Once you can spot  cravings, there are ways to deal with them: distraction, confrontation and negative imaging.

The distraction approach involves ignoring the cravings. When you know a craving is about to engulf you,  do something else. Think about something wonderful, plan a dream vacation, or do anything to take your attention away from the urge to eat. The craving will usually pass.

The distraction method works best for people who have a good imagination or can change activities or thoughts at an instant’s notice. You only have to do these things for a few moments because cravings generally pass within minutes or even seconds. If you are bombarded by cravings throughout the day, confronting the cravings may be the most effective.

The confrontation approach pits you against the craving. Let’s say you want to raid the refrigerator for ice cream. You could pretend that the urge is another person trying to convince […]

1. Plan Ahead

2. Eat Before you Go

3. Eat Only Special Foods

4. Be the Slowest Eater

5. Keep a Proper Perspective

Holidays, parties and special occasions can be a problem because eating is encouraged. Not only is temptation around, but everyone else is eating, the food is good, there may be social pressure to “try some of this” and it is natural to “let go” when celebrating. The trick is to be prepared and to avoid the anxiety that comes from trying to lose weight and also celebrate at the same time.

One common mistake is for people to vow to eat nothing at the event. This is a real set-up because they either feel guilty when they eat or feel deprived when they don’t. You can enjoy yourself and still stick to your plan. Here are some suggestions to help you have fun and still control your eating:

Plan ahead. […]

Using weight loss as motivation and reward for sticking to a diet is the worst possible method of attempting to change your eating habits from a long term standpoint and almost GUARANTEES FAILURE. Weight Watching can be your most DREADFUL ENEMY!

These may sound like strange words to you, but if you have ever lost weight before, you have probably regained it, with a few additional pounds added on, as soon as the diet was “ended”. What you may not be aware of however, is that your concentration on weight loss is the very thing that made you regain your weight over a longer period of time. The reason for this should become clear as we expand upon this subject.

When someone has dieted there are always two questions that are asked: “How much did you lose?” and “How long did it take you?” Furthermore, in case someone asks you in more general terms “How […]