All over the country, 365 days a year, tens of millions of Americans are obsessively trying to lose weight. When it comes to weight loss, there are many options to choose from, but no matter what option you choose, you will probably face many obstacles and frustrations as you diet with this program or that, all to no avail.

When you Google weight loss you have hundreds of fad diets to choose from: the cabbage soup diet, the Atkins diet, vegetarian diet, all protein diet, no-fat diet and every imaginable combination in between. Most people are looking for the newest fad diet or quick weight loss solutions. The problem with these “quick weight loss” or ‘fad’ diets is that, while you may be losing weight so long as you adhere to a strict regimen of the approved foods, it’s impossible for most people to sustain them. So you lose the desired 20 or more pounds, adhering to just those ‘allowed’ foods, but the menus soon become so boring and restrictive, that eating is more a ritual than a satisfying experience. Soon, once you shed the unwanted pounds, as your palate rebels from the boring foods you’ve been eating and the restriction of calories, you’re more than ready to get back to the pleasures of “real” eating. Then you shoot back up to the weight you were before or, in most cases, even more!

This is why you need to make healthy living your approach to how you develop your diet. When it comes to weight loss your options need to be ones you can sustain and develop into a perpetual endeavor. When you set a short term goal to “lose weight” your goal seeking mechanism, or your subconscious mind will go to work to help you achieve your goal. But as soon as you’ve lost the weight you go back to your normal eating patterns. That’s because you haven’t made healthy living your goal, merely your diet. Since your old eating patterns weren’t designed for the healthier and fitter person you’ve become those pounds slowly, or not so slowly, creep back. Now, as a result, you feel overweight and out of control. You feel like a failure! What you need is a healthy living program that includes a healthy diet.

No matter what hype you’ve read, the only way to successful maintain weight loss is through making habitual changes in your eating and exercise habits. Who is going to subsist on a high protein, low-fat, low carb and sugarless diet forever? Nobody of course! For many of us, eating tasty food is one of the great pleasures of life! What you need to use are healthy living and eating habits you can stick to that will help you lose weight and keep it off!

Eating healthy doesn’t mean cutting out everything you like to eat. ‘Moderation in all things’ is a wise starting point for the person that wants to lose weight and stay healthy. I will admit that losing weight this way and keeping it off takes a bit longer, but your results are more permanent. What you need is to understand your motivation for losing weight. If you deprive yourself of every food that gives you pleasure, you will lose weight, but it’s almost a certainty that those pounds will come right back in a matter of months. You can’t deprive yourself into a healthy lifestyle. Losing weight for the long term requires a sensible approach that includes healthy living and eating habits.

The first thing you need to do is to make a (short) list of foods you absolutely love, but which aren’t on the ‘approved’ list. Can you not live without gravy on your mashed potatoes? Is candy your nemesis? Is salmon without hollandaise sauce not worth eating? Prioritize your short list of food luxuries and then make room for once a week indulgences. When it comes to losing or maintaining weight this is one of the natural health secrets that body builders use. They call these meals with your extra indulgences “cheat” meals. These are meals that keep you happy, instead of feeling deprived and on your diet path toward a healthy lifestyle.

One of the best healthy living and eating secrets is, as you make your menus for the week consult your calorie counter, adding up just how many additional calories your primary indulgences add. Let’s say your personal indulgences, consumed on a once a week basis, add up to 500 calories. In the long run, satisfying your palate, while eating otherwise healthy foods, makes losing weight a slightly slower, but ultimately a much more sustainable way to lose weight.

Here’s a perfect example: twice a week, you have a large dinner salad as your evening meal. Which will you enjoy more? A Spartan plate of greens, shrimp and veggies without dressing or the same salad dressed with a few tablespoons of Thousand Island spread on top? Undoubtedly, you’ll look forward to the salad with a little of the forbidden dressing. Ultimately you’re more likely to stick with something tasty that gives into a small indulgence than eating only drab dishes with no taste.

Please understand that those quick weight loss solutions might work for the short run but, if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle they are not the way to go. Also, remember that losing weight doesn’t have to be a punishing experience! One of the best natural health secrets is to allow you to have a few little indulgences.

Use these healthy living and eating secrets to help you get to and maintain your ideal body image. Be sensible and center your menus around eating healthy, nourishing foods and take the time to think about why you have decided to maintain a healthy living lifestyle and diet. Doing these small things in moderation, along with setting sensible and sustainable goals are the best weight loss options you’ll find anywhere.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy a combination of hypnosis and NLP and a number of e-courses including a “Weight Loss Secrets” program that you can have for no charge or obligation.