7 Tricks for sticking to your diet

Whether you've made a resolution to eat healthier or lose a few extra pounds, sticking to your diet is the hardest part. Here are a few ideas to keep you motivated and stay on course with your healthy eating plan.

1. Write down everything you eat. If you start writing down everything you eat during the day, especially meals eaten out, the shock of how much you actually do is could be enough to get you to toss out those neighbourhood restaurant takeout menus. One study found that people who followed this tracking advice lost nearly twice as much as those who didn't.
2. Check your weight every day. Another study found that monitoring what you eat and also what you weigh helps you lose more weight than people who aren't tracking their progress.
3. Use your cell phone to track your food. This is a new take on the traditional food diary — which numerous studies find can help with weight loss. Instead of writing down everything you eat, snap a picture with your cell phone or digital camera, then upload onto your computer. Seeing what you've eaten in a day can be very effective in showing where you're making high-calorie mistakes.
4. Eat in a healthy way. Stop looking for the perfect diet or combination of foods and just eat in a balanced, healthy way. This method was found to be more successful than organized diet programs. Researchers discovered that people who joined a weight-loss program, regardless of the diet program, didn't stick with it long-term:  21% quitting before two months and 42% quitting before six months.
5. Eat everything sitting down. East slowly and enjoy every bite — sitting down. You are more likely to stick with your plan when you made eating more of an occasion.
6. Plan your meals and snacks.  Organizing what you're going to eat — and when — will help you eat when it's time to eat, not only when you feel like it.
7. Give yourself a shiny star. It may sound silly, but do it anyway. Buy a package of those little shiny metallic star stickers and every day you meet your fitness or nutritional goal, for example a 30-minute walk or fixing a healthy meal instead of ordering pizza, give yourself a sticker. It's tangible proof of how well you're doing.