Staying Motivated

No More Stop-and-GO

How many times have you started a diet or exercise plan, seen results, then stopped whatever it was that you were doing? And then you’re back to where you were before—or even heavier and less fit.

The first week seems easy. You’re highly motivated to change and losing weight is a priority. Nearly everything you do this week will seem to revolve around sticking to your weight-loss commitment.

But perhaps as soon as next week, or in the weeks after, losing weight may no longer be your top priority. Other things in your life may trump your exercise plans or derail your meal choices through no fault of your own. Life happens. Gradually, it will become very easy to go back to those same habits that made you overweight and unfit.

But there’s no need to get discouraged before you even get started! If you commit to following the plan as strictly as you can this week (cutting out excess calories, exercising on schedule), then you’ll start to see some results that will inspire you to carry on.

For this plan to continue to work, however, you need to integrate smart eating and exercise in ways that are somewhat similar to your regular life. If you make dramatic changes that run counter to who you are, it may be too difficult to stick to it longer than just a few weeks. But if the approach you take is simply an improvement on how you already live, it should be much easier to maintain.

Remember one thing…

Nothing Tastes as good as been in Shape Feels

Study shows value of food diary in losing weight

Here is a great idea I found on the net.

Keeping a food diary -- a detailed account of what you eat and drink and the calories it packs -- is a powerful tool in helping people lose weight, U.S. researchers said.

The study involving 1,685 middle-aged men and women over six months found those who kept such a diary just about every day lost about twice as much weight as those who did not.

The findings buttressed earlier research that endorsed the value of food diaries in helping people lose weight. Companies including Weight Watchers International Inc use food diaries in their weight-loss programs.

"For those who are working on weight loss, just writing down everything you eat is a pretty powerful technique," Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland said.

"It helps the participants see where the extra calories are coming from, and then develop more specific plans to deal with those situations," said Stevens, who helped lead the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The technique also helps hold dieters accountable for what they are eating, Stevens said.

The study involved people from four U.S. cities: Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their average weight loss was about 13 pounds (6 kg). But those keeping food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18 pounds (8 kg) compared to 9 pounds (4 kg) for those not regularly keeping a food diary.

The average age of people in the study was 55.

They were asked to eat less fat, more vegetables, fruit and whole grains, exercise 180 minutes a week mostly by walking, attend group meetings, and keep a detailed food diary.

Blacks made up 44 percent of the people in the study. The researchers noted that blacks Americans have a higher risk than whites for conditions linked to obesity including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"Keeping a food diary doesn't have to be a formal thing. Just the act of scribbling down what you eat on a Post-It note, sending yourself e-mails tallying each meal or sending yourself a text message will suffice," Dr. Keith Bachman, another Kaiser Permanente expert, said in a statement.