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Traditionally it has relied on extremes of restriction, under-eating, over-exercising, and cultivating lives that often at best are describable as merely tolerable.
Not only are these regularly extreme approaches the ones that society has adopted, but they're also often the approaches that medicine has studied.
Is it no wonder then that long-term weight management has proven itself to be elusive?
Expecting people to live lives where food can't serve to provide comfort and pleasure, where guilt and shame are meant to shape decisions, where fighting hunger with distraction is encouraged, where reality is ignored - go figure the long term stats stink.
We need new goalposts. Where goals aren't number based, where the healthiest life you can enjoy is the aim, where food retains its ability to provide comfort and celebration, where our personal bests are considered great, and where like everything else in our lives, we're comfortable with the fact that our personal bests will vary - both between individuals, and even within individuals.
Ultimately if your diet gives your life the finger, don't be surprised if you eventually tell that diet to kiss off.