Forget all those books and web sites that offer you the latest advice on how to lose weight; I’ve got the perfect plan for you.
I even came up with a name for it, to make it sound even more impressive – the Lencten Diet©.
Many of you have probably tried this diet in the past without knowing it, and probably even had some moderate success with it.
Lencten is the Old English word for Lent, and means “spring season”.
Many of you probably practice an age-old tradition during Lent – you give up something that you know is not healthy for you – soda, candy, alcohol. In my case, this year it was chips and pretzels.
I knew that chips and pretzels weren’t the healthiest snacks in the world, but they are so convenient and so tasty! But I thought I can give them up for forty days, how hard could it be. And guess what, I made it. That simple change led to a six-pound weight loss over roughly six weeks.
But if that’s all you did, just gave up something for forty days and then went back to what you were doing on day 41, you are not going to have any long-term success.
If all you did was give up something for 40 days, I would just call that the Lent diet, since Lent is the shortened version of the word Lencten.
The Lencten Diet© is meant to be a long-term plan, representing a permanent change in behavior.
Research has often shown that if you can do something for more than 30 days, you have probably established a habit, something that will continue long-term.
So if you can get through the 40 days of Lent, you’ve shown that you can do it, you’ve got what it takes to stick to your new diet. So why not just keep doing it.
I would also recommend you make a minor tweak to the standard Lent Diet – don’t take Sundays off while on the Lencten Diet©, at least not for those first 40 days. Once you get past that, it would probably be OK to reward yourself every once in a while for your good behavior.
And the Lencten Diet© doesn’t just have to be about food; it could be about using those 40 days of Lent as a launching pad for a whole host of changes we want to make in our lives. It could be cutting back on social media, exercising, meditating, etc.
Or even reading Borden’s Blog for 40 days – that would be quite the challenge…
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