Moderation in All Things How to Avoid the Diet Blues -- By Dean
Anderson, Behavioral Psychology Expert What comes to mind for
you when you hear the word diet? If you’re like most people, you
probably imagine eating carrot sticks, going to bed hungry, and
giving up your favorite foods—and that's why so many diets fail.
Most people just can’t tolerate those kinds of restrictions for
very long. The more you try to eliminate your favorite foods,
the more feelings of discomfort, deprivation and resentment
build up. This can result in bingeing on all the foods you’ve
been denying yourself, undoing all your hard work in a single
day. But even if you can avoid that problem, are you willing to
eat like a rabbit for the rest of your life? Studies show that
95 percent of people who follow a highly restrictive diet to
lose weight will put the weight back on when they return to
“normal” eating again. So what’s the alternative? How do you
manage to lose weight without eliminating the problem foods and
problem behaviors tha