Don't Delay; Start Your New Plan Today!

Do you constantly promise yourself that you'll start your new diet...tomorrow? Do you have a stack of magazines and diet plans labeled To Review that has been growing since 1995? Are you thinking to yourself that this article is probably virtuous reading, and that maybe you could wait and read it after you play just one more game of computer solitaire?

Warning: If you answered "yes" to at least one of these questions, you may suffer from Nutrition Procrastinationitis. I confess: I'm a former member of the Nutrition Procrastination Club - and I still slip back into those old I'll-put-it-off-until-tomorrow ways. Typically, I would promise myself on a Friday that I would start my new diet on Monday. That gave me, in my Nutrition Procrastination way of thinking, the perfect excuse to nosh on potato chips and ice cream all weekend.

"After all," I would tell myself, spooning down hot fudge sundaes hastily, "I'm starting my new diet in a couple of days, and I deserve a final treat."

Here are some common diet procrastination patterns - and solutions:

The I've-Got-To-Find-the-Perfect-Diet-And-I'm-Worried-That-I'll-Fail Procrastinator: This member of the Nutrition Procrastination Club spends so much time worrying about getting it just right that she can't get going. She wants a diet that lets her literally have her cake and eat it too -- not gonna happen, folks! If that's your pattern, here's the solution: Set yourself one diet or exercise goal each week. Maybe it's eating breakfast if you tend to skip that meal (which research shows really is critical to weight loss). Perhaps it's eating five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Keep it simple.

The I-Work-Best-Under-Deadline-Pressure Personality: This individual operates on the theory that she needs a goal -- like the office beach party. But she'll wait until three days before -- and then crash diet on gallons of black coffee and hard-boiled egg. By the day of the party, she hasn't lost the 20 pounds that she feels are necessary to appear in a bathing suit -- so she wears a caftan and eats potato chips with dip all day at the beach.

Solution: If you want to work for a goal, start early. And keep it realistic.

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