Successful Diet Plan - How to Make Your New Diet Work

  What did I like about my prior diets?
  What did I dislike about my prior diets?
  What happened to make me go off my prior diets?
  How often did I diet? A few times a year? Every month? Every day - only to go off the diet a few hours after it started?
  If you diet often, why can't you stay on a diet until the weight is lost? Were the diets too bland? Too restrictive? Too much activity required? Too much meal planning required? Were they fad diets? Were they healthy diets? Did you lose motivation to lose weight?

On a scale of 1 to 3, rate your diet willpower when confronted with desserts.
On a scale of 1 to 3, rate your diet willpower when confronted with gravy.
On a scale of 1 to 3, rate your diet willpower when confronted with butter.
On a scale of 1 to 3, rate your diet willpower when confronted with meat fats, including the skin.
On a scale of 1 to 3, rate your diet willpower when confronted with sauces & dressings.
On a scale of 1 to 3, rate your diet willpower when confronted with sugar.

  To lose down to my recommended weight, while continuing a healthier lifestyle.
  To lose down to my recommended weight, then resume my former diet.
  To lose just a few pounds so that I feel healthier and my clothing fits more comfortably.
  To lose down to my recommended weight, then resume my former diet in limitation.

Taking the knowledge that you gained from the answers in the three sections above, apply to your new diet. If you determined that desserts, butter and sugar are your hot points, then treat them with respect whenever you encounter them. Don't look them in the eye until you are positive that you control them, rather than THEM controlling YOU.

2. Conquering Your Diet History - You can't go forward until you look your Diet Past in the face and conquer. What makes you tick? Why did you gain weight? Stress? Financial reasons? Peer pressure? Health issues?

There is an ancient saying, " We learn from our mistakes" but you know, some of us require repeated misery until " we finally get it" . Such was my case before I successfully lost weight. I kept repeating my prior mistakes over and over and over again which ended up becoming an even bigger disaster in the end literally because I'd wind up weighing more after I quit my diet than I did before I started my diet. I played catch-up, enjoying all the foods (and then some) which I had banished from my diet.

One of the common mistakes made by many dieters is that they have a " Diet on the Lamb" . In other words, they are on a personal-concocted diet in which they restrict foods rather than being on a diet PLAN. They may not know how many calories their body requires to achieve weight loss, but they know that cupcakes and donuts are bad - so let's not eat those. In the meantime, please pass the stuffing.

When one has a plan - whether it involves building something or a diet, then success is more likely to occur. Without a plan we don't know where to start, we don't know where to go to next, we don't know what materials to use and so forth. And in the end, many dieter's self-built houses wind up looking like something that hurled out of Oz.

But even with buildings and diet plans - the unexpected can occur. Such is life. What if Contractor Jim builds a house and right in the middle of completion, a giant tumbleweed rolls over the house and pulverizes it? Smart Jim has a back-up plan. After consulting with his insurance company, he immediately begins the rebuilding process. He may lose a bit of ground, but he's up and running as soon as possible.

Such is a good diet plan. A good diet plan is never without a back-up plan. Take Dieter Daisy. She is doing great on her diet plan and has lost 20 of the 40 pounds that she needs to lose. Then one day, out of the clear blue yonder she comes face to face with a giant banana nut muffin. What to do? And she doesn't want to eat just a nibble or two. Oh no - Daisy wants the whole thing. So, she pulls out her back-up plan and thumbs quickly through her Table of Diet Contents until she comes across the topic: " What I should do if faced with a giant banana nut muffin." From there, she is able to use her back-up plan and move forward to Weight Loss Success.

Identify your weaknesses, then build a back-up plan to deal with them whether you are dealing with a giant banana nut muffin or the dislike of exercise.

3. Setting Realistic Weight Loss Goals - To achieve maximum weight loss results, approach weight loss sensibly. Rather than placing your focus on avoiding certain foods, avoid the following instead:

A daily diet too restrictive in calories;
A diet plan that evokes so much exercise that it's both taxing & brutal on the body - particularly a body in need of dropping a lot of weight;
Fad diets;
Diets that restrict food groups OR one-food type diets;
A diet that is not approved by your doctor or nutritionist.

Tips that will reveal lower numbers on your weight loss scales quicker include:

A diet plan that is realistic & embraces all the food groups that reside within the Official Food Pyramid;
A diet plan that allows sufficient calories so that you don't become a weak, out of energy, worn out, bad-breathed hag while dieting;
A diet plan that allows your favorite foods in moderation - even those Taboo Foods from time-to-time. Taboo Food examples are: ice cream, cupcakes, pies, cookies, gravy and so forth;
An activity plan that is flexible & one that goes hand in hand with your daily schedule.

The bottom line is that when we become too restrictive, our weight loss plan can be recognized by the brain as " Punishment Plan" rather than " Weight Loss Plan" . Remember, your brain is smarter than you are it's capabilities are endless and it has ways of picking up on those repressed vibes and bringing them to your recollection. And when the tummy gets in cahoots with the brain, it can be a bad thing when food is involved. OR, it can be a great thing when the dieter shows them both who is really in control. Mind over matter - and weight loss really does matter.

Tips on 'How to Weigh Correctly' as well as the Diet Bites recommended weight charts for men & women are located here and can be used to assist you in establishing your weight loss goals.

4. Plan for Weight Loss Success - Before skipping out into the Wild Diet Blue Yonder, you'll need a bona fide diet plan or you may find yourself skipping off of Diet Mountain without a parachute in sight. What is a bona fide diet plan?

A bona fide diet plan is one that sets forth reasonable calories based on your target weight.
A bona fide diet plan is one that incorporates all the food blocks that reside in the Official Food Pyramid.
A bona fide diet plan can be adjusted to fit your personal schedule.
A bona fide diet plan is a healthy weight loss plan.
A bona fide diet plan may be a plan issued by a doctor, nutritionist, dietitian or other qualified health professional.

Once you have a healthy diet plan in place, before you step out make sure - make double-dog sure that you intend to go all the way - to lose all the extra weight - that you won't give up until you've reached your target number.

When a dieter quits the weight loss process, it sets the stage for the following:

Weight gain. For argument's sake let's say that Sally Mae went on a diet plan to lose 25 pounds. She loses 10 pounds, then quits her diet. By and by she discovers on the Mall scales one day that she has gained weight. Now she is in need of losing 35 pounds. So, she goes on a diet again and this time, she drops 5 pounds then quits dieting. A month later she discovers that she now has 47 pounds to lose. If not for her disastrous rendezvous with dieting, Sally Mae might have only 25 pounds to lose.

Future weight loss ambitions are suddenly darkened with a looming Diet Cloud called 'Former Diet Failure hanging over the post-dieter's head'. Call it your ex-diet, or whatever you wish, but Diet Failure can haunt one forever if they allow such.

Yo-yo dieting. The diet is on - the diet is off. New diets become as frequent as ending diets.

5. Symptoms of Weight Loss

6. Keeping the Focus on You - It might sound selfish to put yourself first and foremost but unless you are Number 1, you can't be the best that you can be for the loved ones in your life. When dieting, putting yourself first becomes even more vital in your quest to achieve weight loss success.

Here are some suggestions of how one might achieve Number 1 self-ranking: