There stands the exercise machine that you bought last year from some huckster on the TV while you were lounging on the couch doing your best potato imitation, and you haven’t even tried it once. You had a momentary spurt of energy to try to lose weight and thought the machine would do it, but you are still having trouble finding diets that work so you can really get into the spirit of things and start losing weight. Well, we all know that losing weight is really hard, and in order to make it happen for you, you must change not only your eating patterns and what you eat but how you think of yourself as well. That is absolutely crucial to making a weight loss plan work.

One of the main reasons people shun many weight loss plans is because of the cost. You tally up how much all those prepaid meals and shakes cost per month, and you are stunned at the amount, and if you are part of a family, or better yet the cook for the family; how can you justify buying food for the family for the month, and then spend hundreds of dollars on yourself to get prepackaged cardboard meals for you for your diet plan. Most people can’t rationalize that, but there are ways you can find diets that work without too much pain and effort. For you to stick to a plan, it must be tailored to the way you live, how much you can spend on it, and contain a nutritionally sound base of foods so you maintain your health. And your head and all the emotions and idiosyncrasies that are in it, need to be taken into consideration as well. How you think and how you react to daily living is just as important in the planning of your diet plan as anything else. Many of the best diets that work are based on behavior modification or changing the way you think and act.

We are talking about Acidaburn reviews, Glycemic Impact Diet, Diet.com, and Diet Watch that are good sound plans that take into consideration your love for food, your desire to be healthy, your unwillingness to turn into a world-renowned chef, and the need for you to lose weight. There are other choices too like the time-tested Weight Watchers plan, which count calories for you as well as recommend exercise plans as well as their eating plan; and then the Sonoma Diet which is based on the Mediterranean eating patterns and food choices—even to the point of including wine in the plan.

Now the time has come to analyze just what it is that makes you tick and what are your down-and-out needs when it comes to diets that work for you and that you will stick to. No use planning some elaborate eating scheme with all kinds of wonderful Food Channel-inspired dishes, if you are never going to use them, and get despondent every time you pull out your eating plan. Some of us prefer the exercise part of a diet plan, and their waking moments revolve around that with the food being a secondary concern, so if that is you, then find a plan that emphasizes fitness over food choices. But for the majority of dieters, food is the key ingredient in the plan; and you have to choose a plan that will satisfy what it is you want for your stomach that will also satisfy your head.

The next little tidbit on the diets that work search, is willpower. Is yours in good operating shape, or does it need an overhaul or maybe a good swift kick in the pants? Willpower can make or break any weight loss plan, and if you are serious about finding anything out there that will help you, you first must make up your mind that you will plan carefully and then throw yourself body and soul into carrying out that plan to make it work. We are surrounded by advertisements of all sorts that shout EAT, EAT, EAT in our faces every waking moment from billboards dripping with BBQ’d ribs to TV ads that have mammoth cheeseburgers surrounded by fries and luscious milkshakes with creamy foam sliding down the sides of the glass—Mmmmm, yum. Or so they would have you think. The problem is if you are going to succeed in a weight loss plan, you must shore up your willpower and overcome all these food cravings that these classy ads instigate. Studies have shown that without a long-range workable food plan that fits your lifestyle and your image of yourself, you are set up for failure simply because of the way our lifestyle is today with all our conveniences and available foods.

Finding diets that work is a real challenge for most of us, this is a given, but in the meantime, there are positive steps you can take to take control of the situation and really get some results. For instance, start keeping a food diary so you know when you are eating and how much and what triggers your eating if you are an emotional eater. Get that willpower pumped up and even give yourself incentives with cash rewards, or a new set of clothes when you make your goal-something along those lines because dangling a carrot in front of your nose does get results most of the time. Go easy on yourself; no one ever accomplished anything of any importance by putting themselves down all the time. Believe in yourself and push on; you can do it, you just need to find a plan that fits the way you live and think, is nutritionally sound, has exercise included, and is not a fad.

Help is just around the corner and you can find that help by taking stock of your situation, what your likes and dislikes are, and what your goal is with starting a diet plan. You cannot just concentrate on the weight loss part, although that is the major part; but you also need to get your head on straight and feel positive about yourself, your life, and what you want for yourself. You know there is a fabulous, wonderful, knock-em-dead person inside of you just begging to be released; and you can do it if you get your ducks in a row and get moving.