"The Sociable Diet"

"The Sociable Diet" is a common sense combination of many diets. This one's good for eating with family, going out to restaurants and trying to eat "normally". It's also about moderation and vigilance. It's just not possible to eat everything we might want to and still be thin and healthy, so the challenge is to enjoy everything we do eat. Here are ways to be sociable and lose weight.

1. Think positively. Your mind can make or break a diet plan. Believe you can do it.

2. Make goals, and keep reminding yourself of them. Don't let your mind get in the way of your progress. Willpower is everything in a diet, and it's a limited quantity. Be strict with yourself and what you eat, but relax.

3. Listen to your body. Be able to eat more when you've finished a meal. Eat less rather than more and slow down your food intake. Remember which food choices make you feel comfortable hours after a meal, and which ones to avoid. Eat the right amount, and every bit less you eat helps with weight loss.

4. Check with your doctor before dieting and to obtain a reasonable weight goal and daily calorie count. Plan food choices and rationalize decisions. Even if you can't get a lot of support for your diet, just keep at it quietly and consistently.

5. Eat mostly plant food, raw or cooked fruits and vegetables. This is the easiest way to lose weight and helps keep you feeling full enough to avoid snacking on high-calorie foods.

6. Cut out fats, oils, cheeses, creams, sugars and starches, anything breaded or deep-fried, white-starched or sugary, as much as possible. If this is too strict, try to aim for 20g. a day (for health) of fat, and minimize the others.

7. Learn how to turn away food politely, say, by sacrificing second helpings. You don't ever eat seconds, do you, or snack while cooking?

8. Take vitamins, calcium and try fat-free milk and yogurt.

9. Control portion sizes. Studies have shown that covering food with napkins at the table, imagining food that is distasteful and other such quick decisions at restaurants really work in the short term and serve to distract. Since restaurants tend to make portion sizes equal for all, remember not to eat as much as an athlete unless you are one, or at least working out like one.

10. Quality over quantity: it's desirable (and cheaper) to have smaller portion sizes. Try to cut back by one half, or at least one quarter. Try new recipes that make fancy, attractive, low-calorie meals. Try eating on smaller plates and use smaller glass sizes to trick the eyes. Remember how much you used to eat if and when you were thinner.

11. Wine occasionally rather than spirits keeps one sociable. For women: learn to turn away drinks firmly but politely because with the same number of drinks women get drunker than men because of "physiological differences in body composition, metabolism, and hormones." Science is on your side this time. healthlibrary.

12. Tea and coffee with milk is good and sociable. Keeping hydrated is important.

13. Sometimes, the healthiest thing to do is to push yourself away from the table. Brushing your teeth after each meal, and flossing often discourages eating between meals.

14. Keep a journal of all the foods you have eaten and your exercise taken each day. You can also include writing about at least three things go well, as studies shows that it lifts moods after doing so for a few weeks. A journal entry can also be written before a meal to use as a goal. Some find taking digital photos of their plate of food helps them. Being truthful to yourself is key.

15. Exercise, keep moving, stress less and have fun.

16. Stop eating before you’re full.

Be good to yourself and your family and friends while you diet by cutting back gently. Diet to look better, feel better and have fewer health problems down the road.

If you struggle with your weight, then look to scientifically proven methods to help you to keep the weight off. It's a matter of the mind conquering the body, mind over body, a psychological as well as a physiological project.Restricting food intake is a solo endeavor within a larger social context. It's about being accountable to yourself for your actions and being conscious of your food choices.

Keeping weight off and maintaining weight loss can be difficult as social situations present weight loss challenges. We must always eat just the right amount at meals to maintain ideal weight.

A few years ago, I was on a private medically-supervised low-carb diet, and it worked well, but then I gained back the weight and more. This time, I have been on a private diet plan with a diet doctor at the Center for Medical Weight Loss with branches throughout the U.S. Getting weighed privately every three weeks works for me, and it has helped me keep off the pounds this time. Maybe I will have to do that forever to keep my weight accountable.

"If I'd known I'd live this long, I would have treated myself better." Anon.

What do you think about this diet plan? Please comment.