10 Habits Of Unsuccessful Dieters

Bad Habits That Are Preventing You from Losing Weight

What could be more frustrating than not seeing the scale drop despite days or weeks of doing everything right? After all that hard work—all the cookies you didn't eat, all the willpower you maintained, all the time you logged at the gym—how could you not have lost any weight? It's enough to make even the most determined person throw in the towel. Before you swear off exercise and declare yourself as someone who "will never lose weight," stop, take a deep breath, and remember this:  Weight-loss may seem simple (eat fewer calories than you burn), but often, there's a lot more going on than a simple calorie equation. Our bodies aren't calculators after all! What's more likely is that you've made some innocent mistakes in your quest to lose weight. Don't feel bad about it—it's extremely common. These bad habits may be preventing you from getting the results you want. Instead of giving up, make some of the smart changes outlined below, and you'll see that scale drop in no time!   10 Habits of Unsuccessful Dieters Bad Habit #1: Going "on a diet" in the first place. Since when did the word "diet" refer to something good? The word itself implies restriction, limitation, and a short-lived effort to get some quick results and then return to a "normal" way of eating. SparkPeople's surveys have shown that people who consider themselves to be "dieting" lose less weight and encounter more problems (such as plateaus and a lack of motivation) than people who are trying to lose weight by creating a lasting healthy lifestyle. Plus diets usually mean giving things up: favorite foods, dining out, desserts—even your social life. You don't have to be a psychology expert to know that when you tell yourself you can't have something, you usually want it more. This way of thinking could directly be sabotaging your efforts.   Smart Fix: Ditch the diets for good and focus on creating a healthy lifestyle based on nutritious foods and small, realistic changes that you can live with for the long term. Bad Habit #2: Overhauling your eating habits overnight. How many times have you gone crazy eating all the "bad" foods you know you shouldn't, only to promise to swear them off starting next week or next month or next year? How often have you decided to suddenly clean out your kitchen, throw away all the "junk" and then shop for only healthy food? How's that working for you? No one can expect to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight—and no one should have to! To lose weight successfully and keep it off, you have to adopt a way of eating that you can stick with for the rest of your life.   Smart Fix: Eating healthy isn't about taking food away; it's about eating MORE of the things that are good for you. To be successful, you have to implement small and realistic changes to your diet. Next week, swap that 2% milk for 1%, and switch out your usual bread for a healthy whole-grain variety. Once you get used to that, you can set a small goal like eating one serving of fresh fruits or vegetables each day. The point is to start small with changes that fit into your lifestyle. Here are more tips on how to start eating a healthier diet.

Do We Eat to Live or Live to Eat

Food addiction, mindless eating, living to eat; they’re all related. What do they all have in common? The answer is usually a desire to consume foods that are not necessarily the healthiest choices or the best quantities, or at times when our bodies don’t really need fuel. While the focus of this article is the difference between eating to live and living to eat, I think it’s important to understand that most of us live to eat, and we need to know why!

As I sit here trying to get up the nerve to write my first article for this publication, my brain keeps jumping to that commercial I just saw for a new peppermint mocha ice cream and I think to myself, “Am I hungry?” No. “Am I nervous and procrastinating about this article?” Yes!

We’ve all gone through this. Walking back and forth to the fridge thinking something new has magically popped inside since our last visit. The stress of what we’re trying to accomplish distracting us so badly that we not only can’t finish the task at hand, but we’re trying to comfort ourselves by putting something in our mouths.