Avoid sweets. Overly sweet foods have the tendency to make you want for more. When you are thinking about popping that piece of candy into your mouth, get your toothbrush and brush your teeth instead. It’s ok to give yourself a treat once in a while but don’t eat the whole thing. Cut it in half and throw away the other half. When you feel like eating, wait for 10 minutes to see if the craving will go away. Do not set goals that are impossible to achieve. Aim for something that is within your reach. It would put less pressure on you and you are most likely to succeed. Getting enough sleep is advised.

Drinking the right amount of water is also essential. Six to eight glasses a day is adequate enough to make water act as a diuretic thereby cutting down water retention. Water also slows down your appetite and makes you feel full if taken before a meal. It is also suggested to go on a diet with one or more peers. Supporting each other, sharing and caring for each other would yield a higher success rate.

Instead of eating, find something else to do. Whenever you get that craving to eat; when you’re angry, happy or sad, go shopping, clean the house or read a book. Do something that will take your mind away from eating.

If you like eating late at night, have a slice of bread or a piece of cracker before going to bed. It would also help to have a glass of water or a fruit ready at your bedside in case you wake up at night and feel hungry.

Do not use food as a prize when you want to reward yourself. Buy a dress, shoes or a book these things will not make you go off on your diet.

Weight is constantly fluctuating. Your weight in the morning could be lighter than if you weigh yourself at night. Imagine sticking to your diet only to find out that you weigh heavier. Weigh yourself at the same time to avoid feeling down. You can also do a special food arrangement with every meal you prepare. Making it festive and cheerful to make you get interested in the food and stop yourself from eating too much.

Avoid fattening foods or drinks that are easy to consume in large amounts. Always keep foods that contain high fiber like raw vegetables or fat-free popcorn; these can easily satisfy and fill you.

Don’t skip meals. Do not eat anywhere else except at the dining table. This will help you keep your mind on the food as you eat slowly and savor each bite, don’t forget to count as you chew everything ten to twenty times. Don’t go to the kitchen unless it is time to eat. Most of all don’t go on a diet for other people do it for you.

Read more Dieting Tips. You can alse use our calculators for measuring your progress.

Let’s face it, we can only burn so many calories during the time spent training at the gym. In a fat burning program, it is very important to pay attention to the time that you spend away from the gym; the other 23 hours during the day. Is your body using that time to burn calories or store calories?

The main reason people are overweight is because their basal metabolic rate (BMR) is lower than it should be. BMR is the rate at which your body burns calories to perform its normal functions of digestion, circulation, breathing, etc. This means that they burn fewer calories 24 hours a day. Obviously, over a period of months, this adds up to stored fat.

Read more about metabolism and fat burning blog of Tom Venuto – renown nutritionist and fitness trainer; author of the book – “Burn The Fat and Feed the Muscle“.

Here are some ways to increase your metabolism so that your body burns calories all day and night long…

• Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Don’t starve yourself! This is an inevitable path to losing lean muscle tissue, which is responsible for burning calories. The more muscle you have, the stronger your metabolism will be, and thus the more calories you will burn throughout the day. That’s why some people who are quite lean and muscular can eat and eat and eat, without gaining bodyfat.
• Performing moderate to high intensity resistance training and high intensity interval training (HIIT) will build the muscle needed to strengthen your metabolism. A common result of performing HIIT is that your body will be on a metabolism “high” for hours after your training session, making calorie burning easier than ever.
• Eat whole, nutrient dense foods. Whole foods are called “nutrient dense” because we don’t need to eat as much of them (less calories!), yet they contain more useful nutrition – and they require more energy to digest which means more calories burned.
• Look for ways to be active. Park as far from the store as you can rather than looking for the closest parking spot. Use the stairs rather than the elevator, etc. Look for the “hard” way to do things!

Read more about dieting tips and what is important about dieting in general – nutrition facts and how calories from different resource are treated.

The pace of life gets faster and faster, and people try to cram more and more into every minute of the day. As things get more hectic, sleep tends to get short shrift. It’s seen as wasted time, lost forever.

