Why Most Diets Won't Work
The second reason most diets fail is because the diet is too strict. You cut out all your favorite foods. And then what happens? You start thinking about what you can't have and building it up in your mind because the forbidden fruit is always so much tastier when you're not supposed to eat it. No food should be off limits.
Did you know that all the food in the world tastes the same whether you have ten bites or just one or two?
The third reason most diets fail is because of goal setting. You set goals that are too vague. "I want to lose twenty pounds." Instead, narrow it down. List HOW you're going to lose those twenty pounds. It's better to say, "I want to lose twenty pounds by walking every day and cutting my portion sizes in half." Or you set goals that are impossible to reach to begin with. Focus on losing two pounds at a time. Celebrate each small success.
The fourth and final reason why most diets fail is because you make a mistake. And rather than remembering all the progress you've made on the diet, you define yourself by that mistake and quit. Don't let one mistake define your entire diet journey!
The Resolution Diet
The Resolution Diet: Keeping the Promise of Permanent Weight Loss
Amazon Price: (as of 02/09/2010)
List Price: $21.95
"Dr Heber is the first doctor to ever write a book that makes sense. It's not a diet, it's a way of life and looking at the things and stress we're under in the '90's (almost 2000). He's an extremely empathetic doctor, realizes that people are people and his book shows it. If you need or would like to lose weight, this is your book. I have had weight loss surgery and read his book to keep up with my 130 pound weight loss (yes, you still have to watch what you eat after weight loss surgery)! He's a genius (and nice to boot) ... this book is easy to read, easy to understand, has working sheets after several of the chapters and is not a million pages of reading. It's a smaller book which doesn't make it boring to read. Five (yes, five) people in my office have already bought and read the book and are following his diet (hate that word) and are doing very successful on it. Money well spent."
Release Date: 12/31/1969
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Count Your Way to Healthy Eating Habits
How did foods get labeled as good or bad? We assume because it's a fruit or a vegetable it must be good for us so we can eat all of those we want, right? Wrong. You can get more sugar in two cups of canned peaches in extra light syrup as you can in one Hershey's milk chocolate with almonds bar. And almost as many calories.Food is neither good nor bad. It's what you do with the food that makes it good or bad for you.
All foods have a glycemic value listed on the glycemic index. What the glycemic index does is let you know how quickly and how high a certain food raises your glucose. Vermicelli noodles scored only a thirty-five on the glycemic index. Fresh carrots? Forty-nine. Watermelon was almost at the top of the fruit chart with an index of seventy-two. There's a common myth that if it's 'natural sugar' it must be good for you and it's simply not true.
Why is using the glycemic index a valuable tool to healthy eating and weight loss? Because certain foods can spike your blood glucose and then when it drops, you feel irritable, shaky and reach for a snack.
The lower carbohydrates a food contains, the lower the score will be on the index. Eating a diet low in carbohydrates can help lower your cholesterol and make you feel fuller longer so you're not looking for something else to eat as often.
And remember, just because a food label states the food is sugar free or low fat does not mean it's carbohydrate free.
Learn How to Keep Your Diet Promises
This Year I Will...: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 02/09/2010)
List Price: $16.95
"If you're like me, I make solid resolutions but then I sometimes have a hard time following through. This book will help you think of resolutions in a new way and consider some things you may not have thought of before. Your success in achieving your resolutions is worth the price of this book."
Release Date: 12/26/2006
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Make Exercise a Part of Your Daily Routine This Year
Exercise. That word can conjure up a myriad of emotions and most of them aren't good. Remember how much fun it was when you were a kid and you ran and played all day then dropped, worn out, into bed and slept like a log? All that running around was exercise in its purest form. Now we have all sorts of complicated routines we go through and exercise has ceased to be fun and has become something we dread and go to great lengths to avoid.Exercise doesn't have to be something you dread. To set up an exercise plan and stick to it, you have to find or create a simple routine. Take walking for example. Walking is free and you can do it anywhere.
Studies have shown the more expensive and complicated an exercise routine is, the less likely it is you'll stick with it. Instead of joining a costly gym, check out the local recreation center. Some cities have recreation center gyms complete with indoor walking tracks. The cost for the entire year is less than you'd pay for one month at a fancy gym.
Don't let lack of funds or lack of childcare stop you. Join forces with a friend or neighbor who needs childcare as well, go to the local park and while the friend or neighbor watches the children, walk around the length of the park, then exchange places.
Find an accountability partner who will exercise with you. When you know someone's waiting for you to show up, it's harder to let someone else down.
