If you don’t think about staying on your diet regularly, then you probably won’t.

If you don’t think about staying on your diet regularly, then you probably won’t.

It takes only a couple of days for me to slide out of my good habits and back into the bad ones. How long does it take for you? Not very long either?

A recent study showed that people who got daily diet reminder email had lower a BMI than those who didn’t. That helps to validate the idea that you need to be continually involved with staying on your diet or you’ll fall off.

How can you build into your life the mindfulness needed to control your weight?

1.      Keep a Journal. People who regularly keep a journal have been found to better maintain their weight loss.

2.      Sign Up for Mindful Email. A mindful email service sends you a daily email with a helpful suggestion on how to control your weight. It’s not really the suggestion that helps, though it may; it’s more the reminder that keeps you aware of your need control your weight. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton have shown that emails promoting healthier eating and increased physical activity are effective at lowering people’s weight.

3.      Participate in On-line Groups. Talking with other people in on-line groups keeps you involved in your diet.

4.      Join a Challenge. Challenges kick in your competitive spirit to help you lose weight. You may, for example, choose to participate in a “pedometer challenge”, where you and a group of like minded adventurers come up with your daily step goal and track the number of steps you take each day. You might like a “vegetable challenge”, where you are asked to creatively include more vegetables in your daily meals. The most common challenge is the “weight loss challenge” where you challenge yourself to lose a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time. You might even compete against other people to see who can hit their weight loss target. What makes challenges fun is your built-in support community. Challenge participants get together and talk about different ideas and generally help each other. More and more challenges are being created all the time.

We maintain lists of all these different services at http://YourDesignerDiet.com.