Want Success Dieting? Plan to Fail

There are so many different diets on the market today that it’s very difficult to know which diet to choose. Your friend told you that she found the perfect diet but when you tried it, it didn’t work. Your sister-in-law sung the praises of another diet but you found no success with it. Your co-worker told you about a “fool-proof” diet that you somehow found a way to mess-up too.

Well, don’t worry. There are millions of people who are in the same boat as you. They’ve tried diet after diet and they just can’t seem to stick to one or make any of them work. The result is feeling bad that they can’t succeed and probably eating even more to try to get rid of their sadness. In some cases, the people just completely give-up and decide they will never be able to lose weight because they can’t stay on a diet.

Well, there’s good news. Diets do really work and there isn’t one person on this earth that can’t benefit from a diet.

So what is the key to dieting success? Believe it or not, the key to success is actually planning to fail.

That’s right! You need to plan to fail.

I know it sounds counter-productive but it’s what really works.

Think about it. What leads you to most often quit a diet? You are tempted to cheat on your diet, you do, and then you get frustrated and down on yourself and you figure there’s no point in continuing on with your diet. So you quit. And that’s exactly the reason you need to plan to fail.

To be more specific, you need to plan what you will do when you fail. Becoming even more specific, you need to figure exactly how you will ensure that you will get right back on the diet and continue fighting the good fight.

Of course dieting is more of a mental fight than a physical one. (If you think it’s a physical fight then stop believing that right now. You need to diet with your mind first and then your body will follow.)

So the first thing you have to do when you fail on a diet is to figure out why you failed. Where were you when you failed? How were you feeling? What were you thinking? What were you doing? Consider all these things. Be honest with yourself about what probably caused you to cheat on your diet.

The next thing you need to do is learn from your mistake. If you were doing something or went somewhere that just tempted you too much then you want to avoid that place or doing that thing. If you were feeling a certain way (stressed, depressed, etc.) then try to find other ways to cope with those feelings besides eating.

After you have figured out what caused you to fail, and after you’ve learned from it, the next thing you need to do is forgive yourself. Tell yourself you’ll do better next time and then move forward.

Work all of this out beforehand, before you even begin your diet. Know that you will learn from your mistake and then forgive yourself. Then plan to get right back on the diet and keep going.

Look, rarely is there a diet that is perfect for more than a few people. So stop looking for that “magic bullet”. You probably won’t find it. Instead, know that diets are hard work and that you won’t be perfect when you are dieting. But none of that matters. What does matter is that you know what you will do when you fail, and that you get right back on the dieting wagon so that you will finally achieve dieting success.

©Antonia Stuart-James 2008 from You Can Lose Weight Now and English Hypnotherapist in Belgium