Maria's Last Diet

When Dieting, It's the Little Decisions that Count

by Maria's Last Diet

The big goal is to lose the weight, so you start dieting. What will get you to achieve that big goal is not just the decision to start dieting. It is a set of smaller decisions that will add up and translate into weight-loss success. Taken separately, they may seem inconsequential. But put them together, and they will result in high performance dieting.

Here is a list of decisions you can make that will greatly strengthen your dieting.

1. When I have too much to do, I’ll ask for help.
   This is a problem for many women when life gets crazy. If things get too much for you, delegate responsibility instead of turning to food.
    
2. I will spend more time with people who are supportive.
   A supportive network is a big factor in helping people who want to change.
    
3. I will clean out the pantry of my high risk foods.
   Not tempting yourself is such an easy thing, but it makes it so much more likely that you’ll stick to your plan.
    
4. I will keep my diet foods on hand.
   This is a must. Have the right things to eat all ready for you.
    
5. I will remind people close to me about what I’m trying to do.
   Making your intention to lose the weight public gives it more power, more substance, and makes it harder for you to go back on your word.
    
6. I will spend less time with people who contribute to my overeating.
   Don’t hang out with friends who are stuck in their weight problems and bad eating habits―it will hinder you.
    
7. I will not hang around the kitchen in between meal and snack times.
   So simple, yet important. Get away from the food and you’ll up your chances of not blowing it.
    
8. I will reward myself for sticking to my diet.
   Rewarding yourself for steps you take toward your goal is imperative. Positive reinforcement will keep you going.
    
9. I will not give up when my weight reaches a plateau point.
   Dieting plateaus are necessary and need to be accepted. Decide to ride them out.
    
10. When I know there is a special eating situation coming up, I’ll make a plan to deal with it.
    Being prepared is key in a situation that may be hard for you. Usually it doesn’t take much, just some minor planning beforehand.
     
11. I will not be in a rush to lose the weight.
    Relax, be patient. Expecting to lose all the weight by a certain time will throw you off course.
     
12. I’ll keep in mind that no one is perfect.
    You’ll need to accept cheating as a part of dieting. The trick is not to punish yourself, but to pick yourself up and go on.
     
13. I will pay close attention to how much better I feel not overeating.
    Take note of how you feel eating less and losing the weight. The positives will keep you motivated.
     
14. I will not eat secretly.
    Keeping your eating a secret perpetuates dieting failure. Eat out in the open. The more up front you can be about it, the better.
     
15. I will act in ways that make me feel good about myself.
    Your self-esteem definitely affects your dieting. Do things you can feel proud of.
     

Decisions such as these are critical when tackling the problem of staying on a diet and losing the weight. As you can see, some of these decisions have to do directly with eating and some do not. Taking a new attitude with regard to these kinds of issues is what it’s all about. There may be other decisions you wish to add, and some of those listed here may not relate to you, but you get the idea.

There is no magic solution to losing the weight. There is no quick solution to dieting success. Losing the weight and keeping it off requires small steps, little changes in your thinking and your behavior. That is what will make your dieting effort different from previous attempts where you might have failed.

So, here’s to your dieting and all the little decisions that will insure your ability to do it.

Do You Find You're Gaining Weight Back After You Lose the Weight?

by Maria's Last Diet

Weight gain after losing the weight seems to be the norm. But it's important to note the research studies that come up with this finding are primarily short-term studies conducted over weeks, months, at best, a year. This makes a difference.

Research on long-term, successful weight-loss maintainers paints a very different picture. Do you qualify as a successful, long-term maintainer? If so, it's clear that people who maintain a weight loss for two years are much more successful at staying at their ideal body weight for good.

If you've come as far as you have in successfully maintaining your weight loss, you've changed your behavior a lot. Overeating and engaging in those behaviors that kept you overweight probably used to be automatic for you. In order to maintain your weight-loss success for so long, you must have activated new automatic settings in yourself. The things that are automatic to you now are things that are keeping you right at your weight-loss goal. That's a very good place to be. When you reach this stage of weight control, you should have every confidence about staying there.

