Maria's Last Diet

by Maria's Last Diet

Losing weight is different from quitting smoking. In the case of smoking, there is no room to justify or rationalize. The negative consequences of smoking always far outweight the benefits. For anyone who smokes, quitting is absolutely the best thing to do.

But losing weight...that's a different matter. It's a personal matter, an individual matter, and it is not always so clear cut.

Certainly, if your weight is negatively affecting your health, that is clear cut. But how bad do you need to feel physically before losing weight becomes a must? Many of us carry around 10, 20, 30 extra pounds and we just live with it, maybe thinking it's not so bad, and the idea of dieting is worse. In some cases it's true.

With weight, it is really up to you. Maybe your doctor can tell you lose weight or else, but other than that it is your decision to make.

There's no doubt that losing weight requires energy, commitment, even courage. But you are the only one who knows if it's an important thing for you to do, and you are the only one who can do it. No one can do it for you.

by Maria's Last Diet

Don't think you have the ability to diet successfully? Well, most ability is not inborn - it's learned. You can learn the skills necessary to be a good dieter, so you can lose the weight you want to lose.

What are these mysterious skills?

They're not mysterious at all. They're perfectly sensible. Here are 3 essential skills you need to sharpen in order to be a weight loss success story.

1. You need to be able to identify and - most importantly - prepare strategies for high risk eating situations.
2. You need to learn how to pick yourself up after a cheat (cheats are inevitable), see what went wrong, and use this knowledge to help you.
3. You need to learn how to keep your motivation and commitment strong all the way to your weight loss goal.

These are skills, and you can acquire them.

Take each of these essential dieting areas and see what you can come up with. List at least 3 things you can do to up your ability to handle each one.

For example, in #1, you might anticipate each upcoming week. See if there will be any occasions where you'll be susceptible to eating off your diet. Then plan out an alternative action you can take, something other than eating. Have this plan firmly in your mind as you enter the high-risk occasion. Then go ahead and try it out. And keep practicing, even if it doesn't work out just the way you planned at first. Keep it up, and you're bound to get good at it. That's what practicing does.

These kinds of skills can be learned, and it's not even all that hard if you put your mind to it. This is the part the diet alone can't do for you.