Maria's Last Diet:

We all know that most New Year's resolutions don’t hold up over time. One research study found that only about twenty percent of resolvers were sticking to their resolutions two years later.

Among the most popular New Year's resolutions, of course, is the decision to lose weight. For most people, that means going on a diet.

But what if going on a diet for the New Year is not a real honest-to-goodness resolution? What if it is merely wishful thinking in disguise? What if going on a diet is jumping the gun and snapping into action before you are anywhere near ready?

This is probably why eighty percent of people don’t lose the weight they want to lose. They jump the gun. Their wish is not within their command.

So, how can you be one of the successful twenty percent?

The best way to convert a wish into a successful resolution is to take actions that facilitate the wish—in other words, taking actions that make it happen.

The most important actions to take are not so obviously connected with weight, food, or eating. They work more behind the scenes to help you convert weight loss wishes into weight loss reality.

Here are some actions you might take:

•    Speak up and don’t swallow your feelings
•    Work on improving your relationships
•    Find ways to lift your self-esteem
•    Try regulating your moods without using food
•    Strengthen your belief in your ability by setting reachable goals
•    Practice the idea of “learning how” when you come up against
     challenges

How does this sound: My resolution is to find in myself just what it takes to make my weight-loss wish come true.

      excerpt from   Psych Your Diet: A Daily Dose. Vol. 1. Psych Yourself to Start.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Monday, December 31, 2012 in Holidays, Thinking/Wishful Thinking | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Weight-Loss Challenges: Are You Up for Them? Check This Out.

by Maria's Last Diet

Losing weight is a bunch of challenges, like getting yourself to do what it takes to start, stick to it, and then keep the weight off once you lose it.

Are you up for the challenges that the weight-loss process presents?

How confident* are you  
not at all somewhat moderately pretty very

that you can… 
1. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when you’re anxious
2. control your eating on the weekends
3. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when you feel physically run down
4. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when you’re watching TV
5. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when you’re feeling down
6. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when you’re irritable (angry)
7. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when you’re at a party
8. resist overeating or eating the wrong foods when other people are pressuring you to eat

Being confident—realistically confident—will help you meet these weight-loss challenges head on.

*Fashioned after The Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Sunday, December 30, 2012 in Confidence/Self-Esteem | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Breaking the Diet: What Get’s You to Do It and What You Can Do About It.

by Maria's Last Diet

What gets you to break the diet?

Is it hunger?

Did you choose a diet that is too restrictive for you? Is that what’s making you cheat on your diet, eat off your diet, or even fall off your diet?

Is the hunger real, or is it false hunger?

You know false hunger. It’s when you think you’re hungry, but you’re really not. It’s not a matter of physiological hunger, although you might call it that and think of it like that. You could be lonely or tired or bored or moody or any one of a thousand different things. False hunger is a bad habit. It runs itself like a habit. Before you know it, it's upon you, and you just can’t resist its plaintive cry.

There are lots of things that get women to break their diets? Good moods. Bad moods. Happiness. Anger. You name it and some woman will tell you that’s what broke her diet.

How do you guard against breaking your diet when it so easily happens to the best of dieters?

You can, of course, learn from your mistakes. Too restrictive a diet can be changed to be a diet that is more satisfying and satiating. False hunger can be seen for what it really is, and moods and outlooks can be changed too.

Then there is always fall off, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. No harm in that, especially if you do it as soon as you can—before the dust settles.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Saturday, December 29, 2012 in Cheat on Diet, Eating/Weight/Diet Problems | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Women and Their Weight: A Secret Waiting to be Told

by Maria's Last Diet

Tracey had nowhere to go, nothing to do. Christmas was over. Shopping was done. The kids were off from school until next week, and they went skiing with their father. Tracey was home alone.

Christmas went well, all except the eating. Tracey, of course, blew her diet right out of the water. She had planned to eat off her diet, but she didn’t plan to eat as much or as often as she did. Once she got started, she didn’t stop. There’s no sense telling you the particulars, all that she ate and such. Tracey would be too embarrassed.

So here she was alone but not down in the dumps. Sitting there on her bed only half dressed she thought to herself, I’ve been fat off and on for so long I don’t know what it’s like to be thin. Second thought, or maybe it was her third thought: What if my fat could talk for me? What would it say? A very strange thought. Nevertheless, Tracey followed up this idea by writing down what she thought her fat would say if it could talk.

Here’s what she wrote.

