There is a great deal of information available on losing weight these days. Even so, many people seem to make the same three mistakes when they attempt to lose weight. The unfortunate thing is that these are not inconsequential mistakes, but real threats to the continuation of the diet plan! By not being aware of these common errors, a dieter is most likely going to repeat a common pattern of losing some weight temporarily and then gaining all of it back and even adding more! They would have been better off if they had simply never attempted to lose weight!
Mistake number one is adopting an all or nothing mindset regarding your diet plan. If a person starts with this attitude it usually means that they have failed at losing weight before and are this time determined to achieve their weight goal by the force of their will no matter what gets in their way. This attitude is understandable since these people are so frustrated with their failure to lose weight with previous attempts. Unfortunately in their zeal they usually pick a particularly complicated plan that can be very difficult to maintain. To assure their success some will even throw out any food that is not on the plan! Even so, the most likely outcome is yet another failure.
In the beginning the plan may seem successful but sooner or later something is going to happen that will interrupt the plan. This might be caused by their work forcing them to be away from home where it is more difficult to prepare the planned diet meal. Sometimes their body just can not take any more and mental cravings take over, sending them to the grocery store to find some of the foods they are used to eating. Either way, they are off the Diet Plan and will feel like complete failures. Feeling like a failure, ironically, can often destroy the last of their will power and they end up gaining back all of the weight they lost and even more.
If this error sounds familiar then you need to ask a couple hard questions. First, do you truly want to lose weight permanently, or are you really looking for a magic diet that will let you go on eating the foods you love after the diet is over? The down and up cycle of weight loss and regaining is usually worse for your health than being overweight, so you need to address this problem. The only way you will achieve lasting success is to understand that you need to make gradual changes and changes that become permanent parts of your lifestyle, not temporary fixes.
The second error is to view your diet plan as a period of sacrifice where you are temporarily changing eating habits only until you reach your weight goal. The dieter who makes this error typically believes that they must give up all the enjoyable foods in order to reach their weight loss goal. Many times these dieters can reach their weight goal and it may seem that they have finally licked their problems with being overweight. But soon they resume their “normal” eating patterns and over the next few months or years will regain all the weight they have lost.
Unfortunately, the sacrifice dieter does think about the fact that their “normal” eating and exercise habits are what cause them to consume too much for their level of exercise and the size of their body. Instead of a period of sacrifice they really need to permanently alter the amount of exercise they get and what and how much they eat. People do not gain 20 or 30 pounds in a week or a month. Becoming overweight comes from having a lifestyle that causes the person to not get enough exercise or eat too much or the wrong foods and these things can produces weight gains of a few ounces each week. This may not sound like much but, Over time, it ends up being a weight gain of several pounds. The dieter needs to realize that they need to lose the weight using the same process, only in reverse. The only way is to create permanent changes to ones lifestyle that will allow us to lose a little weight each week, without feeling we are sacrificing all the foods we love!
A third dieting error is to start with goals that are unrealistic. Important to the success of any diet plan is the setting of several realistically achievable goals. Unfortunately, many dieters have just a single goal when they start: their final target weight. This does not provide much motivation if the ideal weight is far from their present weight. In this case, when they lose a couple pounds they may feel that their loss is not significant compared to the overall target, and they may start to feel that their plan is a failure, even though they may be making good progress.
To insure success a better plan is to make weekly goals a part of the plan. An example of this would be planning to lose two pounds during each of the first five weeks and then one pound each week thereafter. Using weekly goals allows the dieter to have an opportunity to succeed each week. It also minimizes the effects of a failure. If a weekly goal is missed then the dieter just continue on with the plan and starts to work on the goal for the next week. A weight loss plan with these types of objectives is much more realistic and motivating and the dieter can increase this effect by writing the goals down. A computer can also be used to create a graph of the weekly results that will show that, even though there are always ups and downs, the overall plan is progressing.
If you have been making these mistakes, don’t worry. The most important point in dieting as in so many other things could be to move on. Learn from your failures as well as your success and do not use a mistake as an excuse for giving up. The only method to achieve your goal permanently will be to make a commitment to become a healthier person. Remember that eating normally includes eating more a few days and much less others. Learn to appreciate food in moderation and you’ve each chance of avoiding these bad diet plan mistakes.
After specializing in websites on weight control, fitness and internet marketing for over a year, Otis Simant has departed from his normal topics and created www.rockportshoesmen.org, a site that reviews and lists the best Rockport Shoes for Men.
