Which diet is the right one for you?

Myth number 1: the word “diet” is incorrect. We are all on a “diet”. The food that we eat every day makes up our individual dietary requirements. Therefore if we want to lose size, we need to modify them. In other words we need to change what we are eating from foods that have allowed us to gain weight, to foods that allow us to use that food stuff more effeciently and therefore lose weight. Losing weight is a simple equation – eat less than your body needs to use as fuel and you will lose weight. In very simple terms – eat less and exercise more by modifying your daily dietary requirements.

Myth number 2: When you lose weight you are not just losing “fat. Your body is made up of many things including hair, bones, tendons, muscles, organs, water and fat, and you can lose weight from each and every part of your body.

In order to modify your daily dietary requirements, you need to understand where you are getting your energy from , so take a day or so and make a simple food diary of what you have eaten during the day. Do not cheat, you are only fooling yourself – if you put something into your mouth, write it in your food diary. To do this properly you need to write down the food that you eat over the weekend as well.

Once you have the information in front of you, it will be very easy to see where you can start modifying your “diet”.

If you are anything like me, you will have one or two diet books on your shelf. Please choose one that has sound scientific principles behind it, and read it. If you don’t have one at home, then borrow one from your local library or from someone who does have one or two books gathering dust on their shelves.

What do I mean by sound scientific principles? Well a lot of diets are fads – nothing more: eat fish, don’t eat fish, eat eggs, don’t eat eggs, eat lots of protein, don’t eat any carbs, yes those kind of fad diets.

I have to confess that I am an impulse buyer when it comes to the latest diet and exercise books. Yes I really was hoping for the miracle cure. When in reality all I had to do was follow the suggestions given in one or two of the books that I already had, for as long as I needed to in order to lose the size that I wanted.

So, once you have read through your choice of book, completely once, I would suggest you read it again. This time read with a pen and paper next to you.

Write down the steps the authors recommend, and do them. Follow the steps as outlined and you will lose weight. Where most people fail is they skip ahead, or they don’t do what the author tells them to do.

• Are you drinking enough water?
• Are you eating the correct food or are you modifying the diet as you go alone?
• Do you know what you are eating?
• Are you eating too much for the amount of exercise you are doing?
• Are you doing any exercise? Or
• Are you simply bored?

“Diets” bore me to tears, which is why I am the perfect impulse buyer when it comes to books. Or should say – WAS the perfect impulse buyer. I know all the theory, now I need to put it into action.

Once I had determined my MOTIVE the ACTION became easier, and I had my own MOTIVATION to keep me going past all those bars of chocolate and packs of biscuits on the supermarket shelf.

So does it matter which diet you follow, as long as you are persistent and consistent?

Remember, it has taken you this long to get to the size and shape that you are. Do not expect to lose all your excess weight or size in a few days.

The choices that you make today, will impact on how you look tomorrow.

Are you making the right choices?