Many of the most popular diets in the world including Atkins, GI diet, weight watchers, and various detox diets have little chance of working unless you follow some of these basic diet plan fundamentals…

1. Deal with the “bad” guys.  Most of our bodies are out of whack with high levels of systemic yeast, too acidic or alkaline creating hosts for the “bad” critters to overtake our systems ultimately affecting our nutrition, energy level, ability to digest foods and other organ functioning within our bodies.  It doesn’t matter what diet plans we try until we are able to get rid of any parasites or bacterial overgrowths that are likely in our bodies today.  That means seeing a practitioner who can test you for these “bad” parasites, yeast or other chemical factors that may be poisening your system right now.

2. Drinking more water.  Just as important as clearing our system of “bad” critters is flushing it out with a daily dose of 8-10 glasses of filtered water – especially important in the morning.  In addition, depending on what is found in step 1, you may have to detoxify your liver and organs as well as consume more water.

3. Become active.  We don’t mean immediately go out and run a half-marathon, but certainly striving for at least 40-minutes of fast-walking, jogging, swimming or aeorobic activity each day will help get your metabolism moving, improve your circulation and heart and reduce stress.

4. Speaking of stress — we need to get that under control.  Not only is your diet plan in jeopardy as stress often leads to binge or improper eating, but research is now showing that stress itself can result in chemical reactions in our body that lead to even more cravings for unhealthy foods such as starches and sugars.

5. Set both short-term and longer-term goals.  Not only do you need to be motivated with your diet plan in the first few weeks, you need to stay motivated months down the road.  There is nothing more hurtful to your motivation and weight loss goals than losing 10-pounds only to put 15 back on in 4-months time.  To prevent that from happening, make sure you have set weekly, monthly and even yearly goals with planned checks and balances to make sure your diet plan is a long-term behavior change rather than just a short-term appearance change.

Popular diet plans won’t talk about these 5-factors yet I have found they are absolutely necessary to lose weight and keep it off.

Jeff