Below are 20 guidelines for weight loss that can help you lose weight, regardless of which formula you apply. However, if you incorporate more than one guideline into your lifestyle, you will be well on your way to losing those undesirable pounds and keeping them off.  

1. Lose weight for you. Don’t undertake a diet and exercise program to please anyone else. Only when you decide that being thinner, and healthier, is what you want, can you persevere and achieve your goal.


2. Purchase a calorie-counting guide because calories do count. They are often available at the checkout counter at your local grocery store. If not, take a drive to Barnes and Nobles or some other bookstore.


3. Buy a set of measuring spoons and cups and make a habit of measuring your portions. 


4. Read the caloric content per portion and the portion size on packages and cans.


5. Learn to move your body. Join a health club where trained professionals can design a program tailored to your needs. Or if that’s not feasible because of time or financial constraints, buy an exercise video; take an afternoon or morning walk everyday; discover the fun of bicycling or swimming or hiking or jumping rope; take the stairs at work instead of the elevator; buy an basic weight set and pump some iron; or build box for step-ups. You are only limited by your imagination.


6. When you eat, eat slowly. You will feel satisfied with less food if you give your body time to digest it.


7. When you go out to eat, remember that the average serving in a restaurant is three times the norm for an adult. Ask for a go-box and save two-thirds for other meals.


8. Weigh yourself at the same time each day and only once a week.


9. Cut out a picture of someone who is as thin as you would like to be and tape it to your fridge. Use it for inspiration.


10. Treat yourself to a massage when you are depressed instead of overindulging in high calorie foods and detesting yourself later. If you can’t afford this luxury, treat yourself to aromatherapy, using scented candles and bubble bath. Put on some relaxing mood music and simply languish in the tub.


11. Call a friend if you are feeling tempted to overeat. But don’t tell him or her why you’re calling. Just talk and talk until you forget about food.


12. Arrange your food on a smaller plate. It fools the eyes as well as the appetite.


13. Stock your pantry and fridge with nutritious snacks like fresh and dried fruit, low-cal bagels and muffins, and even surprisingly tasty low-fat cookies.


14. Limit your alcoholic intake. One glass of wine contains between one and two hundred calories, and those calories do count.


15. Purchase an outfit you really like, but get it a size or two smaller than you currently wear. You will hate to think you wasted the money, and that will provide incentive for you to lose enough weigh to fit into the new outfit.


16. Drink plenty of water. It’s good for you and helps you feel full.


17. Use creative visualization. Picture your body and your life as you would like them to be.  


18. Don’t deny yourself an occasional vacation from your diet. When you’re at a party or some other special occasions, you can eat what the other guests are eating, just do it in moderation. You don’t have to call attention to yourself by announcing to the world that you are on a diet.


19. When you do slip up, don’t berate yourself, whine about how you’ve ruined your diet, or count all as lost. In the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “Tomorrow is another day;” and when tomorrow comes, you will get back on your diet.


20. Believe in yourself. After all, time will pass, and a year from now, you can either be thinner and healthier or exactly the same as you are today. Then again, you could be worse.