Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Top 3 Diet Mistakes Beginners Make


Nutritional Planning (a.k.a. Dieting) is an integral part of the weight loss equation. Coupled with exercise, you have a wellness combo that can take you to your fitness goals in no time! In their haste to a smaller waist, many dieters make a few common mistakes that can be easily avoided. Are you guilty of any of the diet sins below?

#3 – Having No Plan

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Have you heard that before? Well it rings very true in the world of wellness. If you have no diet plan you’ll be less equipped to manage your weight loss attempt. You’ll be so free that you’ll eat anything at any time and make no progress, or will be so at sea with the many nutrition choices you can make that you stand still instead of making a decision to take action. Think about your goals and what’s realistic for you and make a loose plan of attack.

This may simply be: drink water instead of soda with dinner, or eat green veggies with every dinner, have a salad with lunch…. It needn’t be a detailed plan, but even a brief outline will help you along with your diet. Having the plan lets you see what works, tweak and try something new, or add-on to what’s already working for you.

#2 – Being Too Strict

The other side of the coin is the dieter who is so strict that they drive themselves to failure. Limiting calories is great, but strictly counting calories or limiting your calorie intake to too few calories is nerve-wracking and unhealthy, respectively. If you are to rigid in your diet, you’ll either get bored or feel so deprived that you’ll give up your diet entirely and hop into the first fast food joint you can find. There is a saying: Everything in moderation. That is key to creating a nutrition plan you can live with. No one desires to live on celery and wheatgrass juice alone, and no one wants to weigh each grape before they eat it and log it immediately into a spreadsheet. So don’t be so strict with yourself!

#1 – Being Impatient

The number one mistake dieters make is being impatient. You cannot expect to go from a size 10 to 2 after one week of clean eating! One pound contains 3600 calories so you must burn or deplete by that much in order to lose a pound. It is very possible (and healthy) to lose a pound or two a week with a clean diet and moderate exercise. Weighing yourself twice daily won’t help matters any, so try to do weekly weigh-ins instead to keep track. Make a plan, not too strict, and watch the pounds melt away! (Yes, it can be that easy)

1 comment:

Betty said...

Being impatient is the hard one for sure!

We want it to happen right now!

Great blog!

Thanks