Things you should never do on a diet

Are you trying to lose weight? Great. Here are the things you should never do if you want to get to goal.

1. Never doubt yourself.

If you don’t think you can lose weight you’re wasting your time even trying. Don’t waste your time reading the rest of the things you shouldn’t do on a diet. It’s been widely proven that weight loss success is completely dependent on your confidence that you can lose weight. If you don’t have confidence, you’re not going to lose weight.

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2. Don’t compare your progress to past weight loss attempts. 

If you have prior experience with dieting, you could be undermining your success by comparing the last time (or the last 5, 10, 20, whatever) you tried to lose with with your current diet. Maybe you lost weight faster in the past and you’re disappointed with how slowly it’s going this time.

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Maybe you get stuck in past diets at a certain number on the scale and see no reason why you won’t get stuck again. Maybe your history is losing all the weight you want to lose, but never being able to maintain it. Don’t compare, but do learn from past diets. What do you need to do differently to get a different outcome?

3. Don’t compare your weight loss progress with anybody else’s.

I get it; I know that it stinks when you lose only 5 pounds in the same time somebody else loses 12. It’s hard not to compare, and feel good when you’re lose faster, and defeated when you’re losing slower. That’s exactly why you shouldn’t compare you rate of weight loss with anybody else’s.

They’re not you and so what they experience won’t be your experience. Don’t waste time and motivation, looking around at what everybody else is doing. As my teachers said all through elementary school, “keep your eyes on your own paper.”

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4. Don’t expect miracles.

Losing weight can do a lot of positive things for a person including making you look better, feel better, feel more confident, and even feel like your weight loss made you smarter. Those aren’t miracles; those are things that often result when weight is lost.

This may not become...

This may not become…

...this. Don't let that stop you from being the best you can be.

…this. Don’t let that stop you from being the best you can be.

If you expect to have a whole new body shape, or you expect your life to magically improve by every measure just because you weigh less, you are expecting miracles. The problem with expecting miracles is while you’re fretting over the miracles, you’re missing real benefits you get from weight loss.

5. Don’t quit

You may mess up with your diet. That’s okay. Don’t quit. No matter how many times you mess up, no matter how slow you’re progress, don’t quit.

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Quitters never reach goal.

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.