If the thought of seeing yourself in a bathing suit or swimming trunks this summer is making your knees buckle then keep reading.
I am going to share 10 dieting tips you can use to lose weight and look your best all summer long.
Dieting and exercising during the summer months can be a difficult and discouraging chore for some people. The lure of warmer weather and vacation days and the daily routine of work and family responsibilities can make it tempting to miss workouts and give up on a healthy diet.
Spring break is here or just around the corner for individuals across the country. This may mean vacationing or simply enjoying some downtime in your hometown. During your break, you want to relax and enjoy yourself. Sometimes this can include some unhealthy behavior; especially for those looking to lose weight.
From extra calories to lazy days relaxing by the pool, spring break can make it increasingly more difficult to stick with your weight loss plan. If you are planning a vacation or a stay-cation, think ahead. There are ways to stay healthy during spring break. Read more
Dieting is far too often approached from the mindset of impending failure. Too many people have tried and failed so many diets in their past that they try the next new diet with the absolute knowledge that they will fail in this attempt as well. Guess what? They will.
Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can or think you can’t you will always be right.” If you think you are going to fail at this diet you are dooming yourself to failure before you even deprive yourself of the first bite.
Think about that before you begin because only a true masochist could find pleasure in perpetuating this vicious cycle without ever stopping to wonder why none of the other diets have worked for you. Henry Ford also said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently”. In case you were wondering I would say his words are quite profound. Seriously though, if you do not examine the reasons for your failures you are certainly dooming yourself to repeat them and if you are already planning to fail why on earth would you even try?
You are the only person who can take control of your need to eat. You are the only one who can pay attention and notice when you are eating for emotional fulfillment and when you are eating from necessity. You and you alone can get yourself out of your chair and on your feet. You are the only one that can take the responsibility for the condition in which you find yourself. There are medical exceptions but even in these situations if you are trying diet after diet and failing over and over again then you must at some point in time realize that it is quite likely not the diets that aren’t working.
We must all be accountable for our successes and failures in life. It is no different when it comes to dieting. There are few better feelings in the world than for someone to notice and compliment your efforts. If you are very obese unfortunately, it may take a little more time for people to actually notice the weight you’ve lost. Too many men and women give up simply because no one noticed and that is an incredible shame. Give your dieting practices an opportunity to work before you decide they are a failure and you just might surprise yourself with a roaring success.
The truth is far too few people hold themselves accountable to their dieting and weight loss goals. This means that far too many people are giving up without really ever bothering to give it an effort. If you have an issue holding yourself accountable to your dieting plans, perhaps you would do well to diet with a partner. This helps you not only set goals but also to meet and exceed challenges along the way. A partner can also benefit from the partnership as he or she will be challenged and feel the need to perform better than if he or she were dieting alone.
You must hold yourself accountable to your stated dieting and weight loss goals in order to achieve any lasting results. If you have not had dieting success in the past, then perhaps it is time to bring some degree of accountability into the picture and make it happen.
There are those among us who wish to lose a few pounds rather than 20 or more pounds. While many of us would be grateful if that were the case for us, most will find that the smaller the amount of weight needed to lose the more difficult it seems to remove.
The good news is that those with little weight to lose generally do not face the painful issues with exercise and physical activity that plague those with far more weight to lose.
There are some great products on the market that will assist those with relatively little weight to lose enjoy the weight loss process without feeling deprived. The new market of 100-calorie snacks is an excellent tool for just this situation.
You can get the treats you need to get you through the day without exactly packing on the pounds in the process. You can count calories to no end but if you have only a few pounds to reach your goal weight and aren’t delighted with your tight and tone new body, then perhaps it’s best to work on tightening and toning rather than more dieting.
The thing that far too many people forget along the way is that dieting can only get you so far when it comes to results. There will come a time when weight training and cardio exercises of some sort are the only thing that is going to get you to the body you so rightly desire.
Dieting is good for dropping the pounds, but dieting alone is unlikely to bring you the body of your dreams. You should also keep in mind that exercising and ramping up your fitness routine is a great way to renew your dedication to the process and your enthusiasm. This is particularly true if you have found a fitness routine that is appealing to you.
The fitness routines of today are not the tired old aerobics workout of the 1980’s. You have many options ranging from kick boxing, Tae-Bo, Yoga, Pilates, and even belly dancing for those that dare. The point is that you are not as limited as you may think when it comes to entertaining options for your workout routine.
Find a workout that you can actually be excited about doing and do it. There is a lot of truth to the old Nike commercials that boldly proclaimed: “Just Do It”. Whatever it may be in your fitness routine, it will not do itself. You must be an active participant in your weight loss and fitness endeavors in order to achieve any results that will be favorable.
Whether your weight loss and dieting goals are to shed a few pounds or many pounds along the way it is quite likely that you will at some point reach a plateau in which you discover that you need to ramp up either your level of physical activity or calorie burning methods or you will need to ramp up your calorie cutting exercises.
Either way, dealing with the setback is almost as important as your decision to lose those pounds in the first place. Get back in the game and renew your efforts. In no time you should have lost those few pounds that you were hoping to lose and established the body you were aiming to create.
So many people view dieting as some sort of cosmic punishment for not having the perfect body. They believe that enjoying food is somehow bad for them, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
If you want to be completely honest with yourself, when it comes to dieting, it isn’t about giving up food or flavor; it’s about discovering new foods and flavors. At least that is what it is for those who truly love food as well as adventure.