“For healthy people, there’s a big temptation to voluntarily restrict sleep, to stay up an hour or two or get up an hour or two earlier,” said Dr. Greg Belenky, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University Spokane.

“But you’re really reducing your productivity and exposing yourself to risk,” Belenky added.

That’s a message doctors are trying to spread to Americans, including the estimated 40 million people who struggle with some type of sleep disorder each year.

History

Before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1880, people slept an average of 10 hours a night. These days, Americans average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours a night on weekends, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

What experts say

“The group of people getting optimal sleep is getting smaller and smaller,” said Dr. Chris Drake, senior scientist at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detroit. “When a person’s sleep drops to six hours or less, that’s when a lot of things become very problematic.”

While experts recommend seven to eight hours of sleep each night, the amount needed for an individual can vary.

But lack of sleep affects a person in one of two ways, Belenky said. First, sleeplessness influences the day-to-day performance of tasks.

“The performance effects are seen immediately,“ he said. “You short-change yourself of sleep, and you see the effects immediately. You can make a bad decision. You can miss something. Have a moment’s inattention, and you’re off the road.”

The longer-term effects of sleep deprivation involve a person’s health. Doctors have linked lack of sleep to weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, depression and substance abuse.

“Hormones that process appetite begin to get disorganized,” said Drake, who’s also an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. There’s a decrease in the amount of leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone, when a person gets too little sleep. At the same time, ghrelin — a hormone that stimulates appetite — increases with a lack of sleep.

Too little sleep also interferes with the body’s ability to regulate glucose and can cause inflammation leading to heart problems and a rise in blood pressure. “There’s a stress response to being in a sleep loss,” Belenky said.

The types of people not getting enough sleep also break down into two groups. First, there are those who make the conscious choice to go without enough sleep.

“It’s sort of part of the culture,” Belenky said. “People pride themselves on getting little sleep. You’ll hear people bragging, ‘I only need six hours a night.’ So there’s a macho element here.”

On the other hand, there are people who are suffering from sleep disorders. These disorders include:

• Insomnia, an inability to go to sleep or stay asleep.
• Sleep apnea, or breathing interruptions during sleep that cause people to wake up repeatedly.
• Restless legs syndrome, a tingling or prickly sensation in the legs that causes a person to need to move them, interrupting sleep.

Someone suffering from any of these problems should visit their doctor or see a sleep specialist, Belenky said.

Sleep apnea, the most prevalent sleep disorder, can have particularly serious long-term effects if left untreated. “You’re waking up out of sleep to breathe. You can’t sleep and breathe at the same time,” Drake said. “It’s a risk factor for developing major cardiovascular health effects.”

Some people who have trouble sleeping will resort to mild sedatives like Ambien and Lunesta.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently asked the makers of these sedative-hypnotic drugs to strengthen their warning labels. This action followed reports of dangerous allergic reactions, as well as a host of bizarre behavioral side effects that include sleep-driving, making phone calls, and preparing and eating food or having sex while asleep.

Drake and Belenky both consider sleeping pills to be fine for the short term if taken properly.

“Sleeping pills are a temporary solution,” Belenky said. “If you’re upset about something or have situational insomnia, or you’re trying to sleep at the wrong time of day because you’ve traveled across time zones, they are effective.”

But, both doctors noted the pills will do nothing to help a chronic sleep problem. “They don’t address the pathology of their sleeplessness,” Drake said.

Tips and tricks

The U.S. National Institutes of Health offers these tips for getting a good night’s sleep:

• Stick to a regular sleep schedule.
• Avoid exercising closer than five or six hours before bedtime.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol before bed.
• Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.
• Don’t take naps after 3 p.m.
• Relax before bed, taking time to unwind with a hot bath, a good book or soothing music.
• If you’re still awake after more than 20 minutes in bed, get up and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy. Anxiety over not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.

More information

To learn more, visit the National Sleep Foundation.

That’s how Atkins works – you learn to eat the right foods and change your body from a carb-burning to a fat-burning machine.

