The article below sums it up nicely – the 8 reasons you likely haven’t been able to stick to your goals and how to turn everything around and get yourself back on track…  

8 Reasons Why You Keep Falling Off The Diet Wagon

By Tom Venuto
Author, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

Clearly, we have an obesity problem in America and many other countries across our planet. Yet, I propose that we do not have a weight loss problem today. In case you’re confused at this apparent contradiction, consider these statistics:

According to a study from Oxford University published in the International Journal of Obesity, within 3 to 5 years, about 80 percent of all ‘weight losers’ have regained the lost weight, and often gained back a little extra.

According to research by the National Weight Control Registry, that relapse rate may be as high as 95 percent.

For comparison, relapse rates for drug, alcohol and tobacco dependency have been reported in the range of 50-90%.

This means that lots and lots of people have “successfully” lost weight. But not many have kept it off. Therefore, we don’t have a weight loss problem, we have a weight-relapse problem; we have a “not sticking with it” problem. Wouldn’t you agree?

In fact, the fall and subsequent weight-regain usually doesn’t take years. Many people have abandoned their new year’s resolutions within weeks. By the time the Super Bowl party rolls around, their diet is history!

If this is true, then shouldn’t we put more of our attention onto figuring out why you haven’t been sticking with your program, and what you should do about it?

I put together this new list (below) of the top 8 reasons why you fall off the wagon.

Rather than worrying about the minutiae of your diet plan, like whether you should be on low carb or high carb, Mediterranean or Okinawan, vegetarian or meat eater, I propose that if you simply focus on these 8 issues, you’ll start getting more lasting results.

How? By being able to stick with whichever plan you decided was best for you! After all, even if you have the best nutrition program in the world – on paper – it doesn’t do you much good if you can’t stick with it in practice!

THE 8 REASONS

1. No focus: you didn’t set goals, you didn’t put your goals in writing, and/or you didn’t stay focused on your goals daily (by reading them, affirming them, looking at a vision board, etc.)

2. No priorities: you may have set a goal, but you didn’t put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.

3. No support system: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going got tough.

4. No Accountability: you didn’t keep score for your own accountability – with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn’t set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)

5. No patience: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 pounds a week or 5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you lost “only” 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.

6. No planning: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn’t plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn’t have a menu on paper, you didn’t make time (so instead you made excuses, like “I’m too busy”)

7. No balance: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, “I want it now” route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.

8. No personalization: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn’t suit your schedule, personality, lifestyle, disposition or body type.

So there you have it – 8 reasons why most people fall off the wagon! Have you been making these mistakes? If so, the solutions are clear and simple: focus, prioritize, get support, be accountable, be patient, plan, balance and personalize.

About the Author: Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Want to learn how weight loss goals are achieved every day by ordinary folks who are no different from  you? Read our Burn The Fat review and see why losing fat and maintaining muscle is exactly what you need to look lean and get fit.

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If you’re looking for an exercise option that only requires one affordable piece of equipment, a little bit of space, and a good pair of shoes, consider a fitness jump rope workout.

For many people, jump roping is an ideal aerobic exercise option. It’s fun, almost anyone can do it, and it doesn’t require a gym membership.

Ease Into It

When starting an exercise program, it’s important that you work your way into it. If you have been doing aerobic exercise for some time, you’ll be able to “jump” into a fitness jump rope workout easily. Once you’re comfortable with the motion, you can increase your speed and incorporate different jumps.

For those new to aerobic exercise or for those resuming an exercise program after some time off, it’s very important to take it slow as your body adjusts. In addition, because jump roping is a high impact exercise, meaning that both feet leave the ground simultaneously, there is a greater risk of injury.

Even if you were a star jump roper as a child, chances are you may need to practice jumping as an adult. Go easy on yourself as you become accustomed to the movement. Even basic jumping requires a high level of coordination.

As you become accustomed to the movement, you can increase the length of time you exercise, the speed at which you jump, and the types of moves you incorporate into your routine.

Warm Up

For both experienced and new exercisers, it is vital to warm up before beginning a fitness jump rope workout. Warming up slowly raises your heart rate gradually, allowing your muscles time to adjust to the increased workload placed on them.

A good warm up for jump roping could be walking briskly for a few minutes, stepping in place, light bouncing on one’s feet, and eventually slow jumping as you start your workout.

Once your muscles are warm and loose, consider stretching the primary muscles involved. This includes your legs, calves, shoulders, wrists, and ankles. Ease into jumping slowly.

Add Variety

As you become used to the movement and to exercise, your fitness jump rope workout will become easier. This is a signal that it is time to make some changes. Just as your mind needs variety to stay engaged, so too does your body. When an exercise program becomes too routine, your body adjusts and the workout is no longer as effective.

There are a number of ways that you can change a jump rope fitness workout to ensure that you continue to challenge yourself and improve your cardiovascular health.

One way is to learn new jumping styles. Crossing your arms in front, or spinning the rope to alternating sides of your body are just two ways you can mix up the style. Consult a jump-rope book for new techniques.

Alternately, see if there’s a jump rope club in your area. You can learn new techniques and meet people with similar interests, which is also a great motivator.

Vary your speed. As your cardiovascular health improves, you’ll be able to jump faster for longer periods. Keep in mind that this can also increase your chances of injury. One method to help offset this risk is to incorporate interval training.

With interval training, you alternate between easy, moderate, or difficult levels of jumping. You can do this by changing your speed from slower to faster. Interval training has shown to be very effective, and because you’re not going full-steam throughout the entire workout, your chances of injury are less.