    I hate my life.
    I hate myself.
    I hate my mother.

    I’m nothing.
    I’m nobody.

    My family deserves someone better than me.
    I hope my husband meets someone on the ski trip.

The hatred and self-loathing startled and frightened Tracy. But there it was. Was it true? She’d have to look into this. Now she was down in the dumps.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Friday, December 28, 2012 in Emotions and Eating | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Here are Two Big Weight-Loss Challenges That Can Make You Unable to Lose Weight?

by Maria's Last Diet

Certainly two big obstacles to successful weight loss are being tempted and falling off your weight-loss regimen. A food temptation is an urge to break your weight-loss regimen. It is where you come close to breaking your regimen. A falling off is where you actually break your weight-loss regimen.

Do you know what causes you to be tempted or to fall off? You can prevent being tempted and falling off. The first step is to know what causes you to do these things.

Here’s what you can check out.

    At the time when you are tempted or you fall off:

    How hungry were you?
    When did you last eat?
    Did you eat enough then?
    How full did you feel afterwards?
    How satisfied did you feel afterwards?

    Where were you (home, work, on holiday, somewhere else)?
    Were there other people there?

    What were you doing?
    Were you cooking?
    Were you shopping for food?
    Did you have trouble with another person?
    Were you eating with another person?
    Were you eating out, eating a meal at home, snacking, watching TV,
    socializing, studying, reading, working, partying, or something else?

    What mood were you in (angry, frustrated nervous, lonely, content,
    deprived, in control, restless, bored, happy, sad, tired, relaxed, stressed,
    carefree, depressed, or other)?

    Just before being tempted or falling off:

    Where were you?

      What were you doing?

      What mood were you in?

Did you see a pattern? Did you see what caused you to feel so tempted or to fall off?

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Thursday, December 27, 2012 in Cheat on Diet, Problems and Obstacles, Temptation | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

To Weight-Loss Anxiety...on the Day After Christmas

by Maria's Last Diet

It’s the day after Christmas
and all through the house,
no one was eating,
they were all eaten out.

A little bird told them
they had not a care,
if only they could diet,
the weight wouldn’t be there.

But this Christmas was different,
it came in a flash,
that dieting alone
was just a rehash.

Of everything tried
in years gone past,
with nothing to show for it,
no weight loss that lasts.

So the day after Christmas
guess what did happen,
they broadened the formula
with psychology as a wrap in.

It’s one Christmas later,
and much to their surprise,
their new psychology did it,
it opened their eyes.

Many pounds lighter,
what a difference it made
to include psychology
and not feel betrayed.

By dieting and exercise
year after year
with nothing to look forward to
and everything to fear.

Take heart all ye women
who long to lose weight,
there’s nothing like psychology
to make you feel great.

And you’ll be happy to exclaim
from one Christmas to the next,
weight loss is mine
and that’s no pretext.

So snug in your new bod
you can forever be,
without disaster and misfortune
safe n’ sound through eternity.

Happy day after Christmas to all
and to all a good life.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 in Holidays | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Christmas Giving—The Gift of Successful Weight Loss

by Maria's Last Diet

“a right jolly old elf,” “chubby and plump,” “a broad face and a little round belly,”

Not so “ho, ho, ho” when it’s you.

Facing another Christmas and you still haven’t lost your unwanted weight. That would be a great gift. Losing a lot of weight. And a follow-up gift—keeping the weight off for good. Couldn’t ask for a better Christmas if that’s the way it went.

Why not? Go ahead. You deserve it. You’ve tried your heart out over the years. Who better than you?

There’s new technology out there, so take advantage of it. By now you should know that dieting and exercise alone don’t work. You’ve also got to use psychology to lose weight. Along with dieting and exercise, give yourself the gift of weight-loss psychology.

This Christmas expand the old formula: dieting + exercise = weight loss. Make it: dieting + exercise + psychology = weight loss.

To put psychology in your Christmas stocking, please go to The Reading Room and the White Paper, both of which are in the left-hand column of this blog at MariasLastDiet.com. Or, if you want to have an actual book or an e-book to read through and refer to, check out the weight-loss books for women section on the right-hand side of this blog.

If you need more specific help, email us at and we’ll point you in the right direction.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Tuesday, December 25, 2012 in Holidays | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Pattern of Eating and Gaining Too Much Weight. What Leads to What?

by Maria's Last Diet

When it comes to the kind of eating that results in you gaining unwanted weight, what leads to what in the moment?

