5 Ways to Avoid Cheating on Your Diet

don’t cheat yourself Starting a diet can be a momentous event and most of us going into it with the best intentions. We want to lose weight and we want to look and feel better, at least for the first few days. Three days in however, and you may be ready to completely chuck your diet so that you can go back to eating real food again.

There are a few keys that will help you avoid cheating on your diet. You can employ any number of them to assist, but remember, even if you do end up cheating a little, it's not the end of the world. Call it a day and start your diet again. It's only a problem if you give up and lose focus. Let's go over a few of these keys that will help you avoid cheating.

1. Don't start a deprivation diet.

Strict diets usually get fast results initially, but these are usually wiped out if you cave to intense cravings. If you know that you have a hard time giving up your favorite foods, don't doom yourself to failure by starting a deprivation diet. Instead, find ways to simply eat less of these foods. You won't end up feeling as though your cravings are controlling your life.

2. Allow yourself a little wiggle room.

You'll need to have pretty good discipline for this to work, but your diet will be much more successful if you allow yourself a little freedom here or there. If you simply must have ice cream, than allow yourself to have one small portion every few days. Just make sure you can keep it to that portion or you will have sabotaged yourself.

3. Set up rewards.

One of the best ways to avoid cheating on your diet is to set up a rewards system with your goals. Just make sure that the rewards are not food related. For example, once you reach your first five pounds lost, go get a manicure, or do something that you really enjoy. This helps keep you motivated, even when the going is tough. It gives you something else to focus on and makes it easier to stay focused.

4. Stop kicking yourself.

You can preprogram yourself to fail if you believe that you cannot do something. Instead of saying that you can never stick to a diet and always end up cheating, tell yourself that you can do this. When the going gets tough, keep repeating "I can do this." If you do it often enough, you'll start to believe it and you'll be able to make it a reality.

5. Avoid known problem areas.

If you have a hard time sticking to your diet when you go out with friends, it's time to evaluate your activities. Stay away from restaurants where you know it's going to be tough to stay on your diet. Give up going to the bar every week. You'll be able to see results in less time and you'll be able to avoid the traps that always derail you.

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Originally posted 2008-11-28 11:45:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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4 comments ↓
#1 3 Tips on How to Avoid Diet Stress | Health, Fitness, Exercise, and Weight Loss (47 pounds in 7 weeks) on 06.12.08 at 5:35 am

[...] pick a diet that is going to deprive you. While the word diet is synonymous with deprivation, it doesn’t have to be. So many people set themselves up for failure by picking a diet that [...]

#2 4 Ways to Stop Overeating | Health, Fitness, Exercise, and Weight Loss (60 pounds in 12 weeks) on 07.14.08 at 5:21 am

[...] some cases, overeating is triggered by the feeling of being deprived. Instead of quitting all of your favorite foods cold turkey, allow [...]

#3 Why Do Diets Fail? | Weight Loss, Fitness, Exercise, and Health on 11.10.08 at 5:24 am

[...] Whether it’s the soup diet, the juice diet, or even some of the more popular diet plans, a lack of variety can be a major reason for failure. It’s simply too difficult for many people to eat the same [...]

#4 Garth Delikan on 06.07.11 at 5:58 am

Really liking this article as it talks a lot of common sense followed up by sound advice!

The idea to not just losing weight but to also maintain your weight loss is not to punish yourself and beat yourself up but to also set up realistic and achievable goals.

The key is determination, discipline and above all ENJOY!

Thanks guys will look forward to exploring this site more.

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