Analyze Your Current Diet Mindset

The first thing we have to do - before you ever put a single bite of "diet food" into your mouth and before you get up off the couch and get moving - it set your mind on the right path to success.

We have to take an honest account of where you are mentally. And it's kind of like how a doctor can look at stats going back 3 months - not just today's stats for your blood sugar levels.

You don't want to be all revved up and excited to lose weight today and trick yourself into a false sense of security that "you've got this." We have to get real and see where you've stood over the years.

Are You Going into This Expecting to Fail?

If you have failed before, you'll probably fail again, right? Not necessarily - but with an attitude like that, your chances increase. You have to go into this New Year lifestyle plan with expectations that you'll succeed.

Not wishful thinking - that's a very different concept. This has to be something where you "see" yourself trimmer, healthier, and more energetic than ever before based on what you plan to do.

If you get on a diet plan that's too restrictive, you can look at the odds and know right away that you're not going to stay on the plan 100% of the time. When you have a slip-up, you label it as such - and once you've done it, it doesn't matter if it's small - you've "failed."

This failure label gives you permission to go off the deep end. Instead of just eating a snack sized Snicker bar, you're suddenly on a death-by-chocolate bender.

There's a big difference between a 45-calorie snack and a 1,400-calorie dessert - and the effect it has on your body - but you won't care because you're being too rigid with yourself.

If the diet said no sweets and you broke the diet law, you should punish yourself. Get rid of your attitude that doesn't allow you to eat differently from time to time - and stop labeling things as "slip-ups" or "mistakes" as you plan your diet this New Year.

Another problem when you never expect success is that inevitably, you don't work as hard at the task as you would if you expected to succeed. You might not even be able to recognize that you're doing it, either.

If I told you right now that if you pushed yourself to work up your cardio this week and stuck to a reasonable diet plan and you'd lose every pound of weight that you wanted - 100% guaranteed, you'd do it.

But instead, you might be plotting your New Year diet in a way that just has you avoiding failure for as long as you can - so you might do cardio, but not nearly as hardcore as you would if you knew you'd succeed. You might eat okay, but not do it perfectly because failure is bound to happen anyway.

Have You Announced It to the World?

Traditionally, diet experts have advised people to set a goal and announce it to the world. They claimed that it made you accountable for your efforts. This should be a good thing, but it isn't.

There are several reasons why it's a better idea to quietly make this decision to lose weight on your own - and then keep it to yourself.

Announcing your weight loss goals does put pressure on yourself - and instead of having one person beating you up (yourself), you open the door to having everyone and their grandmother comment about what you're eating, and everything they believe you're doing wrong.

Studies also show that the simple task of announcing your goals satisfies you so much emotionally that it makes you work harder on the real things that matter - the actual nutrition and exercise portion of your diet plan.

It's as if announcing it was all you needed to do. But don't forget the guilt you feel - and shame - when, after announcing it to all of your friends, family, co-workers and Facebook friends, you have to then show them what a failure you've become when you don't achieve your wild 50 pounds in 5 weeks weight loss goals.

I know you want support - that's your real reason for announcing your goals to the world. You're hoping people will cheer you on and help you get past obstacles you encounter with your eating.

And yes, part of you might even appreciate (to a certain point), the nagging that occurs when you go to your mom’s house and try loading up on some fattening dessert, only to hear "tsk tsk" from a well-meaning loved one.

But remember that this journey you're on toward better health isn't about your friends and family - it's about you. You're the only one who needs to know this, and putting pressure on your acquaintances to babysit you isn't fair to them, either.

When is it okay to let people know that you're eating healthier or dieting? When they're a source of the problem. If your grandmother bakes you 7 pies a week, it's a problem. She needs to be told not to do that.

If your co-workers try pushing you into attending an endless stream of office celebrations with sweets, then you might say something in passing such as, "No thanks, I'm cutting down on my sugar intake."

But you don't need to make a declaration of your New Year diet plans, how much weight you plan to lose, and keep a running tally on Facebook for everyone to see of every meal you ate, each time you hit the gym, and how many calories you consumed in a 24-hour period.

There's a lot of pressure to publicize your dieting, too. There are apps that will auto-Tweet your weight each week. There's another app that tells everyone on social media when you skipped a workout at the gym.

You might as well walk around with a sign around your neck that tells everyone you meet that you need their approval to be happy because you're inviting scorn, not just applause.

Do You Feel Guilt Associated with Diet Slip-Ups?

This is very common. In fact, if you're dieting and "slip up" in front of people without acknowledging your guilty feelings, people wouldn't even understand why!

Stop using words and phrases like "cheated" or "fell off the wagon." Your self-talk is the first thing you have to get under control so that you can stop feeling so negative about the choices you make.

This New Year, you should look at the long road ahead from this day to the rest of your life and realize that not every day has to be so regimented and restricted. Once you have the freedom to understand this concept, it makes it easier for you to have things that are outside your official diet plan without raking yourself over the coals for it.

That said, this doesn't mean your diet is now open so that you exist on nothing but donuts and brownies. But when you truly allow yourself to not feel food guilt anymore, you'll see how easy it is to indulge from time to time without turning it into an official (and unhealthy) binge.