Lots of great things happen when your body starts burning fat instead of carbs:

* You eat the way your body was designed to eat.
* That means lean protein and vegetables, plus other good carbs – high-fiber fruits, nuts and whole grains.
* Your body turns from a carb-burning to a fat-burning machine.
* You get to your optimal weight.
* You keep the weight off.
* You feel healthy, energized and fantastic.

*Results not typical. Individual results will vary.

Read the full Atkins Nutrition Program.

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Generally speaking, try to avoid foods that have been highly processed, as they are less nutritious and healthy, but they also contain the things our body doesn’t need or want – sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and preservatives.

Fat by itself isn’t bad for our bodies or health, as it is found in many healthy foods, but there is a higher concentration of calories in fatty foods (the most by weight of any nutrient), and it’s the easiest nutrient for your body to convert into body fat. Saturated fat (which is solid at room temperature) is the kind of fat found in meat, butter, and cheese, and can increase your risk of high cholesterol and heart disease. Trans fats (or hydrogenated fats) are created by adding hydrogen to vegetable fats, and are found in deep-fried foods, doughnuts, and some types of margarine – these also raise the amount of cholesterol in your blood, so it’s best to avoid them.

Carbohydrates are another source of calories that are not bad or unhealthy for you, but you may want to eat in moderation if you want to lose weight. Our bodies turn carbohydrates into blood sugar to use for energy, so when there is less energy available through blood sugar it will turn to your stored fat for the energy. Be careful when following low-carb diets, as they often heavily restrict carbohydrate intake, but allow high protein/fat intake, which studies have shown has a relationship to higher risk of heart disease.

Avoiding foods with high amounts of sugar is good for two reasons – not only are they associated with higher calories, but eating high-sugar food will also cause a spike in insulin levels, which makes the body think that it has enough energy already, and it should start storing excess energy as fat. Even worse, it is then followed by a drop in insulin level, which makes us feel tired and hungry, so we end up eating more as a result. Try to avoid sodas, as they often contain very high levels of sugar (a 12 ounce can of pop contains the equivalent of 4-5 tablespoons of sugar), or at least switch to diet sodas – if you regularly drink soda, this alone can help you lose 1-2 pounds in a month.

If you find there are certain foods or tastes that you love, read the labels at the grocery store to see if there are different varieties or brands that are healthier, contain less calories, or are less processed. Eating healthy doesn’t always mean stopping enjoying things you love, it often just means being smarter about what you eat. Look for substitutes or alternatives that provide similar flavours, tastes, or complement the other foods you’re eating (for example, mustard instead of mayonnaise, diet soda instead of regular soda, light cream cheese on a bagel, etc.). When shopping, make a list in advance, then stick to it – many bad foods are purchased on the spur of the moment when you’re hungry, so avoid the temptation of the display aisle.

Water

One of the easiest and most effective ways to help your diet is to drink water – it’s recommended to drink 8 glasses of water per day, although most people don’t often drink that much. Water provides a number of benefits when dieting – if you’re hungry, you can have a glass of water, it has zero calories and it helps to fill your stomach and suppress your appetite. Water also helps to flush out your body, including toxins that you would want to get rid of already.

As our bodies are made up of mostly water, we can go longer without food than we can without water, as the body requires water to run efficiently. If you don’t drink enough water, you can get bloated – so although it sounds counterintuitive, to get rid of excess water you need to drink more water (in fact you can often lose a few pounds within the first week or two just from increasing your water intake, which helps release all the excess water your body has stored).

A further tip is that drinking ice-cold water actually burns more calories, as your body needs to heat it up to absorb it properly, so if you have an ice water dispenser at home or at the office, fill up a glass regularly and keep it nearby.

Meals

Adjusting your meal schedule can also be an important part of dieting and losing weight. Try to eat more small meals throughout the day, rather than one larger meal, as it is easier for your body to digest and work off the food in smaller quantities. Also, eat larger meals in the morning instead of in the afternoon or evening, as your body not only has more time to burn it off (you’re more active during the day than in the evening or night), but a morning meal also helps to burn calories faster by kick-starting your metabolism (which has been in slow gear all night while you were sleeping).