Is it the setting? Home, comfortably sitting at the kitchen table? Out at a restaurant with friends?

Is it the hour? It’s late in the day. Time for a large snack.

Is it you? I don’t want to feel bad. I’ll make sure I don’t. I’ll just take a little _______. That ought to hold me.

When it comes to the kind of eating that results in you gaining unwanted weight, what leads to what throughout your life?

What are the trends?

Hurt feelings. Feel bad. Get some food.

Hurt feelings. Don’t even feel them. Get some food.

Anticipate hurt feelings. Get some food. Prevent feelings from getting hurt.

How well do you know yourself when it comes to what leads to what throughout your life?

For example, what are the trends for mood, self-esteem, anxiety, disappointment, sadness, anger, competitiveness, triumph, boredom, criticism, loss, rejection, procrastination, elation, passivity, dutifulness, guilt, shame, and apathy?

What leads to what?

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Monday, December 24, 2012 in Monitoring/Feedback, Self Awareness | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Why is Losing Excess Weight So Hard?

by Maria's Last Diet

Lots of different mind states can lead to eating too much food and eating too many fattening foods. You don’t have to be anxious or depressed or lonely or bored. You could be angry, feel hurt, be fatigued, or even feel overjoyed. You could have almost any mood or feeling or mind state. Weight gain doesn’t discriminate.

Does this mean you have no protection against weight gain? It will just happen and you won’t have any say in the matter?

This will be the case if you’ve used food over and over again to make you feel better. You’ve learned that it does just what you want it to do. It makes you feel better. Of course, you might have some regrets afterwards, but that, as they say, goes with the territory.

Eating too many calorie-rich foods and eating too much food becomes an integral part of your behavioral repertoire, and you depend on it time after time. The use of food to feel better becomes second nature, like a smoker reaching for a cigarette or a drinker downing her umpteenth drink. Patterns like this are hard to break. They hold up well against efforts to change them.

The road to recovery from a fattening pattern of eating, therefore, is usually hard and long. It is filled with the probability of lapses and relapses, and even after reaching your weight-loss goal, there is the likelihood of recurrence, weight regain that negates all your hard-earned effort.

Sounds pretty dismal; pretty hopeless. That’s true for the majority of women who try to lose weight by dieting and exercise. If eating too much food and too many fattening foods so that you are overweight is part of your psychology, then you have to use psychology to lose weight. You can’t rely on dieting and exercise alone.

If you need help using psychology to lose weight, please go to The Reading Room and the White Paper, both of which are in the left-hand column of this blog at MariasLastDiet.com. Or, if you want to have an actual book or an e-book to read through and refer to, check out the weight-loss books for women section on the right-hand side of this blog.

If you need more specific help, email us at and we’ll point you in the right direction.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Sunday, December 23, 2012 in Emotions and Eating, Psychology | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

To Lose A Lot of Weight, You Set Your Goal. But Will You Reach Your Goal?

by Maria's Last Diet

When it comes to losing your unwanted weight, do you have the toughness, the stick-to-it-tiveness, and the passion that it takes?

Take the GRIT scale* and see.

For each item below, decide which best describes you.

Not at all like me A little like me Fairly like me Like me Very much like me

1. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.

2. I have achieved a goal that took years of work.

3. New ideas and new projects sometimes distract me from previous ones.

4. I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge.

5. I become interested in new pursuits every few months.

6. I finish whatever I begin.

7. My interests change from year to year.

8. Setbacks don’t discourage me.

9. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.

10. I am a hard worker.

11. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete

12. I am diligent.

What did you find?

Duckworth, A. & colleagues.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Saturday, December 22, 2012 in Sticking with it | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

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What is Your New Year’s Resolution About Losing Unwanted Weight, and Will You Keep It?

Weight-Loss Challenges: Are You Up for Them? Check This Out.

Breaking the Diet: What Get’s You to Do It and What You Can Do About It.

Women and Their Weight: A Secret Waiting to be Told

Here are Two Big Weight-Loss Challenges That Can Make You Unable to Lose Weight?

To Weight-Loss Anxiety...on the Day After Christmas

Christmas Giving—The Gift of Successful Weight Loss

Pattern of Eating and Gaining Too Much Weight. What Leads to What?

Why is Losing Excess Weight So Hard?

To Lose A Lot of Weight, You Set Your Goal. But Will You Reach Your Goal?

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