And the countdown has begun. Throw away that tape measure and stop weighing yourself every morning, noon and night. Get rid of your desperately punishing and frightfully expensive diet regimen.

Before you fix the body, you have to fine-tune, program, if you will, the mind.

Gathered from successful dieters worldwide, here are many ways open to you for consideration.

1) No diet ever works if you believe that it won’t.

In short, adopting a defeatist attitude guarantees only one thing—failure. So, condition your mind to accept what needs to be done in order to reach your health goal.

2) Drink copious amounts of water.

Do not substitute it for colored, low-calorie beverages. It’s not the same. Ten to 15 glasses of water daily is ideal. But if this is too much for you, then start with eight glasses

daily.

If you cannot drink water because it’s too plain a flavor, then add a blade of lemongrass or pandan.

3) Stick to the rule of five.

Take five kinds/servings of vegetables and fruits daily. Note: If you made a juice out of three oranges, then this counts for three. But don’t overdo the fruits—especially if they are high in sugar like mangoes.

Go for leafy greens. Here’s a recipe you will enjoy:

Orange Zing

1 whole orange, seeded and peeled

1 small cucumber, seeded and peeled

1 slice of fresh ginger

1 teaspoon raw wild honey

5 ice cubes

Place all in a blender and blend until thick and velvety smooth.

Add banana if you like.

4) If you want to really lose weight fast the natural way, then stick to juicing all day for eight hours.

By sunset you will notice a flatter tummy.

When to juice: every half hour followed by two glasses of water in between juicing. Try not to eat solids until the eighth hour is over.

Break your juice fast with a light, hot vegetable soup.

Cabbage Delight

Boil half a head of shredded cabbage in a pot of chicken or vegetable broth. Add a pinch of sea salt. Eat as much as you want.

Best veggie/fruit combinations:

Orange-apple-cucumber
Ampalaya (bitter gourd)- green apple-singkamas (jicama)
Romaine lettuce-jicama- carrots
Sugar beets-carrots-Romaine lettuce, or any native leafy vegetable like pechay or mustasa.

5) Eat when you feel hungry. Note: Thirst may be mistaken as hunger pangs. Before you decide that it’s hunger and not simply thirst, do yourself a favor by drinking two glasses of water (not iced). Wait for 15 minutes.

If you are no longer hungry, then it means only one thing: You were simply dehydrated.

The stomach is the size of your fist. Unless you wish to invite stomach problems, eat only a fistful, or in small amounts.

6) When in a restaurant, a calorie-driven option is to check out the children’s menu.

If the food is sizeable, then order the kid’s meals.

7) Treat, not cheat.

A disciplined diet plan allows pampering regularly. It is best not to diet on weekends.

When you remove the word “cheat” from the vocabulary, you will no longer tend to go astray. Like a reward system of sorts, you are allowed to “treat,” not “cheat,” yourself.

This way, you think of a diet as a to-do plan that doesn’t seem like deprivation.

8) Start trimming down your budget-meal plan.

A sudden drastic diet can create an unpredictable insulin resistance. Therefore, remove a little at a time.

First it could be red meat, then followed by pork, chicken, etc.

9) Sleep comfortably.

The recommended is seven to eight hours. Sleep aids are melatonin and valerian root tea.

10) Exercise.

There is no excuse not to exercise. Take up a sport.

11) Don’t allow yourself to sacrifice in your diet. Once in a while, you are entitled to break it.

12) Buy an accurate weight scale. Digital scales are more exact.

Weigh yourself daily only in the morning after you have urinated. It is best to weigh yourself in your birthday suit.

13) Do not hide your diet plan from the public.