Plan your meals in advance, and look at the calories that are in the meal to ensure that you have a healthy balanced meal without high calories, and wherever possible, plan to bake or roast foods instead of frying (fried foods are almost always harder on a diet). When preparing food for the table, a successful diet trick is to use smaller plates in order to help reduce the portion sizes. Most people have become more and more used to larger portions, and using smaller plates tricks our mind into thinking we have a full serving, so we can finish a full plate without feeling guilty.

Try to avoid snacking, and ideally don’t buy processed snack foods and keep them around the house – it makes it easier to avoid temptation when you’re looking through the cupboards for that evening snack during the TV commercial break. Cut up healthy snack foods in advance such as carrots, celery, and fruit, so that you have something good to reach for in the fridge when you need that extra bite.

Journal

Keeping a journal as you progress through your diet is a great way of tracking your progress. Keep track of everything you’re eating, not only is it easier to count up the calories to make sure you’re on the right path, but putting it on paper also makes you more aware of what you’re eating throughout the day.

When tracking our food in your journal, also track your weight – it helps you see the bigger changes over time that you might not notice from day to day. Weigh yourself once a week to avoid tracking and getting frustrated over the normal daily fluctuations – weigh yourself on the same day of the week, at the same time in order to keep it consistent.

Before you know it, you’ll find that you’ve hit the goals you initially set, and then you can set new goals, or move into more of a maintenance phase of your diet – where you may not be as concerned with losing weight, but hopefully the healthy eating habits, lifestyle changes, and regular exercise will have made a big difference to your overall health.

BMI (Body Mass Index) Chart

Your BMI is based on weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (a BMI of 18.5-24.9 is considered normal, higher or lower than that value puts you at increased risk of related health problems and diseases:

Calories Burned Chart – this chart shows the estimated number of calories burned during various common kinds of exercise or activity over a one hour (60 minute) period, based on your weight (as your weight affects the number of calories burned):

Food Calories Chart – this chart shows the estimated number of calories found in various common kinds of food, based on a standard serving size or portion:

Goals

The first thing to do when starting any diet is to figure out what you’re trying to achieve, and set goals around where you want to be. Do you want to diet to lose weight? Do you want to diet to improve your health? The goals you make will determine how you should approach your diet, but more than that, setting the goals gives you something to work towards – it’s easier to achieve something when you commit yourself to a specific goal.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that your goal should be reasonable – losing weight too quickly or losing it the wrong way can lead to either health risks, or can set you up to gain it back more easily. The most successful diets are the ones that allow you to pace yourself. Losing 1-2 pounds/week is more than enough, it took a long time to put on the weight, be patient taking it off if you want to remain healthy, and be successful.

Before you set specific weight goals, it’s important to determine the ideal body weight range for your height – this can help you to get an objective idea where you should set your goals. (see contains BMI (Body Mass Index) chart that can help you determine your ideal body weight.

Exercise

One of the most important factors in a good healthy diet is exercise – any diet that tries to lose weight without exercise is likely either misleading, ineffective, or unhealthy.

To be successful with exercise (especially if it’s not normally part of your routine), is to look for ways to integrate it into your daily lifestyle, instead of just getting exercise whenever you have a free moment. Look for any opportunities to get more exercise – take the stairs instead of the elevator, park further away from your office and walk, as long as you’re moving around, you’ll be burning off more calories than if you were sitting.

A helpful tip is to schedule your exercise as you would other activities during the day – put it in your calendar, work it into your routine as a planned activity – or it will get pushed aside.

If possible, you should also try to plan your exercise for after meals, as that’s when you will get the maximum effect of burning calories, instead of having your body convert those calories into stored fat.

Calories

Calories represent the energy your body takes in through food, which it processes and uses to fuel your body – the trouble comes in when you take in more calories through food than you burn off through activity and exercise, as your body stores the excess calories in the form of fat.

Aside from exercise, the simplest way to lose weight is to reduce your caloric intake, by eating less calories. You can do this in one of two ways – either choose foods that contain less calories, or eat smaller quantities/portions of the same foods that you are already having.

