Unrealistic expectations. You read an article or advertisement about the latest diet craze and buy into the fact that the only reason you haven’t lost weight is you didn’t try this diet.

You immediately jump on the bandwagon and start the diet process. As with many new amazing diet discoveries, the first period involves drinking more water, sticking to very specific foods, and maybe even a Vulcan Mind Meld of some type.

In the first few days, you manage to lose anywhere from 3-5 pounds. You’re ecstatic and realize that this is your chosen path for weight loss. You tell all your family and friends about this great new diet you are on and how much weight you have lost in the first few days. It’s tough sticking to some of the more dire requirements but you feel it’s worth the effort.

Everything is good, the world is a better place and you are finally loosing weight.

The second week brings a little less progress, maybe 2 pounds. You think, OK, you can’t lose all the weight in just two weeks. You are still making progress, it’s getting a little more difficult to keep the regiment but as long as you see progress, that’s fine. It’s worth the time and trouble as long as you are losing weight.

The third week goes by slowly. You get on the scale and see that you haven’t made much more progress, maybe 2 pounds if you look at the scale from an angle. That’s alright, they mention that you will see good weeks and not so good weeks. But the stress is starting to take a toll on you. Family and friends mention you have been a little grouchy lately but understand.

The fourth week is terrible. You feel hungry, you crave normal food of any kind, and everyone gets to eat what he or she wants but you. Your friend is getting married this weekend but you won’t get to eat the great food and have any Champaign since both are not in your diet. When you get to the wedding reception you break down and have a glass of the good stuff. Well, there’s no need to tell the rest of the story, we all know what happens.

After the melt down you are bummed out and punish yourself for not having the self discpline to stick to your diet. It’s your own fault you failed once again. So it’s easy to fall back into your comfort zone and eat what ever you want (or maybe even eat a lot to console yourself).

Sound familiar? Maybe the time elements and events are a little different but the end result is the same. You could also give the story another twist and say that the 3 weeks was the diet and you lost the 10 pounds. But you went to the wedding and still lost it and gained half of the lost weight back. Most people have gone through this type of scenario, it’s human nature.

Dieting often involves more than weight loss and food consumption. It can have a mental part (self image, etc), a physical part (you have trained your body to react in certain ways for years), and of course the caloric intake part (eating habits). To think that any radical change in lifestyle will solve all of these issues is to be naïve. For a select few, shock therapy might work, but for the rest of us it usually doesn’t. There is no magic bullet or diet that can overcome physical, emotional, and long held habits for a majority of people.

There was a recent study that just came out that clearly found that exercise won’t make you lose weight. It can make you healthier, improve your cardio, make you stronger, and increase your stamina. But not flat out make you lose weight. Eating habits, general consumption levels, and eating the right foods is the single biggest factor in losing weight.

The best method of weight loss is to slowly change your eating habits with portion control, choosing more healthy foods to consume, and lowering calorie intake. Simple, slow, well thought out changes to lifestyle can create permanent results in weight loss. Adding some basic exercise like walking will improve your health and make you feel better.

It can be that simple. No magic formula, special pills, or personal pain is necessary. You can even still have you’re favorite foods, just don’t go overboard. Keep a loose running tally of the calorie you consume daily and slowly lower the total amount down to levels that make you lose weight or stabilize. Self discipline in small doses is easy, going cold turkey and serious deprivation is a receipt for failure.

So stop setting yourself up for failure. Forget all the latest fad diets and stick to the basics. Slow steady progress is effective and easier to maintain. Radical changes are difficult to handle for anyone. One of the most powerful facets of the human species is to adapt to change. So make small changes and adapt.