There are many spices out there that can make even the blandest of foods a little exciting. Fish and chicken are popular diet foods because they are lean meats. However, adding a little blackening seasoning is a great way to put a little punch in your meal that will make it taste great without packing on the calories of dressing marinades or soaking in butter before broiling. You do not have to stop there. Italian seasoning can also add a little flavor to your kitchen without adding the extra calories that you are working so hard to avoid.
There are all kinds of seasonings that will work well in this instance. Many great seasonings for chicken also make great additions to chicken that will be included in salads for healthier lunches or salad wraps. Grains are good for you when you concentrate on whole grains. They are quite often the primary source of fiber in a diet and you need fiber almost as much as you need water. At any rate, simple things that spice up the same old lunch can have a huge impact on your enjoyment of food.
You can even enjoy the occasional treat when dieting as long as you do so sparingly. The key when dieting is to learn about proper portions and moderate indulgence. You can find all kinds of low sugar or low carb desserts on the market that you can enjoy sparingly.
You can even find sugar free or low calorie candy in some cases though you should keep in mind that calories, particularly when it comes to candy you eat unconsciously add up quickly and you must pay close attention to those things you put into your mouth.
My point in all this though is that you do not have to sacrifice flavor in order to diet. You can live without butter; there are many substitutions on the market that are quite remarkable. But seasonings are a great way to add a lot of flavor for a tiny bit of effort on your part.
Desserts are also great and you can find many dips and sauces that can be made with fat free or low fat mayonnaise or sour cream in order to cut a few more calories during your dieting process.
These dips and sauces can often make a great substitution, when paired with vegetables, for those chips and dips we love so much and often miss when dieting. Cucumbers, green, red, and yellow peppers, broccoli, and carrot sticks all have a nice little crunch to them that when combined with a good low fat dip can help cure the crave beast for greasy chips that often rears its head when dieting.
If you watch your calories carefully during meals you should be delighted to know that there are many little snack treats that are prepackaged in 100 calorie packs for your enjoyment. This means that you can indulge on occasion in those treats that you love most without sacrificing all your dieting efforts in the process. These snack packs have become one of the best marketing ploys since the invention of diet colas.
We all want the benefits of losing weight and will readily admit that if it were a simple process we’d all be thin. However, having something like these hundred calorie snack packs to carry you through the worst of your cravings can mean the difference between dieting success and failure. They are definitely the difference in the old way of dieting and the new way of dieting without sacrificing flavor.
Every year, on New Year’s Day, millions of people make a resolution to diet and lose weight and get in shape. In fact, surveys show that this is the number 1 resolution in the entire world.
It is also the fastest resolution to get broken. Many don’t get past the first week. Most don’t get past February.
One of the main reasons for this is that people have a few slip ups in their diet, end up feeling guilty and tell themselves that they just don’t have the discipline. They then tell themselves that it will never work and they give up on themselves.
This is truly a pity. It really is because you are all you have and if you give up on yourself, then who is going to help you? The road to personal fitness is your road and it’s yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but nobody can walk it for you.
Before even thinking that you don’t have what it takes, let’s examine the reasons why most people slip up when it comes to eating.
This is without a doubt the main reason. Someone who has been eating pizza, junk food, sodas, doughnuts, etc. for years should NEVER ever suddenly decide to go on a diet of lean chicken breast and broccoli. It’s madness.
The change is too drastic. Yet, so many people do this. They have unrealistic expectations and think that their will power is extremely strong. In most cases, it isn’t.
Always start with small goals. If you drink a lot of sodas, try cutting that out for a week and drink water instead. Keep the rest of the diet the same. The following week, if you snack while watching TV, then stop snacking. If you can’t do that, then stop watching TV. The week after that you may reduce your portion sizes but keep the diet the same.
By doing this, your goals are incremental. If you ask too much of yourself initially, you will most probably fail. Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.
If you accidentally dropped your mobile phone on the floor, what would you do? You’d most probably pick it up, dust it off and check if it’s all okay and be more careful. Would you pick it up and keep smashing it on the floor just because you accidentally dropped it once?
No way! Yet, when it comes to the diet, many people throw the entire diet away just because they had a doughnut or a plate of pasta.
You know what? It’s human to slip up. Everybody does it. You just pick yourself up and try to be more compliant to the diet. You may have read that a good body is 30% exercise and 70% diet. The truth is that a good body is 100% commitment.
And… commitment is very difficult. That’s why obesity is an epidemic. It’s difficult to commit. If you’ve already started, don’t give up. Anytime you feel like it, remember why you started.
Success is not linear. You will take three steps forward, two back, five forward, maybe six back… whatever the case may be, only one rule holds true. You keep going. So you ate that glazed doughnut… well, that’s ok. You will run for 15 minutes and burn it off later. Don’t tell yourself, “Argh! I ate one doughnut. My diet is screwed. I better just eat the remaining 5 doughnuts in the box”. NO! YOU WON’T.
These are the 2 reasons most people mess up their diet. Unrealistic expectations and aiming for perfection. Expect yourself to slip up. It’s a given.
Now that you know that you should aim to set your goals in incremental levels and not be too hard on yourself, stop worrying about those times you mess up your diet and focus on getting it right as much as you can.
That’s the only way.
