You can easily find a lot of information on what to do to lose weight, but no so much is available on how to stick to a diet once you’ve started it. That’s what this article is for – to bring to your attention the three big mistakes that, if you make them, can completely ruin even the best designed diet. Keeping these points in mind can make the difference between success and failure.

1. The All Or Nothing Attitude

This kind of dieter will carefully plan out their meals, sometimes weeks in advance, and try to meet and handle every possible situation. Often this diet might even work, except that they forget one thing: The human factor. Sometimes, no matter how you know you should, a person just can’t stand to eat another radish, and if your meal for tonight features radishes heavily, you’ll be in trouble! It only takes one or two mistakes like this, and suddenly you’ll find you are more and more completely ignoring your carefully prepared meal schedule in favor of unhealthy snacks.

If this is the way you were planning on dieting, you may need to do some re thinking. If you are really serious about losing weight permanently, then you will get much better results making small changes, one after the other, then making huge changes all at once. Remember, slow weight loss is better than no weight loss!

2. Sacrificing

Another common mistake is to view your diet as a period of sacrifice. You do not allow yourself the foods that you enjoy most while you are on your way to your target weight. You may have a great diet plan and be very successful in losing weight, but what happens when you reach your goal? You have not learned to eat ‘bad foods’ in moderation so as soon as you start, you are likely to go out of control. It is better to include a little of everything in your diet and learn to enjoy it in small quantities. Yes, even chocolate!

3. Goals

For best results, you need to set clear, achievable goals, and write them down! There are plenty of other resources on goal setting, so I won’t go into details here, but suffice it to say that without a clear goal you will only drift aimlessly. For the best results, your goals should be measurable and immediate. For example, trying to lose two pounds per week for a total of 15 pounds over the next two months. Some weeks you will do better or worse, but you can only tell that if you have goal to measure your results by, and answer the all0important question: have you done well… enough?

If you have been making these mistakes, do not worry. The most important point in dieting as in so many other things is to move on. Learn from your failures as well as your success and do not use a mistake as an excuse for giving up. The only way to achieve your goal permanently is to make a commitment to become a healthier person. Remember that eating normally includes eating more some days and less others. Learn to enjoy food in moderation and you have every chance of avoiding these bad diet mistakes.

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