Guilty and frustrated from cheating on your diet plan? These diet plan saving tips will keep you on track!

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It’s nine thirty at night and you have followed your new diet plan perfectly to a tee all day. A pizza advertisement comes on the commercial break of your favorite show and you notice it is close to your next mealtime.
Up to the kitchen you go to eat your next meal. When in the fridge pulling out your nicelyprepared diet plan meal, you notice some left over Fettuccini Alfredo your wife or roommate brought home. Sure looks good you think as you catch a little bit of saliva about to drip on your shirt!

“Just a little taste won’t hurt my diet plan,” you justify…

“ I’ve stuck to my diet plan all day……”

A little taste and before you know it you tell yourself the extra carbs and calories will be a good boost to your workout tomorrow!

An hour later your gut is stretching and Indigestion plagues you from cheating on your diet plan!!

“I should have stuck to my diet plan!” is going through your head as you lay down to have nightmares of a fat ass! “Tomorrow I’ll stick to my diet plan “, you chant in your head!But you fall from your diet plan only a day or two later!

The occasional stray from your diet plan can really add up!And billboards,tv’s, radios and people are everywhere pushing fast foods and junk to sabotage your diet plan!

Here are five diet plan saving tips to arm yourself against the onslaught of the Cheating War!

Diet Plan Tip #1 – Eat Slowly – Take your time when you sit down to eat.

The chances you will stuff yourself or overeat diminish and you will reach the point of satiety much more quickly if you eat slowly!

The more you are satisfied with what you have eaten the less likely you will continue to think of food. That chocolate Black Forest cake won’t be as tempting either!

Diet Plan Tip #2 – Have Delicious Meals That Fit Your Meal Plan Prepared Ahead Of Time.

Having meals prepared ahead of time makes it convenient to eat according to a plan and on schedule.

You can make it more convenient to stick to your diet plan than it is to eat that bag of candy by having your diet plan meals prepared and available when it is time to eat– and when you gethungry.

Diet Plan Tip #3 – Get Used To Eating For Your Purpose Instead Of For Your Taste Buds.

Satisfying your taste buds when you get the urge to gorge down a Big Mac will never develop a healthy, lean, muscular physique! Keep in mind you are eating to develop a lean, healthy muscular physique every time you open your mouth! The temporary taste satisfaction of a jelly-filled donut will be gone real fast but the empty calories you just devoured can defeat a whole day’s worth of bodybuilding effort!

Diet Plan Tip #4 – Be creative with your cooking to make sticking to your diet enjoyable.

Ideally, with proper preparation and some reciperesearch you can create delicious mouth watering meals that meet your diet plan criteria. Learn to cook. Employ spices from other parts of the world. India and China are twocountries with interesting choices to really spice up your diet plan. When you don’t have to force feed yourself with your nose plugged the chances are much higher you can stick to your diet plan more easily!

Diet Plan Tip #5 – Drink Water.

Drinking water between meals can help to reduce your hunger pains temporarily by giving a sense of fullness. For those of you that sabotage your diet plan munching here and there,keeping a water bottle with you wherever you go can really help.Just sip away when its oral satisfaction rather than hunger driving you.

We’ve all heard it or even said it before: “I can’t lose weight because of my metabolism.” It’s easy to blame our extra pounds on an abstract idea like metabolism, but let’s learn about the real importance of metabolism – and better yet, how you can get the most “burn” for your buck by recharging your metabolism.

In the most basic sense, metabolism includes each of the chemical and physical changes that take place within the body’s cells. Most often, however, metabolism refers to the manner in which the body gets and uses energy from food, so it really does have an important part in weight loss and gain.

Not everyone is given the same metabolism, and our rates actually vary over the course of our lives, so someone who blames their metabolism isn’t necessarily making excuses. Age affects metabolism, which will slow about 5% every 10 years after we turn 40, and by sex, as males usually burn more calories at rest than females, and by the amount of muscle mass you have (more muscle generally means a higher metabolic rate). Our genes also impacts metabolism, not to mention pregnancy, as well as whether a woman chooses to breast-feed.

In spit of all of the wild cards, the simple fact is that when your calorie intake surpasses your metabolism, excess energy will get stored in the body as fat. Though many of the aspects affecting metabolic rate can’t be changed, fortunately, there are ways to rev up the metabolism you are born with.

The first guideline is to consume the correct foods in the right amounts. When you omit a meal, your body switches to starvation mode, which slows metabolism to keep calories, because it does not know when it will get food again. And when the metabolism slows down, so does the rate at which you lose weight.

When you finally do eat food after skipping a meal, instead of using the calories in the food you have just eaten, your body converts them to body fat to hold for the next “fast.” To keep your metabolism efficient, eat 4 – 6 small meals spread evenly throughout the day and aim to eat close to the same times every day. Most importantly, never skip a meal.

You can also step up your metabolic rate with exercise, including both aerobic routines and weight training. Aerobic activities, such as running, biking and dancing, burn more calories in the short term, while weight training will build more muscle, which increases metabolism and burns more calories in the long term – even when you are at rest, muscle requires more calories to function than fat.

In fact, every pound of muscle requires 35 calories a day, while every pound of fat requires only 2 calories per day. Despite this, you might be surprised that the more weight you posses, the faster your metabolism is likely to run. Simply put, the extra weight forces your body work harder to maintain its processes.

This is partially why it is almost always easiest to lose weight when you begin dieting, and becomes more difficult as you continue because, if you are significantly overweight, your metabolism is already at an elevated rate, so that even a slight decrease in calories will lead to an immediate weight loss.

