Maria's Last Diet

by Maria's Last Diet

What not to do on a diet

• Don't set a time limit. It takes the time it takes, and that's all there is to it. If you feel you might lose 20 lbs in 4 weeks, or press yourself to lose no less than 5 lbs the first week, you may not meet your goal - a perfect recipe for disappointment and for giving up.

• Don't expect your life to be the same. Going on a diet with the intention of losing weight is a serious endeavor, and if you do it right, you can expect it to affect every aspect of your life.

• Don't put yourself in the position of having to do a lot of work for other people. If you are the main provider of food for your family, see if you can get them on board and eating meals that are on your diet plan. Otherwise, even the most dedicated dieter can be too tempted.

• Don't berate yourself for falling off your diet here and there. It actually helps to have these slips when dieting, as long as you get back on the diet. That's the way to do it. If you can make mistakes, and not give up but keep going anyway, your chances of success are increased manyfold.

by Maria's Last Diet

How can you make the weight-loss process more natural and less forced? ...by going on a diet of very small, easy-to-make progressive changes.

Nothing is harder than asking yourself to suddenly change your life. That's what many women do when they go on a diet. One day they're not on a diet, the next day they are. All at once they are required to do a whole repertoire of things they are completely unused to doing. They try to force themselves into it, because they truly want to lose weight. The intent is good; the method is not.

If you want very much to lose weight and keep it off, don't force it. Don't try to shock yourself into being totally different on Monday just because you go on a diet. In the long run, this is not likely to work.

Go easy on yourself. The easier you make it, the more likely you are to stick with it. Make a plan, and take it slow.

Remember: very small, easy-to-make, progressive changes. This is what will lead you right to your goal.

by Maria's Last Diet

...Really cost?

Well, if you're successful and you lose the weight you want to lose, and you keep it off, it costs you hard work, habit change, persistence, perseverance, time, some money, and new learning. Not bad at all.

But if you're not successful, (and especially if you go on a diet and you fail again and again), then a diet could cost you the following: great disappointment, damage to your self-esteem, despair, hopelessness.

It looks like you better find a way to succeed next time, because another failure may just cost you too much.