Awareness of healthy weight is a really good thing considering nearly half the population is over-weight or obese. So many people start a diet but never stick to it.

Here are five great tips to help you stick to a healthy diet and lose weight.

* Change you thinking - a “diet” is not a short-term thing, but a lifestyle choice that needs to be permanent. Find an eating plan that you can live with and actually enjoy without feeling guilty every time you eat something. Fad diets have caused us to consider weight control to be a short-term choice, after which we can return to our old eating habits. Healthy eating must become a life-long habit with a positive mindset.

* Make dietary changes gradually – it is very hard to suddenly have to stop eating every unhealthy food at once. Every day, make a decision to remove one “bad” food from your diet and replace it with a healthier alternative. You will be more likely to keep to the changes this way, and your mind will accept your new diet better.

* Hold yourself accountable – start a food journal, in which you record daily, what you eat, when and how much. Record in red the “bad” foods that you have decided not to eat, so you can see how well you are doing. As you start to lose the weight, use your food journal to record how you are feeling, whether you felt hungry and what you did about it, little tips you have read and great recipes you have found. Use it as a great tool to, not only record your progress, but also to use as a reference when you are having a difficult day.

* Reward yourself – we all need motivation and reward to keep on track, so set little goals and give yourself a reward when you achieve it. It may be “no fried food for a week” or “eat raw vegetables every day for a week” or “walk for 20 minutes every day this week.” Make the goal achievable but challenging, and reward yourself, but not with food!

* Accept that you must include some type of physical activity in your life if you are going to lose weight and keep it off. You don’t have to go to the gym and get all hot and sweaty unless you are into that sort of thing. A simple 20 to 30 minute walk around your neighborhood that gets your heart rate up and makes you a little breathless is enough. Do this 3 to 5 times a week as a minimum, and you will see the weight fall off and you will feel so much better for it.

Practise these 5 great tips and you will be successful in sticking to your new diet.

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