How to lose weight and keep it off!

People who fail to maintain weight loss think differently to those who are able to lose weight and keep it off long term.

Now Christmas is over and the weight is coming off, can you keep it off permanently. It’s frustrating isn’t it? You’ve tried practically every type of diet you’ve ever heard of and yet that stubborn fat that sits around your waist, thighs and bum still doesn’t seem to shift and if you do manage to lose it, it only returns to start the cycle off all over again! I’m exhausted already!

Whilst many people are able to lose weight, very few are able to make permanent behavioural changes in order to maintain their weight loss. How many women do you know that are always on a diet or talking about the latest diet? Fad diets, supplements, diet pills, miraculous pieces of exercise equipment, drop a dress size in one week campaigns can all be successful for temporary weight loss BUT if you’re looking for permanent changes they simply DO NOT WORK!

Do you think of a diet as something permanent or temporary? I’m fairly certain that just the thought of a permanent diet makes you want to reach for the chocolate and biscuits. If I had my way, the word ‘diet’ would be banned. When people are on a ‘diet’ they restrict themselves so much that they are miserable. Sooner or later failure is inevitable because of the unreasonable demands of most ‘diets’. The reality is that quite quickly we revert back to type, eating wrong foods and rewarding and punishing ourselves with food and alcohol.

Do you recognise the following?
You give yourself permission to stray from your healthy diet because you’re upset, stressed, busy, tired, happy, celebrating, at a party, the food is free, I rarely get a chance to eat this type of food...the list is endless isn’t it? Do you get the picture? If you make one mistake in a day, do you decide to start again the next day? Or do you say, I’ll start eating healthy on Monday since I’ve already eaten poorly this weekend? Do you fear being out of control and dread the feeling of feeling hungry? People who fail to maintain weight loss think differently to those who are able to lose weight and keep it off long term. Those who fail have a lot of all or nothing thinking and will recognise their behaviour in the above questions. Weight Loss isn’t an all or nothing game. Every person at times eats too much. The successful people will not let this completely derail their entire lifestyle change. This is where effective people use psychological strategies to maintain their weight loss. If you are not implementing positive lifestyle changes you won’t be able to lose or maintain your weight.

What is the key to successful long term weight loss?
The key is to make gradual lifestyle changes you can stick to forever whilst adopting a new approach to exercise and nutritional choices. A positive psychological approach will enable you to sustain lifetime changes in your eating. Dieting often starts off easy when people are motivated then it is normal for it to get harder but with the right psychological techniques it will be easier to maintain. We want changes to be permanent, ensure long term health, energy and longevity. Your aim is to ditch the yo-yo dieting and be HEALTHY and SLIM FOR LIFE!