The Real Fat Free Diet

Usable Insights with Dr. Mark Goulston

To keep your New Year’s Resolution

and maintain your new diet,

don’t cut out the fat and sugar,

cut out the high-maintenance people in your life.

Hoping to keep your New Year’s Resolution and stay on a new diet or exercise regimen? Don’t spend too much time and effort on a list of what you should and shouldn’t eat or do.

Instead, do take out a sheet of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle. On the left side list all the people that drain the life and energy out of you. Those are the people who are very difficult to please and easy to upset (a.k.a. high maintenance). On the right side list the people who give you energy and are easy to please and difficult to upset (a.k.a. low maintenance).

Make a 30 day commitment to minimize your contact with people who drain you and increase your contact with those who energize you. That’s because most people fall off new diets or exercise routines (or for that matter light up a cigarette) after they have had contact with people who frustrate or exasperate them. When that happens, you’ll reach for a quick fix like carbohydrates or a thick piece of meat and the last thing you’ll want to do is go exercise.

Then make a commitment to continue this indefinitely.

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