Yes, You Can Enjoy A Diet

If you love donuts and hate diets, you’re not alone. Losing weight doesn’t have to be torture, but it might involve redefining the kinds of things that you love. The main thing is that you don’t want the weeks and months ahead of you to be anything less than enjoyable as you move towards your weight-loss goal. Here are a few ways to do so:

1. Treat yourself as well as you treat everyone else. It’s easier said than done for most people, but if you’re going to be successful at locking in a healthy weight you’ve got to make time to exercise and create healthful meals and snacks. You’d make time if someone you love needed you right? Well, you need you. And, if you need a reason to make that important just tell yourself that you can’t help everyone else if you’re not well, right?

2. What’s the opposite of deprivation? That’s what you need to create for yourself if you want to succeed in the long run. If eliminating soft drinks is going to be your particular hardship, be sure to keep plenty of fresh lemon slices handy and buy a unique piece of stemware to use every time you’re having a low-calorie drink. Try sitting in your formal dining room more often to make your healthy meals seem more special, or dine al fresco when weather permits. Make conscious decisions like these often and you won’t walk around feeling as if you’re missing out on something.

3. Go on a weekly shopping spree (at the supermarket). Okay, so a produce section isn’t exactly the mall; but try to stop treating grocery shopping like a meaningless task. Don’t burden yourself with planning a week’s meals in advance, just make sure that you load your cart with the kinds of healthful choices that lead to low-calorie, low-fat meals. Never let yourself run out of boneless chicken breasts, fresh vegetables and brown rice, for example. Yogurt and granola, seasonal fruit and whole grain munchies should always be on hand as well. Forget brownies, but you can whip up a fiber-rich fruit cobbler when you have a sweet tooth if your pantry is packed with the right items.

4. If you fall back on bad habits, nip it in the bud quickly. Everyone has a weak moment here and there, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up. The one thing you do need to do is recognize it and snap yourself out of it right away. If you eat too much of a bad thing at one meal, lighten up all the more the next time. It’s also a good idea to get up and start moving to burn those extra calories before day’s end. If you mess up an entire day, just don’t let it turn into two days. Every new day brings a new opportunity to do better.

Try to string together several good days in a row and before you know it you’ll be on your way. Set little goals for yourself and don’t be afraid to celebrate as you reach them. After all, you celebrate other people’s accomplishments, right?

Julie Clark Robinson writes on a wide variety of topics which include Georgia colleges, Florida colleges, and online degree programs.