A simple rule of thumb is that 3500 calories equals 1 pound, so if you can reduce your daily intake by 500 calories/day, then you should lose roughly 1 pound/week. To maintain a healthy diet, avoid cutting calories alone without exercising – find a balance between both approaches, as you will not only end up with a much more healthy end result (as exercise offers health benefits above and beyond weight loss), but if you avoid exercise your body’s metabolism will adjust by burning less calories, so you won’t end up being able to sustain any weight loss.

In order to determine how many calories you should be cutting, you need to determine how many calories your body needs to get through the day – every height/weight has a basic requirement for calories, so look at what your body needs and what you’re normally taking in – this will provide you a starting point so that you can compare your current intake with what your body really needs.

Different kinds of exercise will burn different amounts of calories, so plan your regular exercise routine into your calorie counting, it will give you an idea of how many pounds you can expect to lose and how quickly, so you can determine if you are on track to meet your goals.

Foods to eat

As a general rule, when dieting you should focus on natural foods, they contain the things that are important to our body and health – such as fiber, whole grains, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (found often in fruits and vegetables). Not only are they better for us, but they also help reduce the risk of other health-related problems such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Fruits and vegetables are a key source of vitamins and minerals, but they also provide an important source of natural energy. Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in calories, fat, and cholesterol, and some (such as broccoli and blueberries) are full of cancer-preventing antioxidants. To ensure that you’re taking in the nutrients that your body needs, make sure you enjoy a variety of fruits and vegetables – the broader the selection, the better the health benefits.

Making sure your diet includes fiber, as it has a number of key benefits – it not only helps you feel more full (the fiber mixes with water in your stomach and expands, making you feel more full and eat less), but it also helps slow down your digestion, which regulates your blood sugar level and reduces insulin spikes (which make you feel tired and hungry), and helps to flush out your system more quickly.

Another category of foods to eat is commonly referred to as “negative calories”, which although it sounds strange, these foods use more energy to digest (in the form of calories) than the food provides back to your body, so eating those foods actually help reduce your overall caloric intake – some examples include: asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, celery, lettuce, spinach, apples, grapefruit, and pineapple.

One of the most important things when maintaining a diet is to read the labels on the food you eat – you may be surprised to find out the level of calories, fat, sugar, sodium many foods contain. Many foods at the grocery store contain labels showing that they are made naturally, or are healthier – wherever possible, try to stick to these kinds of foods, the more natural the food you take in, the easier it will be for your body to use the energy and nutrients, and the easier it will be to lose weight.

	Keep a food journal over the holidays. Write down what you eat to monitor your caloric intake. You may even count your calories. Research shows that people who keep a food diary consume 15% less food than those who don’t! Don’t skip meals during the holidays to “save” calories.

Parties and gatherings occur throughout the holiday season. Don’t skip meals in an attempt to “save” calories for later. Your body cannot use all of that food for energy at once, even if you are staying within your daily caloric needs. Much will be stored as fat and skipping meals slows down your metabolism. Stick to your normal (healthy) eating routine to keep your hunger in control. Nosh on a protein-packed snack, such as low-fat yogurt or reduced-fat cheese, to blunt your hunger before a gathering.
Practice portion control!

If you indulge, be choosy and eat a small amount of what really want so that you are satisfied and less likely to overindulge. Think “kid-sized portions,” and use appetizer plates. Fill three-quarters of your plate with healthy items, like veggies and whole grains.
Be mindful of overeating during the holidays and use moderation to avoid weight gain.

Overeating one night doesn’t give you a license to blow the day, or the week! Enjoy only the foods that you love, those that are worth the calories.Using moderation really does work.

Here are some strategies:

* Don’t sit near buffet tables, candy dishes and cookie-laden platters.
* Excuse yourself from the dinner table when you’ve finished eating.
* Keep your mouth busy by talking with friends and family.
* Chew gum or suck on a sugarless breath mint to prevent picking.
* Enjoy club soda with a twist before/instead of a cocktail to limit alcohol consumption.

