Remember that what you are working for doesn’t really mean anything compared to how you feel about yourself every step of the way. Will I have compassion for myself even if the results are terrible?Tom Rusk and Randy Read, I Want to Change But I Don’t Know How!
The real problem with yo-yo dieting is not learning from your mistakes so that you can give up the yo-yo.
An article in Prevention magazine entitled “Read This Before You Start Any Diet,” clearly shows that successful dieters have a past riddled with yo-yo failures. What separates them from the pack is the same thing that separates losers and winners in all walks of life. The winners learn from their mistakes, and the losers keep repeating them.
In the article, Timothy Lohman, Ph.D., a professor of physiology and director of the Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition at the University of Arizona, tells desperate dieters, “Say to yourself, I’ve done this three or four times–what’s the pattern here? If you can see it, then you don’t have to repeat it.”
Another study presented in Natural Health points out that adhering to proven dieting measures, not dieting fads, is a sure way to keep the weight off. Author of the study, Diane Berry, PhD, of the Yale University School of Nursing, examined 18 women who had lost 10 percent of their body weight and maintained the loss for at least one year.
To keep the weight off, Berry recommends exercising for 30 minutes daily, filling half your plate with vegetables, choosing whole grains, and identifying foods that you tend to overeat. Berry adds that the key to successful weight loss is learning new skills, such as being aware of foods that provoke you to overeat and keeping portion control in check.