10 Success Strategies Every Dieter Should Know

1. Attaining and maintaining lean body mass is a lifetime commitment needing lifetime lifestyle strategies.

2. Ease on Down the Diet Road: Making gradual adjustments in food, exercise and supplementation works better for long-term weight-loss than drastic measures you cannot maintain.

3. Eat small frequent meals, well chewed, slowly eaten. Give thanks before meals. Put your fork, spoon, or food down between each bite.

4. Start eating early and try to get most of your calories in by 3-5 PM.

5. When hungry between meals, try 8 to 16 oz of water first. Green tea is likely even better. Perhaps add fiber (psyllium, oat bran, chitosan) to the water to "fill you up" and absorb fat and bile.

6. Eat vegetable-based clear soups and fish frequently.

7. Create "reward meals". The key to a long-term strategy of eating well is not having to be being perfect. Have some "planned cheating" or a "cheat allowance" built into your strategy.

8. Always start with a sensible, balanced nutrient dense nutrition strategy combined with exercise and supplements. Move to the more extreme and restricted strategies only as proved necessary. Then "cycle" or "sandwich" these more extreme strategies with a balanced nutrient dense wide variety strategy. This way you will not get "bored" with the more restrictive strategies, which are very difficult to maintain for long periods of time for most of us. Don't play the "all or nothin' " Yo-Yo diet game.

9. If obese, high sodium intake significantly increases death risk, regardless of blood pressure. So if you are obese be moderate in sodium from salt and additives.

10. Look in the mirror every day, preferably before or after showering, and tell the person in the mirror you love him/her. Regardless of your physical appearance, fatten up with self-love the real person inside!

by Dr. John H. Maher