My Simple New Approach to Dieting and Weight Loss This Year

Last year I managed to lose 25 pounds but got a bit full of myself and gained half of it back. Looking back I can identify a few key areas where I went wrong. This year I have designed a whole new dieting & weight loss approach which addresses those key health and wellness areas, as well as adding a new dimension to the way I relate to food. The beauty of it is in it's simplicity!

This year if you want a successful, positive and rewarding dieting and weight loss experience take a page from my book and implement these simple health and wellness tactics too:

#1 FACE YOUR WEAKNESS - MAKE THE TOUGH CHOICE

I love food in general but there are a few things that I can not eat even in moderation or they will send me on a binge. There are several items but the most notable are soda and candy. I am a sugar junkie. I just have to face that. In the past I had used those treats as a reward. But instead of being a small reward they turned into a full fledged binge. I could not stop eating them.

These binges would last for a week until, for the sake of my health and wellness; I had to muster the strength to stop eating them altogether again. This year, I need to face that there are just some foods I have to totally give up in order to maintain my dieting and weight loss success. As much as people say that you can eat anything on a diet and that excluding things makes it more difficult the plain fact is you may have to!

Honestly though, my health and wellness will not be any worse off because I can't eat handfuls of sugar - even occasionally. There is nothing good that comes from that type of snacking. So this year I will face the fact that there are tough choices to be made if I want to enhance my health and wellness.

#2 LISTEN TO YOUR BODY - AND OBEY!

Ever since I can remember I have had bad reactions to corn products. I have never had an allergy test done but I know my body, and it hurts after eating corn. The more processed the food is worse the pain is. But I love corn chips and salsa. I love tacos in crispy corn shells. I adore popcorn! So despite the pain and intestinal problems I gradually let corn products back into my dieting & weight loss regimen.

Another food I just recently found I was harmful to my health and wellness is gluten. This has been a real test for me as eating gluten free is not the simplest thing to do - especially when you like carbohydrates as much as I do! But your body knows what it needs. Don't take another stomach acid pill - stop eating the thing that hurts your stomach!

This year I will listen to my body and give it what it wants - and avoid what it doesn't! My health and wellness is worth the effort!

#3 DO WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW TO DO

If you take a poll of people who are trying a new dieting and weight loss program they will all tell you that eating right and exercising are the way to increase your health and wellness. But what does that really mean? It is common knowledge that we do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. We don't drink enough plain water. We don't exercise enough. Those are the health and wellness basics to "eating right." Exercise is exercise. Whether you join a gym, take up power lifting, or walk your dog - as long as you are moving - you are exercising!

These things are all simple common knowledge dieting & weight loss principles that we have had drilled into our heads our entire lives. But how many of us do them? No, we look for the newest dieting & weight loss craze. We want some piece of exercise equipment we see advertised on TV to rock, twist, or tread us effortlessly into a new slimmer body.

That's just not going to happen.

#4 PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

This year Instead of looking for that "Magic Bullet" miracle weight loss diet, I am just going to do what I already know to do. Get back to the dieting & weight loss basics I have always known enhance my health and wellness. I have just been too lazy to make the effort!

1. Face my weakness - Stay away from foods that cause me to binge

2. Listen to my body - Don't eat corn or gluten

3. Do what I already know to do - drink more water, eat more fruit, eat more veggies, get my butt off the couch and move it!

Sure, later on I may find a better way to do it all - but in the meant time I will have increased my health and wellness and made some substantial progress towards my dieting & weight loss goal!