Maria's Last Diet

by Maria's Last Diet

You’ve blown it once again and you’re searching for the reason why. Why was yesterday any different than the day before? You go over the day in your mind and come up with some possibilities. One of these possibilities seems more likely than the others. So you focus your attention on it, gathering evidence for and against.  What’s wrong with this approach?

First of all, how do you know that what you are focusing on is really the cause for what happened yesterday? What if you thought more like a scientist and made this possible cause into a hypothesis. In fact, it’s best if you check out some other possible causes for yesterday’s fiasco and turn them into hypotheses too. Now you can gather evidence for and against a number of hypotheses (possible causes), which makes your search for “the real cause” more inclusive.

by Maria's Last Diet

At Maria’s Last Diet we are not against diets, nor are we opposed to diet aids—as long as a woman does the interior work she needs to do so she can understand the psychological side of her weight problem. However, whatever aids you decide to use, please make sure they are safe.

Yet another weight-loss drug has been denied approval by the FDA because of lack of solid evidence that it doesn’t cause an increase in heart problems.

The drug is called “Contrave”, and doesn’t seem to have great results in terms of successful weight loss in clinical trials anyway.

However, the FDA voted that clinical trials to rule out side effects like cardiovascular problems could be done after the drug is approved.

In other words, the drug will actually get its approval, and then the manufacturer must do clinical studies to see if it’s safe.

WHAT????

by Maria's Last Diet

1. Pick a diet you think you can really live with
2. Set weight-loss goals that indicate what you really want in order to lose weight now
3. Tell people close to you about what you hope to accomplish
4. Set a definite date to start a diet
5. Make a list of the non-food weight issues you will probably come up against
6. Make a detailed plan about how you will deal with these weight issues
7. Tell yourself there is no exact deadline for reaching your weight-loss goal
8. Have a trusted person lined up to help you when you need help with losing weight
9. Get back to your plans as soon as possible after a diet cheat
10. Acknowledge each small step you take toward your weight-loss goal

A diet helps, but it is only one of the weight-loss techniques you should use.  There are other weight-loss strategies that are just as important—even more important, really. The research shows that it is sticking to a diet that counts the most. And that is why you need to add these 10 tips to even the best weight-loss plans.

by Maria's Last Diet

There are platitudes and sayings that are used so much, they become clichés. Why? It’s because they are true, and hold up year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

Here are some worth remembering, especially with regard to losing weight.

    Every journey begins with just one step.

    If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

    To err is human.

    Know thyself.

    If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

    Anything worth achieving takes work.

    It’s mind over matter.

    If you do what you’ve always done, you can expect the results you’ve always gotten

    Love yourself.

    Learn from your mistakes.

    No one is perfect.

    Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared—it means forging ahead even though you’re scared.

    Keep your eyes on the prize.

    Wishing doesn’t make it so.

    There are always bumps in the road to success.

    Think you can, think you can’t—either way, you’ll be right!

by Maria's Last Diet

Sunday is a day for relaxing, or watching sports, or playing sports, or watching movies. Sunday is a day to contemplate what life means. Sunday is a day for family get-togethers, or for taking a long afternoon nap, or a drive, or making a nice brunch and inviting friends over. Sunday is the day before Monday, and for a woman who wants to lose weight, Sunday is the day before Starting-Another-Diet day.

Another diet…is that what you really want to do? Will it work? If you don’t really think it will, what do you think would actually work? Could you not diet? Could you diet in a different way?

Could you do something from inside yourself, rather than simply strapping on a diet again—onto the same you that has failed in the past?

Sunday is a good time to think, to contemplate, to reflect, to consider how to make significant changes in your life, to acknowledge what it might take. Sunday can leave you alone long enough, give you time to do that.

Have a good, good Sunday.

by Maria's Last Diet

Here’s a good weight-loss tip: Focus, instead of Hocus-Pocus.

