Five Easy Ways to Lose Weight Now
Never Forget Your Goal and Think Positively
"Eat less and exercise." This is the most basic and important rule of dieting, but it is most hard rule to follow as well. Professional diet coaches say that for a successful diet, it is necessary to form good habits. And on CNN News, a team of professional diet coaches introduced "5 Habits for Successful Diet."
1. Make a Detailed Plan
"I want to lose weight."
Only wanting to lose weight doesn't help you lose weight. Who doesn't want to lose weight? You have to get motivated and start doing something in order to actually lose weight. And the best way to get motivated is to have a detailed picture of yourself after you've lost weight. Make a specific goal such as "I want to lose 10 pound by the end of this month." When you have a specific goal, your brain starts to put energy into achieving that goal.
2. Make a Plan for Unexpected Temptations
When you are on a diet, you have to watch out for unexpected temptations to eat. These can be an unexpected sweet dessert or special lunch menus. A good way to avoid those temptations is to make a plan for those unexpected situations. For example, whenever someone offers a dessert, go with a cup of black coffee. Or, if you are having a lunch with a friend, tell him/her that you will bring your own salad for lunch. Related researches show that people with a plan to avoid such temptations have 2-3 times better chance to achieve their goals when dieting.
3. Don't Ever Forget Your Goal
It is always nice to see some results after a hard work. But when it comes to dieting, it can hinder with your original goal. For example, it is natural for you to feel happy and pad yourself on the back when you've lost 10 lbs. But if your original goal was to lose 20 pounds, don't just sit there and enjoy the fact that you've lost 10 pounds. Focus on 10 extra pounds you have to lose.
4. Become a Realistic Optimist
Many mentors and counselors tell you to be optimist when it comes to succeeding. You have to believe in yourself and think positively. Then the world around you will be affected by your positive aura and all work in accordance to help you achieve your goal.
It is a true story to some degree. A vital key to success is having confidence that you are going to succeed. But many times, confiding that you'll EASILY succeed is a 'unrealistic optimism,' and it is a key to failure. According to a study on overweight women, the diet results of a group of women who believed it is easy to lose 30 pounds was much worse than the group who believed that it could be hard. If you start out knowing that it will be hard to lose weight, you won't be too discouraged when you actually start a diet and when it becomes hard. You won't easily give up.
5. Learn Self Control
If dieting is like lifting weights, self control is like the muscle that is used to lift the weights. And in order to train that muscle, you have to keep using it, keep practicing self-control. Start with small things. Stop packing junk food in your backpack when you leave the house. Pack an apple or fresh vegetables instead. And keep the habits formed by practicing self-control. Then your will to lose weight will increase, and you will get that super-model-figure (remember, this is a subjective phrase) you've always wanted.
