by Melissa Knight

Created on: August 13, 2008

So, you started a diet. You decided you're going to exercise and eat right and you are going to lose that extra weight. Good for you. You have made the critical first step toward feeling better in your skin and lighter on your legs. Not to mention the other health benefits, which you are obviously aware of or you wouldn't have come this far.

The honest truth is that almost nothing is harder than losing weight. Quitting smoking runs a close tie and for anyone who has quit, you know that some days you feel like you're fighting a losing battle. The same can be said for dieting. Usually, it works one of two ways: You can either keep the diet in control and blow the exercise, or vice versa. For some reason it is doubly hard to keep both aspects of a weight loss routine going.

If you have to choose which part you're going to allow to slip, it's probably better to come to terms with being more lax on your exercise program. There are lots of ways to make up for not exercising (i.e. part at the back part of a parking lot if it seems safe, take the stairs, clean your house), but there aren't many ways to make up for an unhealthy diet, other than making it healthy.

What you eat can very often be as ingrained in you as your accent. Typically, our favorite foods are those we were fed as children. Therefore, if you had a frequently unhealthy diet as a child, you are going to favor those foods as an adult. What you eat is as much a habit as anything else and to truly be successful in a diet, you need to change your eating habits.

Great, now what, right? Most of us have been there at one time or another. For those of us who were lucky enough to have been healthy eaters our whole lives, take heart, we too can lapse into the convenient and flavorful world of fast food lunches and heavy dinners. (Personally, my weakness is cookies and ice cream.)

There are a few key things you can do, however, to help ensure your success when it comes to the foods you choose and how you choose to eat.

Clean all the junk out of your house. Food, that is. Buy a healthy recipe cookbook and start using it. The idea is to train yourself that you can eat healthy and still have flavor. Keep olive oil on hand and plenty of fresh vegetables. Experiment with sauting and spices to see which ones appeal to you. Trade in your full flavor cheeses for 2% and use a little less. You don't always have to eat salad to be on a diet. Get rid of all your products made with white flour and go for whole wheat instead. Whole

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