader mentioned how the offer of this app seems contradictory to the fact that this post is all about not following a specific diet. So I wanted to mention that the only reason I only encourage the 21 Day Fix app is as a way to help you be more mindful of your portions. I do not follow this app to a ‘T’, because some days I eat more carbs than the app suggests, and some days I eat more veggies. But I use it as a way to help me not over eat, which can definitely be tough when just starting out with mindful eating.

But, if you’re still confused about all of this mindful eating, then you should definitely check out this brand new program from Beachbody. It’s called 2B Mindset, and has over 40+ videos on how to eat mindfully, plus tons of recipes! This is a super comprehensive program that really encourages what you can eat, rather than what you can’t {mindful vs. traditional diets}.

I hope this article brought you closer to how mindful eating is a way to sustain a healthy relationship with food and your body. No more eliminations, or feeling bad for eating something. Just good foods that are good for your body, and listening to your cravings, hunger and fullness cues your body is providing.