Is Your Diet Making You Fat?

A Dieting Mentality Can Lead to Problems
-- By Liz Noelcke, Staff Writer
A healthy lifestyle is an ideal that we all strive for. Eat right, exercise regularly, get enough sleep. It seems pretty simple, right? But, we all know that it's much more complicated than a few simple words. While you might be successful in one area, like meeting your diet goals during the week, you can easily fall short in another by not exercising regularly. If you're still in "diet" mode, temporarily changing your habits just until you reach your goal, then one of these dieting dilemmas could be preventing your from reaching your goals - and achieving a permanent, healthy lifestyle. Your diet might be making (or keeping) you fat if…

…you fail on the weekends.
You strive to eat well and hit the gym throughout the week, but once you leave work on Friday evening, all bets are off. Weekends should definitely be used for unwinding and relaxing, but be careful not to go overboard and cancel out all of the hard work you put in during the week. One weekend of overeating, overdrinking, and under-exercising can easily undo the healthy diet and exercise program you followed for five days, stalling your progress towards your goals.

Instead, view weekends as a chance to do the things that you enjoy and spend quality time with your family and friends. “Weekends” should not be synonymous with calorie splurges or alcohol binges. Use your free time constructively: plan your menu for the upcoming week, design a new workout routine, take your time grocery shopping, and read your favorite health magazine. Try cooking up a big batch of healthy meals on Sunday that you can eat without much fuss during the week.