Keep active and exercise over the holidays

Another cause of weight gain during the holiday season is less activity. Time is spent doing holiday errands, which makes us tired and less motivated. However, the best thing you can do is to stick to your regular exercise schedule! Working out keeps your weight down, increases your energy and reduces your stress. Walk a few extra laps around the mall or add 20 minutes to your treadmill time.
Make healthy food choices even during the holidays

Here are some healthy food preparation tips:

1. For dessert, try baking apples with the skin to get a potent nutrition boost. Add spices for flavor.
2. Make cranberries from scratch using puréed orange. Replace some of the sugar with artificial sweetener.
3. Naturally low in calories, string beans are a good source of vitamin K, vitamin C and vitmain A. Prepare beans by lightly tossing with olive oil and lemon.
4. Pumpkin and sweet potatoes are fiber and potassium-rich. To make casseroles or desserts, bake them with minimal sugar, substituting liquid oil for solid fat.
5. Candied yams are already high in sugar so bake them using only a bit of brown sugar.
6. Mash white potatoes with low-sodium, fat-free chicken broth.
7. Prepare dips with fat-free sour cream or yogurt.
8. Use a gravy separator to skim the fat when making gravy.
9. Serve one rich, decadent dessert to guests. Offer a few healthier options, such as chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Holiday treats: treat yourself and not use food as a comfort.

Scheduling difficulties, time restraints and last minute errands can make this season very stressful. As a result, it’s important to take time for yourself. Schedule a massage, buy a new book or treat yourself to a yoga class. Find a non-food coping mechanism that will curb your stress. This is the easiest time of the year to use food for comfort. Learn other methods for dealing with stress during this hectic time!

Remember, the holidays are days, not weeks or months. After each holiday, resume your normal healthy eating habits.

By Michèle Turcotte, MS, RD/LDN

Effective Summer Diet Tip #1 – Aim For Progress Not Perfection

Very few people in this world are entirely satisfied with their body. In interviews even many models and Hollywood celebrities complain about some part of their appearance.

It’s a fact that we tend to be a modest lot when it comes to our physiques so realize that while you’re saying “I wish I had a stomach like hers” she’s quite likely thinking “I wish I had legs like those”!

With that in mind, appreciate you’re unlikely to ever wake up, peer into the mirror and think “Wow! I look perfect!”.

On the other hand it’s entirely possible you will look in the mirror sooner or later and realize that your tummy is looking smaller or your bum is feeling more pert.

Aim for improvement, not perfection.

Effective Summer Diet Tip #2 – Keep Records

When I started my most recent fitness push I decided to keep accurate, genuine records.

I kept a journal of my weight, chest, stomach and waist sizes among other things together with taking photographs of myself.

And here’s the magic.

From time to time I’d start to feel a little unmotivated.

I eat carefully. I exercise regularly but sometimes you can look in the mirror and think you look exactly the same as you did a few weeks ago – and that can be pretty disheartening.

However this is probably not true – you just think it is.

Go by the figures – look at your records and you’ll notice the changes far more rapidly.

And as you’re aiming for progress not perfection it’s far easier to keep motivated when you see these small changes.

Doing this I lost 23lb in less than 16 weeks only doing moderate amounts of exercise and still having the odd evening at a bar or the odd takeaway.

So keep accurate records and make the most of them.

Effetive Summer Diet Tip #3 - Commit A Sin From Time To Time

Remember I lost 23lb in 16 weeks and still ate out sometimes?

The fact of the matter is that a 100% strict diet is hard to stick to. It takes huge amounts of self discipline and even then what are you going to do at Christmas or Thanksgiving, or your best friends birthday dinner, or when a colleague offers to buy you a drink after work?

The answer is to indulge yourself from time to time. No more than once a week I suggest mind you – but from time to time break the rules and don’t worry about it.

When you can fit a diet around your social life it becomes far easier to stick to – and enjoy.

So long as it’s just a couple of glasses of wine or a small meal out don’t fret.

Get straight back on the diet the next day and you’ll be fine.

