Maria's Last Diet:

Ellie: Every time we go on a diet together, we fail.

Sue: I know. But I don't know why, do you?

Ellie: No. It just doesn't work out.

Sue: So what should we do?

Ellie: We're not stupid. Let's figure it out.

Sue: It's strange, but I usually can't wait to call you and say I just ate a bag of M&Ms.

Ellie: I think I always wait for you to break your diet.

Sue: You know, I don't even feel like I'm letting you down when I blow it.

Ellie: What if we started expecting ourselves, and each other, to actually stick to our diet plans?

Sue: Good thought. But what will we do about fulfilling all of our past expectations?

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 in Influence | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Weight Loss Diet Plan: Put You First

by Maria's Last Diet

If you are an overeater, and you want to lose the weight, you need to make a really good weight loss plan.

Any plan to change a behavior needs to be created with you in mind. It should be built around your knowledge of yourself -- specifically, it must address your patterns of behavior.

According to Dr. Carlos C. DiClemente, a major contributor to psychological change theory, you must take into account who you are. The specifics of any weight loss plan you make have to take into account your strengths and weaknesses.

For instance:

If you are someone who does better in life with lots of social support, it would be counter-productive to just buy a diet book, go without dieting support, and diet all on your own
If you are someone who gets stressed out by your daily life, then, to meet the weight loss challenge with all you have, you need to minimize those stresses
If you are influenced by friends who are always overeating, and you simply continue to hang out with these friends a lot, you'll be working against your best weight loss interests
If you are someone who resents following rules, then you might do better creating your own healthy eating plan
If you are someone who has perseverance, then maybe the best diet plan for you isn't quick weight loss, but a longer-term more doable diet plan

Many people think of willpower as the answer for diet and weight loss challenges. Willpower is a big word in our vocabulary. But changing your behavior definitely takes more than simple willpower. It takes planning with you in mind. It takes a plan that is specific to you. It takes a weight-loss diet plan that uses your strengths to your advantage, and allows for your weaknesses as well.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 in Changing/Learning | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Weight Control Problem Solving: Taking on Your Worst Habit

by Maria's Last Diet

Women with weight control problems usually have bad habits with regard to eating.

What eating habit do you have that you hate the most?

This is a great place to start solving your weight problems. You have this habit. You probably hate it the most because it's the one that gives you the most trouble when you try to lose weight. So why not take it on?

Write down this habit of yours. Where did it come from? When did it start? When does it characteristically show up - in what situations?
Can you think of 3 ways to start breaking this habit?
Write them down.
Write about how you would feel if you learned to live without this habit.
Write about why you hate this habit and all the ways it works against you, how it makes you feel.

When you begin to investigate your behavior with regard to overeating and being overweight, you open up your weight control problems to possible solutions. When you don't question a habit that you hate, you will stay stuck to it.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Friday, August 24, 2007 in How to Get There | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Diet Tip - Diet Trip

by Maria's Last Diet

Think of going on a diet like you're going on a road trip.

Pack. Plan. Bring stuff you need. Think of where you'll go, but leave some things open for surprising new roads and adventures.

You want to start here, and get there. You don't need to go as fast as you can. You need to have a good trip, see new places, see yourself in new situations, stop to smell the roses.

Grow from the experience. It's much more about that than it is about the food.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 in Tips | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Facing Your Weight Loss Challenge Differently

by Maria's Last Diet

The great religions of the world differ on many things. But they all teach about having regard for your fellow man through caring, understanding, compassion, and respect.

If we look through these lenses as we consider other people, it can only do good. It can change the world.

So...how about turning these same caring, understanding, respectful, and compassionate eyes on yourself - especially when you are trying to solve your weight problem.

Instead of punishment, blame, impatience, and criticism, why don't you face your weight loss challenge with caring, understanding, respect, and compassion. You will do yourself a world of good.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Sunday, August 19, 2007 in Tips | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Weight Loss tip: Make Lots of Mistakes

by Maria's Last Diet

What if you don't stick to your diet plan tonight?

What will happen if you have the dessert you've been wanting?

What if you feel your self esteem slipping and you fill up so you don't notice?

What will become of you and your weight-loss goal if you do things like this?

Would you be surprised to learn that you might get to your weight-loss goal faster, surer, better?

Take a lesson from error management training where participants are encouraged to make errors and learn from them.

The idea is to develop better cognitive and emotional control by perceiving and using your mistakes as learning experiences. After all, most of our learning has to do with reducing the kind and frequency of errors we make.

Do you see what this will do when you accept dieting mistakes? You will be seeing your dieting mistakes as just that - mistakes, not failures. Here are some ways you can learn from them?

