Avoid These Pitfalls When Dieting

Weight loss can seem like a daunting tasks to some, especially with all the information out there to digest and make sense of. For those that take on this daunting task, the road ahead can be full of potential pitfalls to knock you off the rails without the right guidance. With this in mind, here are some pitfalls you should try and avoid if you want to make your diet a success.

Don’t Think It, Do It

Try to stop thinking the word ‘diet’ every mealtime. It makes the whole thing sound too much like a chore, when in reality it should be a lifestyle change and can be fun. Resolve to make a few healthy changes to  your lifestyle that you can live with, and you will soon stop thinking you are on a diet.

Wise Up To Portion Size

When we see a recipe that tells use to serve one medium potato or one portion of rice, many of us don’t actually know how big ‘one portion’ is. As a result we tend to over compensate and end up eating more than the recipe recommended. As a rule of thumb – a medium potato is about the size of a computer mouse, a portion of meat is about the size of a deck of cards and a portion of rice or pasta is about a cupful.

Don’t Procrastinate

To lose weight you should be combining your healthier meals with some exercise. The problem is many people simply keep putting this off, often with the excuse that they don’t have time. If you think you don’t have time to put in a few sessions of exercise a week, get this. Barack Obama recently told a leading health magazine that he still exercises for 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week. Now he is quite a busy guy, but if he can manage to find the time then you have no excuses!

Over Doing It

The other end of the spectrum with exercise is over doing it. While hitting the gym every day might sound like a good idea, it could be doing more harm than good. You will put yourself at a greater risk of injury as muscles and joints become overworked doing the same repetitive exercises every day. There is also the risk that you will get bored quickly and quit altogether. Give your body at least 1 rest day a week, and try to vary the types of exercises you do.

Be A Believer

For any weight loss program to work, you have to believe it will. Having a mindset of ‘well I’ll try it and see what happens’ will usually end in failure. Tell yourself that you will succeed, then going about putting together a plan of realistic lifestyle changes that you know you can stick to. Set yourself some goals to give yourself something to work towards, and promise yourself you won’t quit until you hit those goals.