Healthy Weight Loss

Have you been on diets before, lost weight, then regained it and lost motivation? Change your attitude to dieting and use your mind to get ahead.

I have a friend who's been on every kind of diet going: cabbage soup, high protein, eating for your blood type, meal replacements and all the rest. The trouble is, she hasn't changed her poor mental attitude to dieting.

She uses diets like buses, jumping on and off. If she's just missed one, well, there will be another along in a minute, won't there? Has she lost weight? Yes, she has and then she's gained it, until the next period of dieting when the cycle repeats itself.

Why is it that most diets only seem to work temporarily? In my opinion the main reason is that they don't teach you much about healthy eating or help you learn a healthy attitude to food. All too often, entire food groups are banned, which, depending on the group, can be unhealthy or even dangerous if you follow it for a long time. Meal replacements, although designed nowadays to be nutritionally safe, don't really give the average dieter any idea of what a healthy meal looks like. If a diet promises you rapid weight loss, you can bet it will be due to consuming significantly less calories. It won't be because of some magical fat-burning enzyme found in the bongo-bongo fruit or whatever the angle is! Besides, you'll just lose water and lean muscle mass anyway, so it won't necessarily be sustainable.

Diets can be as dull as ditchwater, particularly if they are very strict about what you can and can't eat. Not only do you feel bored and start fantasising about bathing in jelly and custard (mmm, with some chocolate sprinkles too), but they can make eating out difficult, especially when you visit friends' houses. You have to be very good company indeed to make up for your inconvenient food requests. Let's face it, a diet can simply be hard to fit into your life, particularly when you also have a family to feed or if you work long or unusual hours. And then there's the hunger, the growling stomach and the faintness-inducing pangs that all too often lead to a binge. Then you feel guilty - and move on to another diet in the hope that it will be better.

Many people who sincerely want to lose weight are failing to stick to their diet regimes. So what does work? There isn't one single way to lose weight successfully. You need to develop a combination of tricks that work for you, and an acceptance of certain key points. The first is that you will probably need to change your idea of what a diet and losing weight is all about. The kinds of diets mentioned above are not going to help you. To lose weight and keep it off, you have to change your eating habits and lifestyle permanently. Before you shriek that this sounds even scarier than a wasp-chewing diet, remember that losing weight is about the long haul, not dieting in short four-week bursts. There are no quick fixes, but if you make small changes over a period of time, they will add up to big results.

Next, you have to realistic about your weight-loss goals. Aim to be in the best shape you can be, which is to be healthy, not to look like a stick insect. Eat a balanced selection of foods with plenty of fruit and vegetables, protein and carbohydrate and a little fat. A balanced diet is essential for good health, keeps things interesting for you and ensures you won't suffer endless cravings because you're denying yourself certain foods. Remember that you do need to keep a check on the portion sizes. You'll also be doing yourself a big favour if you become more physically active. Exercise makes you feel and look good, helps to control your appetite and, in conjunction with sensible eating, helps you lose weight faster. Using these guidelines, weight should come off slowly but surely, without you feeling as though you've put your entire life on hold to accommodate a short-term diet. You might just enjoy yourself too!


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