What's the best diet?

The best diet it is the one that you can sustain and that will sustain you. 

Often we become obsessed with the newest diet fad, we chase it and then we let it go like all those that came before it.  But the biggest mistake we make is thinking of a diet as a one-and-done undertaking instead of a long-term strategy.  It's great if you can jump on a keto diet, follow it for a few weeks, and lose those extra pounds that you wanted to...but then what.....what happens when you get off of the keto diet?  As with most diets, the moment they end is the same moment that the pounds or bad health effects start coming back. This is why one of the most important parts of undertaking a diet is the pre-diet and post-diet plan.  You should always develop a pre-diet plan that allows you to gradually eliminate (over the course of a few weeks or months) some but not all of the items that you will be removing on the actual "diet".  This serves 2 purposes:
1) you get to gradually work on eliminating the worst offenders, alleviating a sharp and often self-sabotaging physiological response, while getting to experience many of the health improvements even at this early/easy stage of your journey.  
2) just like when you start to weight train, you do yourself a dis-service by jumping right into the most advanced workout regimen, instead you could be seeing great gains and improvements even with novice level training, which allows you to continue to progress into more intense training, experiencing continuous results the entire way instead of plateauing or sabotaging your progress right at the start.  Dieting works the same way.
The post-diet plan on the other hand is akin to an exit-strategy.  Upon successful completion of your diet you want to be able to transition into a healthy and sustainable lifestyle that takes away some of the most valuable or most liveable components of your deit and incorporates them into your daily life moving forward. Examples might include: removing 90% of refined sugar; replacing 90% of high-carb and/or high glycemic meal side dishes with vegetable and/or low-glycemic side dishes; removing meat from your diet except for post workout meals; removing 100% of dairy/gluten/other aggravating foods; etc.  The number of examples, just like the number of diets are endless.

So the takeaway here is:
1. based on my next diet, what gradual changes  will I make in the weeks/months leading up to starting?
2. once on my diet, I will commit 110%, there are no things such as cheat days!
3. based on and after my diet, what lifelong (or at least year long) dietary changes will I take away and make a part of my daily lifestyle moving forward?


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Enjoy the journey and see you at the gym,
Team Fitness Etc