6 Tips For Making Your Weight Loss Program Effective

I am often asked to suggest an effective weight loss diet. My response is always to ask for clarification on what is really being asked. What is meant by the word “effective?”

“Effective” has different meanings to different people. For example, to my wife, an “effective” diet is one that enables her to lose 5 pounds so she can fit more comfortably in her jeans or slim down before a special event.
For me, on the other hand, an “effective” weight loss program is one that takes off more than 40 pounds and keeps it off for life.

In other words, when someone is looking for an “effective diet” they are asking from a very unique and personal perspective. What is really being said is “I want to know about a diet program that is so effective that it will work for me and do what I want it to do.”

So then, from my personal point of view, here are my thoughts on what an effective diet should accomplish.

- Enables you to lose the weight you need to lose
- The weight stays off for the rest of your life
- You feel more energetic and not rundown from dieting
- As a result of dieting you body establishes a lower set point
- You feel better and look better
- You get lots of compliments on your appearance
- You are significantly healthier than you were before you started your diet

Back to our question. “What is an effective weight loss diet?” When you ask this question you may be asking for the identity of a specific diet. You could simply be asking, “Give me the name of a diet that will work for me?” Or you could mean, “What must be done for a diet to be effective?”
Possibly you actually want to know all of the above. “I want to know about a specific diet that will work for me and what I must do to see it through to success.”

Once you feel that you have found your individual “effective” diet then there are some things that you can do to increase your potential for accomplishing your goals. Here now are 6 tips for making your weight loss plan effective:

1. Get to the root of the problem. Identify the real causes for your battle with excess weight. For example, my problem surfaced after the death of my father when I was eleven. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that “stress” and “grief” were at the core of my weight problem. I ate to make myself feel better. That behavior followed me for many years to come. I had to learn that drowning my sorrows in food was actually making things worse…not better.

2. Retrain your brain- The old way is not working. The way you think about food and exercise is all wrong. Change your thinking to change your lifestyle. Food is like any other pleasurable indulgence. When there are no boundaries you lose control. Instant gratification is no longer your reward. Your reward will be a NEW you…healthier, more energetic, more attractive.

3. Get your “swagger” on. Develop and attitude of confidence that you are “in it to win it!” You cannot fail.

4. Don’t race to the finish line…methodically stroll to victory. If you push yourself too hard and too fast you will burn yourself out.

5. Don’t look at another diet…EVER! This is the last diet you will ever need.

6. Take responsibility for yourself. Don’t look to anyone or anything as the source for your success. Adopt the old saying, “If it is to be…it’s up to me.”

By: Richard Weirich

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Richard Weirich co-hosts the internationally popular Health at Last Radio and has written numerous publications on weight loss, health, and wellness. To find out more about effective weight loss click here and you can visit the author's website here.