As you probably know, there can be a variety of emotions connected with dieting - frustration, guilt, anxiousness, anger, to name just a few. Dieting slips lead to these kinds of feelings. But you can think about a slip differently. You can use a dieting mistake as a learning tool and really cut down on these negative feelings.

Making mistakes, accepting them, and learning from them, will help you monitor yourself more effectively. You can then revise your strategies for solving dieting dilemmas and actively take charge when obstacles arise. The trick is to build your plans with your mistakes in mind.

So go ahead and have that piece of pie, fall off your diet on the weekend and fail to go back on Monday. Have a fight with your teenage daughter and head right for the chips and cookies. Remember, if you use these mistakes (yes, mistakes, not crimes) to learn, you are building a more successful weight-loss program, one that is bound to take you to your weight-loss goal.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Friday, August 17, 2007 in Self-Control/Lack of Control | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Weight Loss Information: Is a Diet Necessary?

by Maria's Last Diet

Dear Maria...

You're advice is very helpful to me, especially when I have weak moments.

Like right now. I want very much to lose weight, but I can't seem to get my self to go on yet another diet.

My question is this: You help women to stay on whatever diet they choose. Why are you so in favor of diets? Can't you lose weight even if you don't go on a "diet" per se?

- Jennifer S.

Dear Jennifer

When we talk about overcoming diet failure, we are not limiting the idea of a "diet" to the specific diet plans out there. We are really talking about any effort you make to change your eating - whether it's Weight Watchers or South Beach or just cutting down on the amount you eat, or changing the kind of food you eat. In order to achieve weight loss, you do need to change your eating in some way. Even if you exercise, the research doesn't show that the exercise alone will do it for you. So, any way you choose to eat that will result in weight loss for you is what we mean by "diet".

Thanks for asking such a good question!

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 in How to Get There | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Not a weight loss success story...yet

by Maria's Last Diet

Sometimes I think, so what's 25 lbs? It's nothing. Lots of people have much more weight to lose than that.

Maybe I should just listen to the "fat advocates". You know, fat is beautiful and all that.

It's tempting. The thing is, I don't like how I feel. It gets in my way. I'm uncomfortable and I particularly don't like that I seem to be driven to eat too much, like I can't help it. It makes me feel out of control.

So I am going to listen to my own heart, and see how to figure this out. Thanks Maria, your site really helps.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Monday, August 13, 2007 in How to Get There | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Not the Same Old, Same Old Weight Loss Method That Has Only Brought Weight Loss Failure

by Maria's Last Diet

If you haven't solved your weight problem in a satisfactory and lasting way, perhaps it's time to think outside the box.

Here is a list of things some women used to overcome their weight loss challenges. Maybe there are some ideas here you can use.

making up your own diet
dieting with someone who is actually losing weight
sticking to a diet but taking one day a week totally off
giving up dieting altogether and concentrating on what makes you overeat instead
rehearsing and practicing various weight loss steps before taking them
reducing restrictions as much as possible in other areas of your life

Innovative weight loss strategies are those that are new and original for you. They are not your same old dieting and exercise methods. Can you think of some innovations that are a good fit for you and that will also make easier weight loss possible?

When you start opening up your thinking to new ideas and new ways, that's when successful weight loss becomes much more likely.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 in Difficult to Lose Weight/Easier Weight Loss, Failure | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Weight Management: What Does Your Mother Have to Do With It

by Maria's Last Diet

I've been thinking about one of the "Questions of the Week" at Maria's Last Diet - how your mother's attitudes toward food have influenced you.

In my case, I never saw my mother not on a diet. She'd go from Weight Watchers to liquid meals to the rice diet to diet pills. It was her way of life.

She and her girlfriends would sign up for Weight Watchers together. One Tuesday night, when I was 13, she asked me if I wanted to come.

That's when I knew she thought I was too fat. I remember, I was mortified. I didn't go with my mother and her friends to the Weight Watcher meeting that night, but I did start on my own dieting career.

I hated that my mother tried to lose weight all those years and never really succeeded. It's like she spent her life trying to do something she couldn't do.

I guess I've been following in her footsteps. But I know how right you are when you say it's never just the food. It's these other issues - like how my mother thought I was too fat at 13 - that are always working against you.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 in It's Not Just About Food | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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Diet Tip: Old Friends are not Always True Friends

Weight Loss Diet Plan: Put You First

Weight Control Problem Solving: Taking on Your Worst Habit

Diet Tip - Diet Trip

Facing Your Weight Loss Challenge Differently

Weight Loss tip: Make Lots of Mistakes

Weight Loss Information: Is a Diet Necessary?

Not a weight loss success story...yet

Not the Same Old, Same Old Weight Loss Method That Has Only Brought Weight Loss Failure

Weight Management: What Does Your Mother Have to Do With It

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