Put your attention to the task, develop a plan, map it out, and make it a priority in your life. This is a much better way to lose weight than relying on a magic bullet, mainly because there simply is no magic bullet.

If you could say: Hocus-Pocus, Weight Drop Off!—and it would work—well, that would be great. But try it, and you’ll soon see it doesn’t work. There is no magic pill, no magic book, no magic food combination, no magic exercise plan, no magic vitamin or mineral, no magic diet cookie, no magic massage, no magic cream—no magic to make it happen. Some of these things can help, sure they can. But mainly it is in your hands.

So, if you want magic, say this: Hocus-Pocus, Now I’ll Focus!

by Maria's Last Diet

Are you going on a diet? Do you think it has a chance of working this time?

There’s a way to give it more than a chance. The way to do it is not to put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t rely on just one thing to pull you through to weight loss. Don’t just go on a diet, because for a woman, it’s never just about the food.

Make it a multi-pronged effort. Choose a food plan, sure. Try to make sure it’s one that you can live with.

And then:

1. Figure out how to prioritize, so that your weight-loss quest is close to #1 on your daily to-do list. The more importance you give it, the more likely you will be to stick to it.
2. Get as prepared as you can—not just by having all your diet foods close at hand, but by also having ways to deal with things like urges and cravings.
3. Anticipate high-risk eating situations that may be coming up. List each one, and lay out your own individualized plan for dealing with them.
4. Take particular note of your feelings during this time. Feelings can be big weight-loss spoilers if they are not given the attention and understanding they require.
5. Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses. You have particular strong points as a person—perhaps you are persistent, honest, hard-working—so make sure to call upon these great qualities you possess to help you be a success at losing weight.
6. Do whatever you can do to not give up just because you fall off your eating plan. This is perhaps the most important dieting tool of all. Use any cheat as a learning experience. The one big thing to learn is that you can be imperfect and still reach your goal. In fact, that’s the best way.
7. Enlist the support of at least one person in your life, someone you can turn to for help when the going gets rough. What endeavor doesn’t need this? None!

It takes all of this to lose weight, and lose it for good. We’ve said many of these things before, but they always bear repeating. And what needs to be repeated a lot in your mind is: It’s never just about the food.

by Maria's Last Diet

Thinness is a culturally defined goal. A woman’s appearance—and particularly being thin—is considered a valuable commodity in our society.

Try to separate yourself from this emphasis on weight and shape. It isn’t what really matters. It’s your well-being, your good sense of yourself, your relationships with other people, your ambitions, and your ability to pursue your life goals—these are the things that matter.

It’s a revolutionary idea—work on fixing the things in your life that really and truly matter, and you just may find that the extra weight you were carrying around is much easier to lose.

In this scenario, life comes first, weight comes second.

by Maria's Last Diet

Weight-maintaining triggers are what stimulate you to begin your weight-maintaining pattern of eating. You might know what your triggers are, and then again you might not. Triggers can be almost anything, from something external like time of day or a particular situation to something internal like an uncomfortable feeling, a wish to “celebrate”, or your particular definition of hunger.

by Maria's Last Diet


Don’t fall for everything you read, and certainly not for everything you see on TV. “As seen on TV” is often used as a calling card for something. But a recent look at some TV ads shows that this can sometimes be a reason NOT to use a product.

A study published by The Journal of the American Dietetic Association last month is very important for anyone who is dieting, or for anyone in general. The study looked at TV ads for food, and actually recorded 28 days worth of food ads. The researchers then analyzed the nutritional makeup of these foods—800 different food items, to be exact.

Here’s what they found.  A person who eats a diet made up mainly of these advertised foods, will be provided with the following: Too much cholesterol, much too much salt, too much fat. And if this isn’t bad enough, this same person would be getting, on average, three times the amount of sugar she should be having in a given day.

That’s what 800 advertised on TV foods would give you in terms of nutrition.

EVERYONE BEWARE!