But what happens after that immediate loss, when a plateau occurs and motivation seems to go by the “weigh” side? Persistent cravings and compulsions can swiftly come back, and when they do, don’t overlook a valuable resource – weight loss hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy can actually retrain your unconscious so that, in essence, you can do away with food cravings. When we study why we snack, recognizing why weight loss hypnosis works so successfully becomes evident.

For many of people, snacking has become a habit – perhaps you do it without thinking when you are watching TV or driving or when you’re under stress. Hypnosis can actually reprogram your thoughts to stop those associations, leaving you to drive or watch TV without experiencing the need to eat.

One of the most successful weight loss hypnosis techniques for stopping the snacking cycle is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which relies on negotiating with the unconscious and getting it to use the same thought processes that are creating your appetite, to eliminate your appetite. NLP entails many years of study and practical experience for a hypnotherapist to learn and master, but positive results can come very quickly and seem almost magical to a person who has always suffered from cravings.

NLP can be just as important as motivation and exercise because, as you read above, it can help ensure that you eat the right kinds of foods at the right times, and this is a vital aspect of turbo-charging your metabolism. If you aim to keep your metabolism at full speed and ensure that all of hard work and exercise are not going to waste by giving in to your food temptations, weight loss hypnosis and NLP can be a secret weapon to eliminate your cravings once and for all.

This article gives pertinent information about Dukan Diet and its side-effects

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Pierre Dukan, a French doctor and nutritionist, challenged with the case of obesity started to look for alternative ways in curing the illness. After 20 years of thorough research he published in the year 2000, a book called, “Je ne sais pas maigrir” or translated as, “I don’t know how to get slimmer.” It gained the best-seller in France after a year it has been published.
It was made a hit in UK when Kate Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, tried the Dukan Diet before her marriage to the beloved Prince William, she reportedly claimed a loss of two dress sizes. It also allegedly claimed to help five million French. The book is also gaining fame in the US in the year 2011 when actress/singer, Jennifer Lopez, lost pounds after her pregnancy by following this diet.
Dukan Diet: What is it? How does this work?
Dukan Diet is similar to the famous Atkins diet. Atkins and Dukan are much alike in terms of non-intake of carbs initially and do not require portion control or counting calorie consumptions. In Atkins, it requires net carbohydrate intakes and unlike Dukan, it suggests a daily intake of oats, increase water consumption and 20 minutes of everyday brisk walking. Dukan Diet adopts four phases namely: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization.
Four Phases of the Dukan Diet
Attack: In this starter phase, the dieter is only allowed take protein rich foods that are exquisitely low in fat. Dr. Dukan provided 72-item list of foods to be eaten, it excludes pork, lamb, poultry products and cheeses. Food should always be cooked but without adding any fat to it, it best to cook in grilling or roasting. It also requires you to eat 1 ½ tbsp. oat bran & 1.5 liters of water per day. This phase should be followed around 2-7 days or more. Results from this initial phase within 5 days may result in 4-7 lbs. loss. This phase promotes quick loss of weight since it is strictly based on a protein-only diet.
Cruise: Cruise, the second to the fourth phase of the Dukan diet scheme. During this phase dieters who were only allowed to eat protein-only foods can now alternate a 28-items of non-starchy vegetables. They may take attack phase diet for today and take non-starchy veggie diet for tomorrow, and so this phase must go on by alternating these two types of diet each day. This phase may last long enough as much as you want by reaching your desired weight and assuring 2 pounds per week loss.
Consolidation: As one achieves the desired weight, one has to go the next phase called Consolidation, this is the maintenance phase of this diet scheme where you have to prevent putting back excess pounds. The plan in this phase is less strict compared to the first two phases. During this phase you are permitted to eat protein-only and veggie diet along with a piece of low-sugar fruit, 2 slices of whole grain bread and a portion of hard cheese. In this phase you are allowed to have 1-2 serving of starchy foods and one celebration meal per week. The phase of consolidation does not expect to loss off pounds but rather it is steadily the maintenance process.
Stabilization: Stabilization is the final phase and a life-long phase of the diet scheme. In here maintenance of the life-changing diet may be a challenging and tempting. During this portion of the scheme, one is already permitted to allow any food intake that a person wants and by also sticking to the diet rule in the consolidation phase. As Pierre Dukan suggest, that staying on the phase 1 rule once a week and eat whatever you like for the rest of the week lowers the chances of regaining weight.
Pros and Cons of Dukan Diet
Pros: The fast results of this diet scheme is beneficially rewarding and motivating. It allows you to have protein and veggie meal plan diets and does not require you to count off your calorie intakes.
Cons: It is highly restrictive and can exclude healthy foods. Dieters can experience side-effects such as symptoms of headaches, nausea, lethargy, irritable and loss of concentration. Dieters may acquire halitosis (bad breath), metallic tasting mouth and strong smell in their urines. For those people who have problems with their kidneys and liver are not advised to follow this diet plan. It is not also recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers.

Views and Opinions by Health Experts on the Dukan Diet
There are lots of critics in this diet plan. Due to the restrictive type scheme of this diet, some fruits, grains and nuts which are healthy and have high amounts of vitamins and minerals that are vital to the nutrition of the body are eliminated. Keri Gans of American Dietetic Association, said that the lost amount of multivitamins that should be acquired from those restricted foods are not compensated in the Dukan diet. Experts have also criticized that experiencing such side-effects may not be healthy at all.