There is a perfect diet for you that will give you a consistent weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs a week - the quickest rate you can lose fat healthily. The perfect diet is balanced and has exactly the right nutrients you need. When you eat it you feel great. You're full of energy. Your skin glows.

The perfect diet has adequate amounts of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, nutrient rich fruit, vegetables, oils and seeds. It provides the full range of minerals, vitamins and other micro nutrients without the need for lots of supplements. And it takes into account your food preferences.

You could visit a nutritionist or a registered dietician today and get a diet tailor made for you or you could choose to follow any number of sensible balanced diet plans out there in books and online.

Good idea?

Not necessarily so! If you have the strength of will and determination to follow the perfect diet it may be worth it. But how good have you been at following diets in the past? Most people are far from perfect when it comes to sticking to a diet regime no matter how much they try. And modern life rarely lends itself to following perfect plans.

Plus it can be demoralising to start out full of hope and determination and find out that your willpower is not that great. In fact trying to be perfect can be one of the fastest ways to fail and give your self-esteem a beating. Maybe you give up altogether or maybe you just say to yourself "I'll start again on Monday" but whatever you do it's not the most effective approach.

In fact, I believe the perfect diet is not one which you receive on a few sheets of paper and follow forever more. The perfect diet is one you grow into.

You achieve the perfect diet for your lifestyle when you gradually improve your eating habits, one small step at a time. This way you get a real taste of success to encourage you to continue making improvements until you are eating healthily most of the time yet still enjoying the odd treat and over-indulgence.

The perfect diet feels like something you want to do because it feels natural and that can only come when you give yourself time to change. You lose weight faster in the end simply because it works and the perfect thing about it is that the weight stays off permanently.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small