10 steps to ditch diets forever and still stay slim

Over the past 10 years Judy has lost about 40 pounds but weighs more today than when she started to diet. First, on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, she lost 25 pounds. As she gradually returned to her old eating habits she began to regain her lost weight, plus more. Next came a diet that consisted mostly of cabbage soup; she lost 10 pounds and later gained 12. Finally, Judy tried a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that resulted in a 15-pound loss and later a 20-pound gain. Today, at 10 pounds more than her initial weight, she finds the struggle increasingly more difficult.

If Judy's story sounds depressingly like your own, now's the time to get off the dieting treadmill and follow our 10-step eating plan. It helps you customize your eating style so you can manage your weight in a realistic, healthy manner.

Step 1
Diet when you're really ready to make a healthy change. Ask yourself why you want to lose weight and if this is the right time for you to do it.

Do you want to lose weight to look better or help mend a rocky relationship? If there are problem areas in your life, weight loss alone is not likely to resolve them. What's more, changing your eating style is difficult and can contribute to stress. Losing weight requires a commitment. Do it because you're ready to make a change that is healthier for you.

Step 2
Do a reality check. Do you really need to lose weight? First, check your Body Mass Index (BMI). Then check your waist-to-hip ratio to find out if your body shape puts you more at risk. Research suggests that it's not just our total body fat, but also the distribution of fat that determines health risks. Specifically, abdominal fat (measured by waist-to-hip ratio) may put you at greater risk for developing heart disease.

To find your waist-to-hip ratio:
• Measure your waist at the navel and your hips around the largest part of your buttocks; and
• divide the waist measurement by the hip measurement to get your ratio.

For men this number should be one or less; for women it should be 0.8 or less. (In other words, men's waists should be the same as their hips or smaller; women's waists should be smaller than their hips.)

Step 3
Keep a food diary. Write down what you eat, where you eat, when you eat and with whom you eat. Do this for a week or until you begin to notice patterns in your eating. Use your diary to identify areas for change. For example, if you notice that you eat out a lot, look over some restaurant menus for healthier choices. If you're a working mom and find that from the time you arrive home until you put dinner on the table you've already eaten a mini-dinner, prepare healthy snacks for the predinner hour: vegetables with low-fat dip, or a dish of yogurt with fresh fruit can curb your appetite, and both are good low-calorie choices. If you eat potato chips by the bagful whenever you rent a video, change to low-fat popcorn.

Step 4
Identify your good habits. Work to strengthen them and add new ones to the list. Make one or two changes at a time. Over the course of a year, small changes add up to big ones. For example, if you take time to eat slowly and always enjoy breakfast, you already have two great habits. But if breakfast is sometimes a doughnut or a big, calorie-packed muffin, substitute whole wheat toast and jam or cereal with low-fat milk to make your breakfast habit better.

Don't focus on the bad. Instead of worrying about that one day you ate a chocolate bar, think of the five days that same week when you opted for fresh fruit. In the course of a week, you eat about 21 meals; don't worry if two or three of those are less healthy choices. Look at all the healthy choices you have made.

Step 5
Identify your eating style. Are you most satisfied when you have larger servings of protein foods - meat, fish, chicken, cheese and eggs? Or are you a carb lover who would never feel satisfied with a large steak alone? Are you a grazer or do you prefer three meals a day?

Work within your own eating pattern, making small changes that you can live with. Instead of pasta and bread at dinner, just eat the pasta. Instead of a 10-ounce steak, make it six ounces. If you like to graze, do so with increased awareness - for example, have a low-fat hot chocolate rather than a handful of chocolate chip cookies. There is no one correct eating style to suit everybody. Do it your way.

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