About the Author:

Lynn VanDyke is a master personal trainer and fitness nutritionist. She has authored the wildly popular ebook called Melt the Fat – check it out and reach your fitness goals.

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When you’re looking for a way to lose weight, the last thing that you might want to do is get up in front of a bunch of strangers and share your weight loss trials and tribulations.

It works for some people, but for others, they’d just like to know what they need to do and when they need to do it – in the privacy of their own homes.  And that’s exactly what online counseling for weight loss provides.

Weight loss counseling is an effective resource for anyone that needs more guidance than prepackaged meals or fancy calorie counting systems.  If you’re looking to lose weight and lose it for good, you’ll need to have someone who’s trained in nutrition as well as creating plans that will work to reap the weight loss rewards that you crave – no pun intended.  The online counselor or weight loss system can work for you, but only if you’re the right fit.

The trick with these kinds of programs is that while they might appear to put all of the responsibility on the weight loss system, the brunt of the responsibility is actually laid upon the dieter.

You will need to answer questions and track your progress honestly in order to keep the system working for you.  You’re not going to be weighing yourself in front of anyone… so only you can type in the correct weight or that extra cookie that you snuck in.  In short, if you aren’t using the system honestly, you won’t be able to lose weight.

Online counseling for weight loss does offer you resources of support so that you can stay on track.  With things like weight loss message boards and helpful charts, you’ll be able to learn to make better choices for your weight loss plans, rather than having to ‘go it on your own.’

Many online weight loss systems are also helpful in tracking things like exercise and activity so that you can see what else affects your weight besides what food you eat.

With helpful charts, you can see the progress that you’ve made and create new goals that are healthy and realistic.  And while you might not have anyone cheering you on, you get the self-satisfaction of knowing that you have all the tools that you need.

Sometimes that’s all that you need to succeed.  Sometimes being able to say that you made changes on your own is all the reward you need.

If you’re looking for your very own cheerleader, consider an online counseling for weight loss plan that includes a personal trainer.  Having access to your very own trainer is priceless, and more often than not the results are astounding.

About the Author:

Lynn VanDyke is a master personal trainer and fitness nutritionist. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat and has helped countless women lose excess body fat.

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On recently broadcast special edition of CNN’s Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of “mind experts” about how the thoughts you think literally turn into the events you experience, the material things you possess… AND even the health of your body.

For years, “positive thinking” and goal-setting were often criticized as “pollyanna” and “the law of attraction” was relegated into the category of “new age” fluff.

On the recent Larry King show, panel experts Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and others who were featured in the movie ‘The Secret’ explained that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with understanding mental laws, reveal why goal setting, the “law of attraction” and “positive thinking” all work, regardless of whether you look at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.

Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and to filter out those things that are unimportant.

The RAS is activated by “programming” goals into our sub-conscious minds. Our sub concscious mind is the “power center” and THIS is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.

We are discovering that our brain is cybernetic in nature, which means that it is literally like a computer, waiting for a program to be installed.

Here’s the kicker – the subconcsious is completely neutral and impartial – it will carry out any instructions you give it.

Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative thinking.

As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our “mental computer” is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behavior.

To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming into your subconscious.

This can be achived through such techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization).

In the 1970’s, the Soviets and East Germans were the first to formally use structured mental rehearsal, and at that time, they dominated in several olympic sports. This was reported in great detail in Charles Garfield’s landmark book, “Peak Performance.” Today, virtually all elite athletes use visualization extensively, as we now know that the brain cannot differentiate between real practice and practice that is vividly imagined.

If you are getting more of the same negative results in your life – such as the same health problems, or the same body fat continues to return even after you lose it, then you have probably been un-consciously running old negative programs and re-inforcing them with negative thought patterns.

You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your “mind’s eye” not as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be).

These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non- conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on “automatic pilot.”

In the last decade, neuroscientists discovered that you have the capacity to create an almost infinite number of new neural connections in your brain when you run new thought patterns.

The Old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been playing the “old records” over and over again.

If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the same way again. the old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over. Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new neural patterns.

Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.

Is this easy? For most people, no it’s not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you started.

You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by changing your mental pictures.

So is there something to this whole “positive thinking” thing?

The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: “As you think, so shall you be.” Variations on this proverb can be found in every spiritual and philosophical tradition.

But… if you are the left-brained, “prove-it-to-me” type, you dont have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are powerful things. Even Larry King seemed impressed with what his panel of “mind mentors” had to say.

So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this power locked up inside your mind?

Guess what? You’re already using this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is already on it’s way to you, so it’s simply a matter of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it.

What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, “I am becoming leaner, healthier and more muscular every day?”… or do you say “I am a fat person – Ive tried everything, nothing ever works?”

The fact is – you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. Maybe not in the literal sense…but most certainly as the critical part in the chain of causation…

You see, there’s a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization, affirmations and of course, positive thinking.

Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of these things, many people will simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect a mystical “law of attraction” to kick in and then “poof!” a great body materializes out of thin air… along with the perfect relationship, a nice bank account and fantastic career success.

What really happens is “Positive thinking” and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.

So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing…. attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue to struggle… often against nothing but yourself.

If you want to transform your body or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else will follow.

This process of *scientific* goal setting and mental reconditioning through emotionally charged mental imagery (visualization) and internal mental dialogue (affirmations) is the very first thing I have always taught my clients and the first thing I wrote about in my book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle You can learn all of these techniques in detail in chapter 1. Learn more about the psychology of body transormation inside the Burn The Fat ebook.

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to burn fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting the Burn the Fat website.

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