How to Lose Weight for Good

Trying to lose weight is a struggle.It is hard to change your eating habits, but change them you must if you want to lose weight and keep it off for good.

For years I yo-yo dieted. I would cut out junk food, exercise and get to where I wanted to be. Then I would crave sweets, or I would have a bad day and need comfort food. Or I would have a good day and treat myself to an ice cream. And the weight would come creeping back, like it never left.

Here are a few tips on how to shed those extra pounds and get healthy without going hungry.

Healthy foods, of course. Fill yourself up with high quality healthy foods.

Learn what a healthy diet looks like. A proper diet is filled with whole grains, lean protein, fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and low fat milk products. And an occasional treat.

If you need some help with this, try http://www.sparkpeople.com/. You can follow their diet plan or follow your own and use their food tracker. And best of all its free.

So take the junk out of your cupboards and fill them with healthy food so you won't be tempted.

• Have a serving of fruit or vegetables every time you eat a meal or snack. They are low in fat and high in fibre so you will feel full on fewer calories.
• Drink water all day long. Sometimes you think you are hungry when you are really thirsty. Do not go more than a couple of hours without having a drink.
• If you want a change from plain water, add a little lemon juice.
• Or make yourself some herbal tea, hot or iced, no sugar.
• When eating in restaurants, look for meals that are baked, broiled, fresh, grilled, poached or steamed. These will usually be lower in fat and calories.
• AVOID THESE MENU TERMS: breaded, au gratin, carbonara, creamy, sauteed, fried, or bisque. These meals will be loaded with fat.
• If you are craving crunchy or salty food, try air popped popcorn and go easy on the butter and salt. Four cups of plain air-popped popcorn has 120 calories and 4.8 grams of fibre.
• Nuts are great snack too. They have fibre, protein and healthy monounsaturated fats. Don't overdo it though. They are high in calories, so watch your portion sizes. Eat them in the shell. It takes longer to eat them and is a little trickier to polish off the whole bowl.
• If you are craving something sweet, try berries or melon.
• If you want baked goods, make your own. Use whole wheat instead of white flour to add filling fibre. Substitute butter or shortening with fruit or veggie purees. Use raisins, craisins or dates instead of chocolate chips.
• Avoid sugar substitutes. They are terrible for you and actually make you crave more sugar. If you must, have small amounts of the real thing.
• If you tend to pick at your kid's leftovers, think about how clean their hands really are. Visualize creepy, crawly little germs all over their food. Do you really want to eat that?

Being organized is the key to diet sucess. Otherwise it is too easy to just zip to the drive-thru on busy days. Here's how:

• Use your crockpot on busy days.
• On your days off, make a few meals and freeze them.
• Make a double recipe and freeze the extra.
• Plan your meals for the week so you can shop once.

 Once you start eating, it takes 20 minutes for your brain to realize that you are full. You can do a lot of overeating in that 20 minutes! Here are some tips on how to slow it down.

 Chew thoroughly. This helps with your digestion as well. Get involved in an engrossing conversation. If you are alone, read. Drink a sip of water between bites. The idea is to avoid scarfing your meal down in minutes and going back for more.

If you do want more, try a second serving of vegetables first.

 So you are invited to a birthday. Or it is the Christmas season and there are functions galore for you to attend. Mostly involving food.

How do you stick to a healthy diet when temptations are all around you?

For starters, do not go famished to a dinner party. Some people starve themselves all day to save up calories so they can splurge at night. This makes it too easy to go way, way overboard.

Instead, have a snack of an apple or pear, one boiled egg and drink a bunch of water about an hour before you go. The fibre and protein in this snack will take the edge off of your hunger so that you can stick to your diet at the party.