Cheating: Your Secret Weapon to Permanent Weight Loss

Have you ever noticed one thing about yourself? You're not perfect.

Yet when it comes to weight loss, you think you have to be perfect. What's up with that?

As soon as you slip-up, even just a little, you beat yourself up with words like lazy, undisciplined, failure, and hopeless.

Then the inevitable happens once again – you give up and there you are – still stuck in a layered-up body that you're just plain sick of.

How about trying a new tactic for weight loss? Cheating. Intrigued?

I call it the "Casual/Dress-up Rule" or the "80/20 Rule" – or how to legally cheat guilt-free.

Let's say we dress casually about 80% of the time (more like 99% of the time for some of us – giggle, giggle), and we dress-up about 20% of the time.

Do the same with your eating habits. 80% of the time, when your day and your food are routine and under your control, fill-up on those weight loss heroes: whole, unrefined fruits, vegetables, grains and beans, like in my 10+10 Eating Plan for Life.

(Tip: eating vegetables is kind of like eating air with lots more nutrients – very few calories – so use your common weight loss sense and fill-up on them first, along with their buddies – fruits – 80% of the time that is.)

Now for the fun part – cheating. When you go out or have people over or there is a holiday or special occasion OR you're just in the mood to "be naughty," go ahead, make your day, and be your most "naughty" self. That'd be about 20% of the time.

Don't guilt or fuss or beat yourself up.

Do get back to your weight loss heroes the next meal or the next day or even the next week (sometimes we s-t-r-e-t-c-h our cheating spree a wee bit longer than a meal or a day).

One thing for sure, if you trap yourself in a rigidly restrictive diet box, the little kid brat in you will rebel, have a tantrum, and kick down the sides of the box.

Once you are free, you will slip back to eating those very foods that sabotage weight loss and eat away at your self-esteem and feeling good about YOU.

Built-in flexibility in your weight loss eating plan allows you the freedom to make food choices—80% sensible choices and 20% "just because I want to" choices—while steadily shedding pounds and building health and fitness.

How perfect is that for our perfectly imperfect selves?

So when you wake up tomorrow morning, ask yourself, "Is this a regular, casual kind of day (or meal) or a dress-up kind of day (or meal)?"

Following the 80/20% rule for that day and the rest of the week, make your decision and enjoy.

The quicker you accept that you aren't perfect, you'll never be perfect, and you don't have to be perfect, the quicker you'll get back on track to the permanent weight loss you long for and so deserve.

One more thing. The only slip-up in weight loss is to give up. And you, my friend, are not a quitter – that much I know for sure!

Create lots of magical moments for you and your family this holiday season and remind yourself how blessed you are.