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5 Surprising Reasons You Blew Your Diet

T NATION | 5 Surprising Reasons You Blew Your Diet

Reason #1: You Attach Negativity to Dieting

Make two lists: one containing the pros and one containing the cons of your diet. Now, compare the lists. Which is more compelling?

Until the "pros" list wins, your diet will never truly succeed.

Reason #2: You Have Analysis Paralysis

I see this on forums all the time – guys trying to construct the "perfect diet," making sure that everything lines up (including the stars) so that it burns off all their fat while simultaneously adding slabs of ungodly muscle mass.

They take aspects of carb cycling, mix it with a keto diet, add in a sprinkle of carb back-loading, maybe some Jenny Craig... and pretty soon they just have a big pile of shit.

Newsflash: There is no perfect diet!

Reason #3: You Expect Miracles

Inundated with infomercials, magazine articles, and slick sales pitches, we as a society have come to expect radical physique improvements in minimal time, and with minimal effort. Anything that takes more than a couple days wears our patience thin.

Reason #4: You're Hanging Out with the Wrong Crowd (and reinforcing the wrong habits)

What do your friends do for fun? Do they have similar interests as you in terms of building muscle and losing fat? Or do they like hanging out at the bar, watching football and eating pizza, and gaming?

Occasionally having a beer with some friends is one thing, but getting hammered a few nights a week, sleeping in until noon, and missing the first three meals of the day will definitely crush any chance you have at building a respectable physique.

Reason #5: You Compare Yourself to Others (in a non-constructive way)

t's important to remember that successful people had to bust ass for a long time to get where they are. They had to suffer innumerable trials and setbacks in the process. It's easy to just focus on their successes, what we see right here, right now, but that's never the whole story.

Make sure you're using comparisons to leverage your success, rather than hinder it.