Effective Summer Diet Tip #4 – Find Your Own Motivation

In addition to watching the figures in your journal as your body changes I would strongly suggest that you use two other sources of inspiration that have kept me and a huge host of other fitness fanatics motivated toward achieving our end goals.

The first of these is to buy some fitness magazines, lifestyle and/or fashion magazines and spend an evening going through them cutting out pictures of people you’d like to look like. Thin, lean, toned, muscular, healthy, tanned – whatever you’d love to look like in the end.

And I don’t just mean the sort of picture that makes you say “Oh she looks OK” but the ones that make you scream “Oh my God! Look at her stomach! I’m so jealous!”. People with the sort of body you’d die for.

Then make up a scrapbook of those pictures or put them on your fridge door or stick them up by your bed. Wherever you’re going to see them lots to help motivate yourself.

The second source is to look through the hundreds of “before and after” pictures on the Internet of those who have been through amazing bodily transformations thanks to diet and exercise and look for the people whose bodies are most similar to yours right now.

Print out their pictures because you just agreed their “before” photos look just like you now so there’s nothing to say you can’t look like their “after” photo with a little effort on your part.

I can’t overestimate how powerful this is – to see what you yourself can become.

I like to save these pictures to the hard drive of my computer then use one as the wallpaper on my PC. When I start to get bored I just swap it for another one. I myself change the pictures every 2-3 weeks to keep me motivated (I spend a lot of time at my computer!) and have found this technique works very, very well for me and many others.

You feel the requirement to sort yourself out so you can live with the discomfort that is coming your way. Commitment is the order of the day plus you will be requiring all the help possible to drop a dress size.

At last the time comes – you begin the diet – however within a short while you’ve quit. All that preparation for so little an increase in fitness.

What’s the cause?

The easy answer , you might have guessed, is that something happened. Something you think of as a higher priority than your weight loss. Something like a dinner party or a virus and it’s as though you never commenced.

Lots of dieters plan to arrange the start of a weight loss plan to try and avert times where hurdles such as this could crop up. For example they aim to begin a low calorie diet to match a colleague from work or alternatively when they are away from normal temptations to try and ensure they stick with their low calorie diet. Anybody would suggest it’s a smart idea, in almost 100% of cases the truth can be quite a shock.

The reason for this is easy – you may well stay out of trouble for a little while however when one of the dozens of hurdles you get hit with all the time appears, you’re not prepared to deal with it and so we make the most of it to go back to consuming chocolate or quitting cardio (or both).

Far more help when starting out of your low calorie diet to have a hiccup, and then to keep fighting. These tiny ups and downs will eventually help to prepare you and get you used to coping with the stuff you will experience and will mean you can come out the other side an even thinner individual.

Use the problems . Feel the pride of each beaten and you will become ever more disciplined. All of a sudden glitches have turned into great things not things to avoid.

Here’s a further vitally important chapter to what you hope for with weight loss – and one that I have only just experienced for myself by accident.

Honestly think about how many low calorie diets or exercise programs have you started and stopped? How often have you failed? At the time that you failed, with the exception of feeling a bit bad for a while what else happened? Not a huge amount. Your spouse didn’t dump you. Your company didn’t shut down. Your head didn’t fall off.

So you’re used to going back to your old ways, and it’s no shock that nothing bad is going to come about if you do.

But let’s pretend that it actually did happen? Consider if quitting was simply not an option? What if a medical practitioner told you that you must lose 25lb in the next 6 months or you’d better say goodbye to your family? Image if your loved one says they will only marry you if you lose that weight?

When you look at things in that way, it gets wonderfully easy to succeed.

For some time my goal has been to go on a low calorie diet, then when I achieved this to find a spouse. Unbelievably I discover that part way to my aim I have been fortunate enough to find a stunning person plus I am finding it quite hassle free to stay motivated because of wanting them to feel proud of me.

Exactly what could you do in order to make sure quitting is impossible for you? Could you organize a beach trip? Or else just make a bet with a friend.

Do whatever it takes to make you think twice twice before dropping your low calorie diet. Do what it takes to make it happen. It’ll be the most amazing thing you’ve ever done.