Stop the YO-YO

Many people yo-yo in their diet and/or healthy lifestyle because they work to improve in many different areas at once instead of gradually making changes and then sticking with them. At times everything is synced up and they lose weight or are consistently eating healthy and exercising. Other times something throws you off and then something else falls off and then the weight is back up or you're off the healthy eating & exercise wagon.

Step 1
Really take a minute to figure out what is the biggest problem for you in maintaining your weight or maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Rank the problem areas in order of most problematic for you:
Problem Areas:
Portions/Overeating
Snacking/Choices
Inconsistent Exercise
Other?

Step 2

Take the biggest problem area for you and identify what contributes to this problem

Problem Areas:

Portions/Overeating
Eating out a lot, not feeling full, not being aware of what you are eating, finishing other peoples meals, not wanting to throw something away, using food to combat boredom or other feelings of emptiness.

Snacking/Choices
I keep them around for my kids/husband/wife, I go to meetings where snacks are offered, I just always buy certain snack foods to have in the house, I am in a hurry and buy pizza or fast food because its easy, I drink soda or other high-calorie drinks, I like snacks! I don’t know what to make or eat that’s healthy

Inconsistent Exercise
I don’t have time, I plan to do it and just don’t, Its not convenient, If I don’t do it all week why do it at the end of the week, if I can only do it once why bother, I don’t like it, I don’t want to sweat, I don’t know what to do, it doesn’t make a difference

Other?

Step 3

Combine your biggest problem with the biggest reason for that problem and work only on that problem. That doesn’t mean abandon everything else but focus just on one thing. If you try to focus on everything at once as so many “dieters” do, you don’t ever overcome any of the problems, you just improve some for a while and then over time back to the old habits.

So for example: If not wanting to throw away food ends with you (over)eating it, then work on making less, freezing some, planning a left over night.

You can’t solve a problem you haven’t identified and you can’t solve multiple problems at once. Don’t set a time frame on fixing your first problem but once you feel like you have it under better control move on to the next problem.

Find a good resource for help and inspiration:

I love Bob Greene’s first book, Get With the Program, as a healthy living guide but there are other books that are not about DIET but inspiration and offer real tangible suggestions:

Fat Families, Thin Families: How to Save Your Family From the Obesity Trap (Amy Hendel)
Finally Thin!: How I Lost Over 200 Pounds and Kept them off (Kim Bensen)
The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl (Shauna Reid)
Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World (Lisa Lillien)
Hungry: Lessons Learned on the Journey from Fat to Thin (Allen Zadoff)
Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir (Jennette Fulda)