The Easiest Weight Loss Program for You

Although there’s no easy “one size fits all” weight loss
program, there is such a thing as a weight loss program which
makes it easier for you personally to lose weight than others.

This is the program which fits your lifestyle so well that you
are happy to adopt it and live with it permanently.

1. Decide which foods to include in your diet.

Which healthy foods do you like? Which ones do you tolerate? And
which do you hate?

Build your meals around those healthy foods which you enjoy.
After all there is no point in eating a meal and hating it.

The exception?

If you hate a whole food group, and your diet would be unhealthy
without it. In that case, adapt your diet to include the
elements you need in a palatable way. For example, if you hate
vegetables serve them in a way that you can’t taste them. Puree
them and include them in soups, stews or pasta sauces. If you
hate or have an allergy to dairy products, choose other foods to
give you alternative rich sources of calcium and protein.

2. Decide which junk foods you’ll dump

Which poor food choices can you easily live without?

Dump the junk that doesn’t matter to you. Maybe eating some junk
foods has just become a habit and you can easily wean yourself
away from them. Others are ones you love and would miss a lot so
include small amounts in an otherwise balanced healthy diet. In
this way you reduce the junk without feeling deprived.

3. Replace the gap left by the junk food you don’t care about
with healthy food you do like

Best of all replace the junk with healthy food which has a touch
of luxury. For example, you dump peanuts and potato snacks and
replace them with blinis, low fat cream cheese and caviar or
dump donuts for crispbread and smoked salmon or lean prime roast
beef.

4. Upgrade the junk food you love

Replace your junk food choices with something even better. For
example, instead of treating yourself to your usual cheap
chocolate bar, feel like a million dollars by buying yourself a
couple of exquisite handmade chocolates. This means you can
really indulge yourself now and again without piling on the
pounds.

5. Create weekly meal plans around the foods you have decided to
include in your diet

Pre-set meal plans in diet books and weight loss programs make
life easy but they’re unlikely to give you the most satisfaction
and enjoyment per calorie. They are not based on the foods you
particularly like and many have an aim of allocating foods in
particular proportions of fat, carbs and proteins, which makes
for some weird meals and combinations.

Forget being too rigid if you want to find a healthy balance you
can live with for life.

Also give those meal replacement bars and shakes a wide berth.
Who wants to live on those for a week never mind a life time?

Instead, choose a good variety of different healthy foods each
day and also vary your choices throughout the week. If planning
your own healthy meals sounds like too much hard work, use a
ready-made meal plan but substitute some of the things you like
least with similar foods you like better.

6. Don’t get too hungry

Living with hunger is hard and totally unnecessary to lose
weight. The easiest weight loss program matches your individual
hunger patterns. Such a ready-made program may not exist, so why
not devise your own?

Eat enough at each main meal to satisfy your hunger but not feel
stuffed. And eat often enough so that you’re not ravenous when
it’s time for lunch or dinner. Most people need a small snack
mid-morning and in the afternoon. As a guideline eat no more
than about the size of your two clenched fists for any main meal
and, if you feel you need more, fill up on salad or vegetables.

Your aim should be to feel hungry when it’s time for a meal but
not all the time.

7. Add some easy exercise

If exercise doesn’t fit into your life easily you won’t do it
(at least, not for long). Choose an activity which feels like
fun, even if it means trying a few things first to see what you
like. Or build your fitness by simply doing more as you go about
your day – moving more at work, being more active around the
house and garden, choosing to walk instead of taking the car on
short journeys etc. Build your level of activity gradually so
that you ease into fitness – you don’t have to tie yourself to
the gym every night – but if you love that, that’s ok too!

8. Think about what motivates you

As with the other elements of a weight loss program we are all
individuals when it comes to motivation. Why do you want to lose
weight? What reason is strong enough to make you stick to your
plan? You will have your own combination of reasons and they are
the key to your success. Remind yourself daily why you are doing
this so that you feel more motivated to change your habits.

9. Celebrate in style

Choose how you will celebrate your success and make it something
that drives you to meet your goal. Plan your celebration to
reward yourself with whatever means most to you personally and
not with what you or others think you should want.

10.It’s all about you

We are all different and so there’s no one weight loss plan or
program that will work best for everyone. Choose your own
elements like a pick and mix selection. Go at your own pace and
you’ll finally find just the right combination that works for
you – the easiest possible weight loss program.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

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