Having Trouble Dieting? Get the Help You Need.

Much of what we think of as “can’t stick to my diet” can be put under the heading of “can’t solve a problem”.

Dieting is one of those life situations where if you can’t do it easily, there’s a problem in the way. The problem requires an effective means of solving it. There can be more than one way to solve the problem. But, at the very least, one way must be found.

Once a solution is arrived at, it needs to be implemented so that it gets you to your goal—solving the problem so you can stay on your diet and lose the weight for good.

Research comparing weight-loss diets shows it is not the diet that counts; it is being able to get on the diet and stay on the diet you choose that makes the real difference.

Willpower alone is an unreliable source of energy for adhering to a dieting regimen. Willpower is easily depleted. Instead of counting on willpower, a dieter is more likely to stay on her diet plan if she solves whatever personal problems are interfering. Examples of such problems are: vulnerability to temptations, emotional eating, feeling deprived, negative thinking, hard to break habits, and low self-confidence.

When it comes to the “sticking-to-it” part of a diet, the dieter is usually left on her own. “Stick-to-your diet” helpers are not available the way food plans are.

Let’s take a look at some problems that threaten dieting and see how a “stick-to-your diet” helper could help solve them.

What if you can’t get started dieting? You think: I have absolutely no idea how to get motivated. I need to lose 30 lbs, no doubt about it, but I can’t get motivated enough to start.

Or: you eat secretly. What could you do instead of eating secretly? You have no idea. Can you take a walk? Can you take yourself away from the refrigerator and take a bath instead? No, those things are totally unsatisfying. So what can you do?

What if you get so hungry that you eat everything in sight while making dinner for the family? When you’re hungry, sometimes even just a little bit hungry, you lose control. There’s no way to put the brakes on. You can tell something drastic is needed.

Here’s where you need help with your dieting beyond what your diet has to offer. The diet’s food plan can’t help you with hard-to-solve personal dieting issues. An honest-to-goodness stick-to-it dieting helper, though, would be the right kind of help. It could help you to: • First: zero in on the problem and make it crystal clear • Next: come up with a solution to your problem • Then: devise a plan to put your new solution right into action • After that: see where your plan could get hung up • And last: fine-tune your plan to make doubly sure it works.

A dieting helper like this would make dieting a lot easier. It would give dieters the same kind of help on the psychological side of dieting that the food plan gives them on the dietary side.