How To Stop Sabotaging Your Diet

The greatest problem with a weight-loss program, which you have chosen to follow meticulously at the outset, is that temptations try and sabotage it. The truth is, more often than not, you will not be able to resist them. The secret behind their success and your failure is that they infiltrate into your subconscious little by little, until you realize that you have actually dumped your diet for good. If you think giving in to a minor temptation now and then will do your diet no harm, you may be wrong. In the long run, these small deviations might become more frequent, without your knowledge.

A few tips may help you keep you on track:

#1. MONITOR YOUR PROGRESS

For this, you have to maintain a record of what you eat and what activities you do, on a day-to-day basis. Note down any deviations on a particular occasion, in red or in bold letters. That way, you know how frequent your slip ups are.

An occasional minor lapse need not leave you with a guilty feeling. Remember not to choose a diet that does not allow any concessions at all in the schedule.

#2. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE ABOUT YOUR DIET

Do not treat your diet as a temporary program, unless you think you can reach your target weight in a short time and you are confident of staying at that level. Why most people keep jumping from one diet to another is that they find that their weight loss is not permanent. They also start gaining back their lost weight in no time because they kick all restrictions with a vengeance the moment they feel they no longer need to deprive themselves of all those foods that they like the most.

You must view your diet as something integral to your life, on a long term basis. Tell yourself that your diet is a way of healthy living. Feel good about losing weight by not consuming unwanted calories. If you feel unhappy that you are missing out on all the tasty dishes because of your diet, you are likely to give it up sooner than otherwise.

#3. SET REACHABLE GOALS

If your goals for weight loss are too ambitious, unreachable, frustration is likely to overwhelm you. First achieve a small goal, and then set another, slightly more difficult but reachable fresh goal. Your little successes keep reinforcing your will for better successes in subsequent attempts. In concrete terms, do not aim at losing 50 pounds in five weeks, although you have to lose 50 pounds to reach your ideal weight. Work for losing a pound a week. It may take long, but you are going to be on your way to good health.

#4. DIVERT YOUR ATTENTION FROM FOOD TO PEOPLE AND ACTIVITIES

Spend time with the people important in your life. Taking more interest in their well being, their activities and trying to make them happier will keep you satisfied with yourself. Take up some hobby that interests you. Get so immersed in it that you find little time to think about eating junk food.

#5. AVOID SWEETENED FOODS & ALCOHOL

Several soft drinks, lemonade, cookies, jams, jellies, breads and other baked goods contain high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens them. Avoid them, if you want to your diet work. Also avoid alcohol for the same reason. They sabotage your diet, like no other thing.

However, again, an occasional drink will do you no harm.

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