3 Bad Diet Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
Thursday, October 8th, 2009No matter how much information you read about weight loss – and you could read all day and every day if you wished to – many people tend to make the same mistakes time after time. Whilst some of the mistakes are small mistakes some are often very basic and fundamental to you ability to be successful in shedding the pounds. You need to understand these basics if you are to achieve the change of attitude necessary to lose weight that remains a permanent loss of weight.
1. The All Or Nothing Attitude
All or nothing dieters will often pick out a complicated diet that is almost impossible for them to maintain. Before beginning, they will search the kitchen for anything that does not fit the plan and throw it in the garbage. They are planning to be the perfect dieter, and so they will be, for one day, three days, seven days or even a couple of weeks. Then, inevitably, something happens that means they cannot keep to the diet one time. Immediately the whole thing is ruined in their eyes and the diet is over. They go to the store and buy all the things that went into the garbage last week and proceed to gain back all the weight that they lost, as fast as possible.
If you are this kind of dieter you need to ask yourself some tough questions. Do you really want to lose weight permanently, or just lose a few pounds so that you can enjoy putting them back on again? The way forward is to make small changes to what you eat so that you have a slow but steady weight loss.
2. A statement of sacrifice.
Sacrificing or cutting out too many of your favorite items of food and drink may enable you to achieve your short term weight loss target but odds are that it will be too much to sustain. If you can make some adjustments and consume less of the more damaging or higher calorie items then you will gradually educate your body to the new regime. Once you have achieved your required weight loss then you’ll find it much easier to maintain your new weight because you have not sacrificed some of your favorites. Even the odd beer won’t ruin your entire dieting process.
3. Failing to meet your set goals or objectives.
If the goals you set yourself are un-realistic then failure occurs only too quickly. You own goals should be written down and shared with your partner, family or friends where appropriate. If you and people understand what you are trying to achieve and how you are going to achieve your weight loss goals then you are more likely to have support around you. It is lot easier to set a goal of 1 or 2 pounds a week for say 10 weeks than simply stating that you are going to loose 20 pounds. Inevitably some weeks you will exceed your targets and occasionally (I hope) you may not quite achieve your targeted loss (you may even have a small increase). In addition to writing down your targets also document your progress
If any of the above sound familiar to you then don’t worry too much – just regard the whole process as part of the learning process. Move on from your mistakes and implement what you have learnt. If you understand the mistakes you have made then you stand a chance of correcting them and make your own weight loss program work for you. I may be making a too general statement here but being determined to be healthier by eating and drinking with more awareness should lead to a healthier life and a more sustainable target weight.
