How to Prepare for a Dieting Onslaught

You may not realize that the week before you begin a diet is just as crucial to the success of your weight loss as actually sticking to the diet itself. Dieting is as much a mental discipline as it is a physical discipline. Why? Willpower (or won't-power, as the case may be!) If you are not prepared for your diet, then you'll find that without even thinking, you're in front of the refrigerator or popping potato chips into your mouth just minutes after you've been scolding yourself on the benefits of good eating.

Here are a few tips for you focus on as you gear up for a diet and weight loss onslaught:

• Clear out your house. All junk food must go. Do this slowly over a period of about a week and don't make it disappear by eating it. Give it away or donate unopened foods to a homeless shelter or other nonprofit organization.

• Give yourself an emotional once over. If you're about to go through a tough time at work, are quitting smoking or getting a divorce, this may not be the time for a diet. However, for some, these may be exactly the time to wholly throw themselves into a diet and focus on something positive rather than the negative situation around them. Dieting and changing your body through weight loss give you an element of control over your life that other areas or aspects may make you feel like you're losing.
  

• Don't binge. Instead of thinking 'Better eat this now because I won't be able to next week!' put down the donut and pick up something healthy. Think of it as 'That's 300 fewer calories that I'll have to work off next week.' Getting yourself into a positive frame of mind instead of focusing on the negative or looking at it like you're depriving yourself is crucial to successful and sustained diet and weight loss.
  

• Replace all your beverages with water. Dieting is also something like detoxing and some people experience something akin to withdrawal when they stop filling up on sugar and carbohydrates and junk food. Even if you're not changing your diet slowly as previously suggested, drinking nothing but water and lots of it will start the process of flushing out your system so that when you switch to healthier diet and weight loss, your body won't go into shock.