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The long haul

After two or three days, the worst part of your diet is behind you, receding into the past if never completely forgotten. You've adjusted to reduced calorie intake, fat is being consumed to make up most of the difference between the calories you're eating and what you're burning, and the weight is coming off, although it will take a little while for the trend to clearly reflect this. Now you're into the main part of the diet, where you'll stay until you arrive at your weight goal. As the weeks pass, you'll probably find the diet becomes less and less of a bother; your body continues to slowly adapt to burning fat more efficiently, you become accustomed to eating less, and, before long, you'll start to notice the difference in how you look and feel. Once the changes in your waistline and weight become obvious, you're into the payoff period: where the benefits so obviously outweigh whatever discomfort you experience that abandoning the diet becomes unthinkable.



By John Walker