Rules.

Losing weight seems to have a lot of them.

Rules are one of the things that trips women up in their efforts to release the weight . . . for good!

• You feel like you have to follow them.
• You feel restricted and deprived because of them.
• You chafe and resent them.
• You b(eat) yourself up when you break them.
• You can’t get back on track because it feels too overwhelming and you give up.

Here’s what I know.

You’ve got to break the rules.

If the diet and exercise rules you are following are too rigid, you are almost certainly doomed to fail.

You are not creating a healthy and sustainable lifestyle that keeps you at your optimal weight AND lets you love your life.

• If the rules worked, there wouldn’t be so many of them. (There are over 74,000 hits on Amazon.com when you search for diet books!)
• If the rules worked, researchers wouldn’t estimate that 2/3rds of diets result in gaining more weight than you lost.
• If the rules worked, you would already be at your optimal weight.

Now I’m not suggesting that you go eat everything you want and expect to lose weight.

But I am suggesting that unless you have health issues that need to be addressed:

• You don’t need to cut out entire food groups.
• You don’t need to deprive yourself of eating your favorite foods ever again.
• You don’t need to be so perfect that one mistake means you’ve blown your diet.

Instead, all you have to do is consistently follow 5 general guidelines.

They are:

1. Drink A LOT of water.

And I mean water. Not tea, not coffee, not diet soda. Water. Pure, clean, life-giving water. If you were to do 1 thing to begin creating optimal wellness, it would be to drink more water.

Not a big fan? Here are some tips to increase your intake.

• Get a water purifier to remove any unpleasant taste.
• Give it some flavor. You can add a wedge of lemon or a few drops of lemon essential oil.
• Make up a pitcher infused with fruit and mint.
• Add a splash of juice and a few drops of stevia to sparkling water if you are addicted to sweet fizzy drinks.

Make the change slowly and steadily. Do this consistently, and you will begin to appreciate—and crave—water.

2. Move your body.

Remember when you were a kid and how good it felt to run and play? Your body was designed to move.

But this does not mean you have to hit the gym or do something you hate. Walk, stretch, dance, vacuum with vigor, hula-hoop—figure out a way to consistently move your body that is fun! Reconnect with how the kid in you liked to move. Make moving your body something you want to do rather than something that feels like punishment.

3. Avoid preservatives.

Remember, we’re not depriving you of anything. If you tell yourself you can never eat Nacho Cheese Flavored Doritos ever again, what are you going to crave? And then the next time you are faced with them, if you give in, you will b(eat) yourself up AND will probably eat them like they are your last meal.

Eat clean most of the time. If you really want something, plan for it so you can have a portion without impacting all the good work you have done.

4. Watch your portion size.

A lot of women I work with who are stuck in the rebound weight-gain cycle eat pretty darn healthy. But they eat way too much of the healthy food. The thing is, even if something is healthy, it still has calories. So if you are whipping up frozen fruit instead of eating ice cream, you still have to be mindful of your portion size—most of the time. Remember, this is a general guideline, not a rule.

And of course there are exceptions. A plate of raw broccoli? Go for it! Eat as much as you want. Eat more of highly nutritious, lower calories foods, like colorful vegetables, and smaller portions of of treats and snacks.

5. Love your body.

This is the most important—and most overlooked—aspect of releasing the weight for good. When you love and respect your body and honor the relationship you have with it, you want to treat it well. Instead of feeling like you have to eat healthy foods, you do it because you want to. Moving your body is an act of self-love. You give your body water just as you would nurture a child.

When you realize just how hard your body is working on your behalf, how healthy it is despite all the harmful things you have done to it over the years, how beautiful a creation it actually is—you begin to work with your body instead of against it.

And you can begin by finding 1 thing about your body that you can appreciate right now. Tomorrow think of 2 things. And so on.

We make caring for our body’s way more complicated and hard than it needs to be.

Follow these general guidelines and you will create a body—and life—that you love with ease and joy.

Together we can do it!