How to Avoid Giving up on a Diet

It is easy to become demoralised when you're on a diet. You have to change your routine – particularly around food and exercise – which is a hassle and you don't always lose as much weight as you'd like to. When you're feeling down about your lack of progress, you may be inclined to just abandon your weight-loss plans altogether, despite feeling miserable about your size. There may be an occasion when you binge on junk food just to make yourself feel better, but before you know it other bad habits start creeping in and eventually you give up on the diet completely.

It is possible to avoid this situation arising, however. Firstly, you need to stop thinking about your weight-loss plans in terms of going on a diet, because doing this is setting yourself up for failure. By asserting that you're going on a diet you put additional pressure on yourself, as a diet is a set of prescribed rules that you have to follow. You feel that everyone is judging what you eat and on the occasions when you don't follow the diet to the letter you're left feeling guilty and ashamed and as though you have to explain yourself. Clearly, this isn't a healthy way to live your life.

Basically, to achieve weight loss you have to burn more calories than you consume and so this is where your focus should lie. You have to concentrate your efforts on reducing your portion sizes; snacking less; making healthier food choices; and doing more exercise. With this kind of approach you can still eat some chocolate without having to feel as though you have cheated. As long as you make room for the chocolate in your daily calorie allowance, you will still be able to lose weight. You just have to practise moderation.

This means that instead of bingeing on junk food at weekends or during the week, you have to learn to control your eating. You need to eat meals regularly throughout the day to keep your energy levels high and to reduce the likelihood that you will crave sugary food that you will end up bingeing on. Of course, you will no doubt encounter emotional highs and lows throughout your life that might make you turn to food. Ideally, you would be able to find other ways to deal with your emotions, but sometimes you just cannot help yourself.

The main thing is to remember is that even if you do have a bad day and binge on high-calorie junk food, it is only one day. You may have lost control this time, but you know that you have the ability to lose weight and control the food you put into your mouth, and so you will soon be able to get back on track. What you don't want to do is berate yourself for overeating when this will only make you feel worse about yourself and give you an excuse to give up on your weight-loss plans. After all, you have to think about the future and recognise that once you're reached your weight-loss goal; you then have to be able to maintain it.