Is slimming for life or just for a couple of weeks and then back to our own eating habits?

First let's examine the facts:
First fact is that 60% of British women are overweight.
Fact number two is that 60% of British women have been on a diet at one time or another.

So given these facts, how is it that they are still not eating healthily after losing weight and then letting the weight go back on. Look around your work place at lunch time and l bet you will see someone with a low calorie lunch box convincing her that she is eating healthily. You may see some changes to her shape after a couple of weeks, but it never seems to last.

We live in a world where instant gratification is the order of the day. Cosmetics are advertised which promise overnight youth and beauty. Pick-me-up drinks are billed as bringing immediate relief from stress and strain.

Somehow this attitude has spilled over into the slimming world and "Get Slim Quick" schemes are big business. Of course to the person who has been struggling with three stone of surplus fat for perhaps ten years or more, it is not hard to understand the appeal of a promised fast result. However, as we all know three stones of excess fat are not gained overnight. Being fat is usually the product of years of eating the wrong food, at the wrong time, for the wrong reason, in the wrong quantities. In short, being overweight is the product of bad eating habits. So, no matter how much you diet the weight will come piling back on, if you haven't learnt how to eat properly. Forget any notions you might have of some miraculous overnight transformation happening and turning you from an overweight person to a slim person. That just is not going to happen. In fact forget any notions you might have about the goal of a long-term diet just being about weight loss. Sure it will be great when you have lost all your excess weight and can feel slim and confident. However, frankly it won't do you any good if you just slip back into your old eating habits again.

So the first step in planning a long-term weight loss campaign, is to know the enemy. The enemy in this case is you and your bad eating habits. In fact it will help you to come to terms with the fact that your weight-loss regime is going to take some months and accept that the time factor is an essential part of the process. You wouldn't dream of trying to learn French in two weeks or to take up painting and expect to be a Picasso in a fortnight. With this in mind right from the start, to look upon you weight loss programme as a course in which you are learning new eating habits. So that, six or maybe twelve months down the line, not only will you have lost weight, but you'll have learnt new ways of eating which will enable you to keep slim for life.

Plan of action: Take a large piece of paper and write on it in big letters ONE DAY AT A TIME. Put this on the fridge. By breaking the time factor down into small pieces rather than large pieces, your aim on your weight loss programme will be in reach. Rome was not built in a day and slim figures aren't acquired overnight.

Slimmers who take the time to plan and persevere with their weight loss programme, will find that in addition to super new figures, they acquire healthy new eating habits and keep them for life. Isn't that worth waiting for?