Keep the faith.

How to Set Goals for Weight Loss Success

by Maria's Last Diet

If you set your goal at learning how to do something rather than setting a goal of performing well, you are likely to be have more weight-loss success.

There's a way to translate this idea into an effective weight-loss plan. You could set your weight-loss goal as this: "I will diet and lose 20 lbs." Or—you could say this to yourself: "I will figure out what things throw me off my diet, and then learn how to deal with those things differently."

The second goal, the learning goal, is more likely to bring you the weight-loss success you are after.

Your Friend Gets Thin. Are You Jealous?

by Maria's Last Diet

Think of it this way. If you are not a model or a movie star or a pop diva, it’s probably not so important to you that you not look like one. That is not your social frame of reference. A model needs to be thin, that is a big part of her life. She compares herself to others in her profession and that is how she sizes herself up.

But not you. You probably look around you in your own world to see how you’re doing. We all tend to do this. We compare ourselves to others who resemble us in the way they live. So if your closest friend did get thin, a woman who is a lot like you, then your comparison to her has much more meaning for you.

In a study of women and body image reported in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin as long ago as 1983, the psychologist researcher Thomas Cash found that women were dissatisfied with their bodies when they compared themselves to the thin bodies of other women in general much more than whey they sized themselves up against models and actresses.

The study worked like this: subjects viewed pictures of very attractive thin women and then were asked to evaluate themselves. A high percentage had a negative view of themselves. Then these same women were shown pictures of thin women who were identified as professional models, and again asked to evaluate themselves. In this case, their self-evaluations were less negative.

Here’s something else for you to consider. In another study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, January 2007, researchers showed that if a woman is already dissatisfied with herself and how she looks, if she goes around with a negative body image of herself in mind, then she is more prone to be affected negatively by comparisons with women around her.

So, rather than just being a jealous person, if you already disliked your body, then your friend’s weight loss is probably affecting you more than it might have if you didn’t harbor a negative body image.

Your Bad Eating Habits and Staying Overweight: Why Do You Hold on to Them?

by Maria's Last Diet

You’re no doubt aware of a lot of the negatives about overeating and being overweight. You feel bad physically. You hate the way you look. You can’t wear the clothes you want to wear. You can’t move the way you want to move. You feel out of control and you don’t like it. You keep trying to diet and end up feeling like a failure. You feel stuck.

There’s no question that there are negatives when it comes to eating and weight problems. But what about the positives? There must be an upside or else you wouldn’t hold on to your bad eating habits. It stands to reason, right? There have to be some positive things your bad eating habits and/or the weight do for you.

These positives are what you might be afraid to lose if you change yourself in relation to food and your weight. When you acknowledge these benefits, you can then create other ways to get what you’re after.

Take this quiz to find out what the positives are for you.

1. Eating helps reduce my level of stress.
2. Eating makes me feel cared for.
3. Eating is how I reward myself.
4. Being overweight keeps me from taking scary risks in my life.
5. Being overweight keeps me safe from sexual situations.
6. Eating helps me feel less lonely.
7. Being overweight means I don’t have to compete with other women in the looks department.
8. Food gives me something I can always depend on.
9. When I eat, I don’t worry as much.
10. When I eat as much as I want, I feel powerful.
11. Being bigger makes me feel more important.
12. Being bigger makes me feel sturdy enough to stand up to whatever life throws at me.
13. Eating is a way for me to control my anger.
14. Eating keeps me from feeling too sad.
15. Food gives me something to look forward to.
    

Think about which of these statements are true for you. This is the upside.These are the things you get from overeating and being overweight.

Are your eating and your weight actually satisfying other needs in your life? If so, can you create new ways to satisfy these needs so you don’t have to rely on food to solve non-food issues? That would be a perfect way for you to lose the weight once and for all.