Five reasons why you can’t stick to your diet …
and how to fix them .
information provided from By Susan B.
Diet failure reason #1: You eat for reasons other than hunger.
Emotional eaters
turn to food when they’re feeling depressed, angry or stressed. If they
start on a diet and deprive themselves of the emotional comfort of
food, you can imagine what happens … they just get more depressed, angry
and stressed. If you find yourself eating when you’re not really
physically hungry, you’ll want to work on finding other ways to make
yourself feel better.
Easy diet fix: When you get ‘emotional’ and feel the
need to eat, take a moment to stop and simply acknowledge what it is
that you’re feeling. Rather than ‘stuffing down’ the negative feeling
with food, just let it be. It might help to write down how you’re
feeling, or to call a friend and talk it out. You can also tell yourself
that you’ll wait 5 or 10 minutes before giving in – chances are you’ll
get busy doing something else and forget about eating altogether. And
exercise is one of the best mood-lifters around. Instead of drowning
your sorrows with sweets, put on your shoes and go take a walk, or get
down on the floor and stretch instead.
Diet failure reason #2: It doesn’t fit your lifestyle.
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: when you say you’re
going “on a diet” it implies that, at some point, you’ll be going “off
your diet”. This often happens when people try to adopt a diet plan that
just doesn’t fit with their lifestyle. Maybe it calls for a lot of food
preparation and you just don’t like to cook, or don’t have time. Maybe
there are too many restrictions – so you quickly get bored, or you can’t
find anything you can eat when you go out with friends or family.
Easy diet fix: Rather than trying the latest “diet”,
focus on making lifestyle changes for the long term. If you don’t have
time to cook or don’t enjoy it, seek out recipes that are quick and
easy, and learn your way around a restaurant menu so that you can always find something that works for you.
Diet failure reason #3: Your expectations aren’t realistic.
Once you’ve made the decision to “go on a diet”, you may have high
expectations for your weight loss – especially if you find yourself
making a lot of sacrifices. But if you expect to lose more than you can
safely achieve over a period of time, you’re just setting yourself up
for failure. And if you expect that you’re going to follow your new diet
to the letter, you’ll probably abandon the whole thing as soon as you
make a slip and ‘cheat’.
Easy diet fix: First, recognize that a safe and
reasonable rate of weight loss is about 1-2 pounds (up to about a
kilogram) per week. And recognize, too, that when you’re working to
establishing healthy new habits, it’s natural to slip once in a while.
Rather than letting that diet slip turn into a diet fail – and giving up
altogether – try to learn from your mistakes and allow some time for
the new habits to get established.
Diet failure reason #4: You don’t change your environment.
Your environment has a big effect on your eating. Think about what
you keep in your refrigerator, freezer and cupboards at home, the snacks
you have stashed in your desk, the burger places you pass on your
commute every day. There are temptations all around you, and if you
don’t take charge of your environment, it’s just too easy to give in.
Easy diet fix: Clear tempting, high-calorie foods
out of your house and replace them with healthier items. Rather than a
jar of candy on your desk or a bag of cookies on your kitchen counter,
put out some fresh fruit or protein snack bars. Cut up some fresh
veggies and put them in a highly visible spot in your refrigerator where
they’ll be the first things you see. Stock your freezer and pantry with
healthy staples so that you always have what you need to put together a
healthy meal. And if you can’t drive past your favorite fast food
restaurant without taking a detour into the drive-through, find another
route.
Diet failure reason #5: You don’t eat regular meals and snacks.
Too often, people think the quickest way to weight loss is to just
eat as little as possible. So, they skip meals and snacks – which leaves
them hungry, tired and cranky … and craving sugar and caffeine to get
them through the day. Skipping meals and snacks usually doesn’t help you
lose weight, because you’re likely to just eat more at your next meal.
Easy diet fix: Work on establishing a regular eating
pattern that will keep you from getting overly hungry. In general,
people feel the need to eat about every 3-4 hours during the day, which
means that most people need – at a minimum – three meals and a snack in
the afternoon. When you know you’re going to eat every few hours, it
makes it easier to control your portions at each meal and snack, too.
You can teach yourself to eat just enough to hold you until the next
time you plan to eat. And make sure that each meal and snack provides
some low-fat protein to help keep your hunger under control.
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