A question of choice

Is your waistline a constant source of concern? Are you an inveterate dieter who's tried everything? And yet, the pounds you shed keep coming back... Stop! It's time to find a diet that's right for you. 

Any diet that promises miracles can end up costing you a lot in the long run, not only in terms of money, but in terms of health. But this time, you think you have found THE perfect diet. Before starting out for the Nth time, ask yourself about the method you've decided to follow. Answer the following questions. If most of your replies are YES, you finally have the chance to lose weight - and keep it off.

1. Have you talked to your doctor about your weight concerns and about the diet you want to follow?
Start by letting your physician know that you want to lose weight. He or she is your health advisor: someone who knows you and can help you by analyzing with you the diet you want to start as well as your motivations.

2. The program doesn't promise weight loss of more than 1 kg per week
Weekly weight loss should not exceed 1 kg (2.2 lb.) When a person loses weight quickly, their metabolism tends to slow down and weight loss soon hits a plateau. As soon as you start to eat more, the pounds pack back on. You may even end up weighing more than when you started. Weight loss of 1-2 lbs. a week (500 g to 1 kg) is reasonable.

3. Does the diet allow you to eat a variety of foods? 
Any reducing plan should let you have the most varied diet possible, with every food group represented.

4. The program isn't based on taking special food products or drugs
When you follow a varied diet, you shouldn't be required to take special products, such as supplements or other treatments. It is by definitively changing your eating habits and through regular physical activity that you'll succeed in keeping weight off. Complicated diets based on grapefruit, pineapple, plant capsules, or special "fat-burning" herbal teas are useless. 

5. The diet you should follow is personal and shouldn't be one given to you by your sister-in-law or neighbor
A reducing program should be adapated to each person. We're all different from a physiological point of view, as well as when it comes to our eating habits and lifestyle. A diet's effectiveness depends on its being adapted to the person. What is good for someone else may not be good for you, and vice versa. This is particularly true when it comes to food tastes. Strict menus made up of foods that you don't like will never make you want to stick with them.

Lures

Losing a few pounds to feel better physically and psychologically.... why not? But it shouldn't become an obsession or a habit. The scale yo-yo is not only disheartening, but it can also be dangerous. Change your eating habits once and for all and in particular, remember that no powder, cream or potion can make you magically lose weight. A varied diet, flavorfully cooked, eaten at real meals, as well as regular physical exercise, are the best ways to reach and maintain your goals.

So, if your diet meets the criteria laid out above, you've achieved the first step in getting rid of those extra pounds!