Do you struggle to stick with your diet? You’re not alone. Dieting is one of the most challenging things anyone can do. Ask any personal trainer about their biggest challenge. They will tell you that getting clients to be compliant with their diets is the hardest part.

Follow these 10 tips so you can stick to your diet and lose weight:

1. Try not to drink your calories. It’s very easy to consume many of your calories through liquid consumption. Try to keep your beverages calorie-free. Water is the best choice.

2. Assume you are thirsty, not hungry. People frequently eat when they’re actually just thirsty. The next time you’re hungry, try having a tall glass of water first. Wait 15 minutes and see if you’re still hungry. You might find that you’re not.

3. Measure. Try measuring your food portions and counting all your calories for one week. It’s likely that measuring and recording will positively impact your food intact. Step on the scale to measure your weight and take body measurements to compare to later.

4. Are you really hungry? Are you actually hungry? Or may you’re just bored or stressed? Decide if you’re truly hungry. It’s possible you haven’t been hungry in years!

5. Eat slowly. It can take a while for our brains to tell our stomach we are full. If you eat too quickly, you might pass the right time to stop eating. At the end of a meal, you should always feel better than you did before you started eating. If you feel worse, you either ate too much or ate when you weren’t really hungry.

6. Continue eating your favorite foods. Keep the portions under control, but don’t be afraid to indulge in your favorite foods. Total deprivation is a recipe for disaster.

7. Play around with the number of meals. Some people find that they eat less if they have one large meal per day. Others find three small meals and three snacks work better. Experiment and see what works best for you.

8. Deal with stress without food. It’s very common to overeat when you’re stressed. Food has an amazing ability to quickly change how we feel. Read a book, listen to music, go for a walk, meditate, or call a friend. Pick an alternative that will keep you from eating.

9. Stay active. Exercise can reduce appetite and boost insulin sensitivity. You’ll eat less and feel better. With a little momentum, getting some exercise each day becomes self-rewarding. You might even grow to like it!

10. Don’t try to be perfect. You have to consistently do the wrong things to gain a significant amount of weight. Similarly, a few mistakes on your diet aren’t going to drastically affect the outcome. Hang in there and things will work out.

Dieting is challenging for most people. Food is necessary to sustain life. You can’t live without it. Adopting a new way of eating can take time and there are changes to be endured before they become your normal behavior.

These 10 tips can help you make the transition to a new way of eating. Try them on for size and watch your waistline shrink.

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