It's a fact: losing weight is hard to do.
Gimmicky, fad diets have appeal for people who are looking for a weight loss program, but like any fad, the appeal fades quickly.
It makes perfect sense.
Making a commitment to a program with structure and an exact routine lets a person officially say: I am On a Diet.
But the novelty wears off, and because any weight loss program is slow to show results, the fad diet is easy to abandon.
Besides, were you really planning to eat celery salad for the rest of your days? Drinking fresh home made beet and basil juice from that fancy new electric juicer seemed like a great weight loss trick, but as soon as it got boring, the weight started to creep right back on.
There is no better diet than the good ol' "eat less and exercise" technique.
No bizarre cooking method, no exotic ingredients, no clever mind games.
It's simple, safe, and effective.
An overly ambitious diet plan, chock full of high maintenance calorie counting and portion control, is much more likely to fail than a few laid back and simple changes that are easy to make.
It really doesn't hurt Eating less is not the same thing as depriving yourself.
Starving is not the point.
It's entirely possible, and not even difficult, to reduce your food intake without struggling with hunger.
Save the no pain, no gain philosophy for the exercise portion of the program! Smaller portions are the obvious first step, but there are a few other tricks that go a long way to help reach the weight loss goal.
Varying meal times, swapping ingredients, and eating big meals while you are still active in the daytime will raise your metabolism.
So, while you eat less, your body is also burning those calories more efficiently.
Gimmick diets claim you can lose as much as ten pounds a week.
That sounds too good to be true, and it is.
Most people fall short of that mark.
Those who do lose that much most often find the loss is temporary.
Why? It's the body's survival mode.
Such an extreme loss signals the metabolism to conserve food energy.
The body thinks it is starving, and it responds by storing away as much fat as possible.
The goal for safe and healthy weight loss is two pounds a week; your body will not work against you in a fat storing frenzy.
This schedule leads to more permanent weight loss, because your metabolism adjusts itself gradually.
If you eat small meals several times through the day, your body will realize it is not at risk of starving and energy will be burned instead of stored.
Without further ado, here is a sensible, painless, certified un-fad weight loss program.
I am On a Diet! The schedule:

• Break your three meals a day routine into five smaller meals
• Eat your biggest meal before noon
• Eat your smallest meal at the end of the day

The rules:

• Take a smaller plate.
  You can get more if you're still hungry, but if you start with a big portion you will eat it all, even after you are full.
  
• Stop eating fast food immediately.
  
• Cook with whole foods instead of eating pre-packed meals.
  
• Stop drinking soda immediately.
  
• Don't eliminate mid-day snacks - swap them with healthy versions.
  
• Eat a big variety of foods to keep your metabolism on its toes
• Use less sauce (a hidden source of calories.
  )
• Don't put the dressing on the salad.
  Leave it on the side and dip each forkful into it, so you won't eat more than you need to.
  
• Shop at the farm.
  Or as close as you possibly can.
  Food that is processed is loaded with sodium and all kinds of chemical preservatives.
  Also, natural vitamins and nutrients are damaged or lost during processing.
  Whole foods give the most bang for the buck, nutrition wise, and your metabolism knows it.