My Favorite Weight Loss Tips! The Plans that Worked and the Diets that Didn't

Diets, exercise plans, weight loss programs, and regimens have always been interesting to me. I'm not a gym rat or an athlete but I really enjoy trying new things that sound interesting in the name of striving to achieve a healthy body weight and making healthy lifestyle habits that will stick. Having tried a number of these plans and diets, I've categorized my top favorites and least favorites. Of course, everyone is different, and your list might look completely different from mine, but if you're interested in trying something new for your New Years Resolution, I hope you'll consider my successful ideas and perhaps save some time by avoiding the things that didn't work for me.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

Signing up for a Short Race

Putting my money down and registering for a 5K is always a good motivator and I start training with enthusiasm, but if I get behind or start to lose steam, I begin to dread that looming deadline date and as soon as the race is over, I just feel relieved and never run another day for weeks on end if I can help it. Some people are totally motivated by a short term commitment like this, but I kind of feel like it doesn't create healthy habits for me - it only makes me happy to quit training and I quickly go back to my normal ways.

Diets that Leave out Food Groups 

Whenever one food group is cut out of my diet completely, be that dairy or carbs or just sweets entirely (which is not a food group, but it feels like it!), I am never successful. I feel like the human body is meant to have a diet full of variety and that leaving out a familiar food group creates a void that soon becomes a craving. I can last a few days, but cutting out something long-term leaves me pining for whatever I'm missed out on. Moderation in all things will keep your body from feeling ridiculous withdrawals that lead to relapse.

Cereal Box Diets

Have you seen those diets on the back of cereal boxes that say you can lose something like up to 10 pounds in two weeks by eating one bowl of this cereal for two meals, and a sensible 3rd meal? I call these Cereal Box diets, where you replace two of your meals with something small and monotonous. By that 3rd meal, I am ravenous and angry, and I feel so picked on by that point that I just want to eat warm and gooey sympathy foods. I think all three of your meals need to be realistic and satisfying if you want to keep up your diet and avoid turning into a perpetually hangry person.

Anything Drastic

In a fit of rage, you might be tempted to gut your kitchen and vow to eat only vegetables and water, but if you do anything too crazy too fast, you'll give up your resolutions as quickly as you made them. I've learned that when I go from 0 to Extreme, I just can't keep it up. My advice is to avoid the guilt trip that often accompanies quitting something that you couldn't realistically keep up.

WHAT DID WORK

Marathons

With every marathon I run, I successfully break a handful of bad habits. When you're a beginner and you do it right, marathon training lasts for MONTHS. The mileage starts out small and typically asks for around 4 days a week. By the end of it, I've created excellent habits and I long for those regular doses of endorphins that you get on every run, so making running a habit isn't hard to continue after the big race. To keep up my endurance over months at a time, I have to adjust to foods that will keep me fueled for long periods of time, and fats and sugars just don't make the cut. Just be sure that when the big race is over, you scale back on your food intake too. A marathoner's diet looks quite different from a non-runner's, and all those extra calories and carbs will be the death of you if you keep that up after training ends.

An Event on the on the Horizon

When I have a future date or event in mind, I can stay determined and fixated on looking my best and sticking to my diet and exercise plan until then. The key is to always have something 2 or 3 weeks away to look forward to, be it a party, a reunion, or just meeting up with a friend you haven't seen in a while. As soon as the date passes, I quickly look up the next big thing in the planner to get excited about and I make that my new end goal date.

A Bet

My husband signed up for an online program where he put in $150 and bet that he could lose 10% of his body weight. If he could do it by the end of 4 months, he'd receive $300 back. The program isn't around anymore, but similar sites can be found online, or try making your own competition with friends and family. The money incentive was perfect for him, and because he wasn't competing against anyone but himself, he didn't feel like he was pressured out of obligation, only personally determined. It was all on him, and he reached his goal without a problem.

21-Day-Fix

This is my all-time-favorite plan to date. It works great with the amount of spare time I have (which is close to zero), and I've seen noteworthy results in a short amount of time. The program has you follow a 30-minute workout video each day while you use serving size food storage containers to monitor your portions. The key for me, and what has kept me from going crazy with this plan, was in making it flexible. I didn't become a portioning nazi, measuring containers with utmost accuracy, but instead would mentally visualize the appropriate portion sizes and I kept track with tally marks on my fridge. I would change up the workout videos too. On Cardio Fix Day, I might go for a run or hit the elliptical at the gym, so that the monotony of the videos wouldn't get to me after a few weeks.

In the end, I've founds its really all about lifestyle changes. Anything too radical or too short-lived was never effective for me, but when I focused on changing small habits and making better choices that didn't leave me starving or exhausted, I was able to keep it up and see great results. Good luck on your own New Year's Resolutions this year! Let me know if you've tried any of these plans or programs, and what has worked for you!