Looking for the Best Diet? What Those Magazines Don’t Tell You About Losing Weight

It’s that time of year again. No, not Christmas – bathing suit season (just as stressful but with no gifts).

Spring has sprung and you can feel the panic in the air. Across the nation, women are jogging on treadmills, foregoing desserts and privately flogging themselves up for gaining a few pounds over winter.

All this because the weather has turned warmer, the jackets have come off – and we only have a few months until the bathing suits come out. [Insert shiver of horror here]. So it’s only natural that many of us are looking for the best diet plan to shed pounds fast.

The mainstream media knows this. That’s why there’s a new diet on every cover right now. That’s why there’s a fresh crop of celebrities touting their miracle diet on TV or the shopping channel.

That’s why you feel a bit more pressured than usual. You can’t help it – it’s all around you. Between the day-time talk shows, the newest book releases and the magazine covers touting the latest diet plan, the insinuation is there: You’re a failure.

You’re a failure if you don’t easily slim down to a size 0 with our diet. You’re a failure if losing weight for spring isn’t the whiz-bang-easy-good-time we’re telling you it is.

Just try our diet. You did and it didn’t work? Well, it’s certainly not our fault. There must be something wrong with you. Just buy next month’s magazine and try that diet. Maybe if you’re a good girl, you’ll get it right this time.

Ok, maybe I’ve been buying magazines for too long. But you know what I mean – this subtle pressure about this time of year that says “Losing weight should be a cinch – it’s easy!”

But there’s something that these magazines aren’t telling you about the latest and greatest best diet. There’s actually something they’re leaving out. And it’s this something that is probably sabotaging your weight loss in a number of ways.

What is it?

It’s simply this: They don’t tell you that losing weight is a challenge. Yup, that’s right – it takes effort.

But if you believe the hype that it should be easy – and then it’s not easy for you – you’ll get discouraged, break the diet and beat yourself up. And then you’re stuck in the same cycle over and over of trying the latest best diet, failing, trying a new diet, failing etc. etc.

So what’s the truth?

Losing weight is not easy. It is a lifestyle change. And it takes work.

So you need to be prepared to do everything you can to give yourself the edge. And consider any way you can that will make things easier while you lose weight.

That’s one of the reasons I use a diet food delivery service to shed pounds every spring. It gives me that edge – that extra push I need to stick with it. I’ve used a couple of different services to lose weight over the years and they were the most enjoyable “diets” I’ve ever tried.

Why? Because the meals were done for me – and they tasted good (not like my cooking at all). So even though losing weight was a bit of a challenge, having the meals done for me took a lot of stress off.

I didn’t have to shop or prepare the food myself. I didn’t have to slave for hours in the kitchen – only to be disappointed by food that tasted blah. All I had to do was choose my entree for that night, heat it up and enjoy. Sometimes there was even dessert.

So if you’ve struggled in the past with losing weight, this is definitely an option to consider. There are other ways to make things easier and take the stress off too – like carving out some time alone to pamper yourself every day. Get a massage or do something special for yourself.

I would also suggest that you find a diet that lets you eat food you enjoy. So if you are a chocoholic, choose a diet that lets you have chocolate (ok, maybe not every day, but…).

If you need your glass of wine at night, there are diets that will allow this too. When you enjoy the food you’re eating, you’re more likely to stick with the diet and lose the weight you want.

Again, you want to make it as easy on yourself as possible.

Regardless of what you decide to do, or which diet you decide to try – just know that it’s supposed to be a bit challenging at times.

It’s not as simple as the magazines (or movie stars) say it is. If it was, then we’d all be size 0 gazelles lazing by the pool sipping margaritas.

So go easy on yourself, give yourself time and remember – it does get easier. And the results will be worth it!

Vienna Miller writes for Diet Food Delivery Reviews – a site offering reviews of the most popular diet food delivery services.