Common Sense Diet Tips From Real Women

If you're trying to lose weight, staying on your diet can be a challenge. Your busy lifestyle makes it difficult to do things like prepare your meals ahead of time, remember to pack a lunch for work, or get to the gym for a daily workout. Here's a collection of hints and tips from real women that helped them stay on their diets.

"I like to make meals special when I'm on a diet," says Angie, a stockbroker. "Nice plates, set the table and sit down to eat. If I do that, I feel like I've actually had a meal. It's better than grabbing food and eating on the run. When I do that, I sometimes forget that I've even eaten."

If you're cooking for a family, cook just enough for everyone and serve directly onto their plates. You'll be far less likely to 'finish the little bit left in the pot'.

Brenda, an office coworker, says that the blender is her best friend when she's on a diet. Instead of grabbing fast food on the way to the office, she tosses a handful of frozen berries into the blender with a cup of milk for breakfast. It's a sweet treat that fills her up and pleases her sweet tooth for the day.

You know how important it is to drink lots of water when you're dieting, but it isn't always easy to do. Try this trick: Fill a gallon jug with water, label it 'Mom's -Don't Touch!' and stick it in the fridge. Whenever you open the refrigerator for anything, grab your jug and swig some down. You'll have a consistent reminder to drink up, and a way of measuring how much you've had.

After the baby, you want to lose weight as quickly as possible, but your body may not be in a cooperative mood. Remember that your body is designed to nourish a child even after you give birth. If you put it on a starvation diet, you'll be fighting its natural tendency to store up nutrition for the baby. Instead, eat healthy portions and step up your activity level. And if you're nursing, keep in mind that your body NEEDS the extra calories -up to 1000 more per day.

Buddy up for moral support. Some folks have gotten really creative in the effort to lose weight together. When one reader's best friend moved across the country, the pair invested in cell phones and made a telephone date to walk half an hour together three times a week. They not only kept in touch, they both lost weight!

Fad diets do have their place. If you only need to shed a few pounds of water weight to fit into that slinky dress, pick one of the healthier fad diets for a few days. Both the grapefruit diet and the cabbage soup diet let you eat a wide variety of food and guarantee you a lot of lost water weight. Just remember - only a few days is the rule.

The only real solution for long term weight loss is a change in your eating and activity habits. Eat less calories than you burn, and set reasonable goals. Trying to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week over a long period of time is an effort that will almost guarantee failure.

Losing weight is a matter of changing your lifestyle to include healthy eating and exercise habits. If you do that, you'll lose the weight you want to lose and keep it off for good.

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