Escape diet trap and change your relationship with food for good

Are you caught in the diet trap - that exhausting cycle of dieting, regaining weight and feeling like a failure? Sandra Roycroft-Davis award-winning creator of the Slimpod programme offers this advice...

- AMY PACKER

Millions of us have been conditioned to believe that dieting, taking a pill, or having an injection will be the answer to our weight struggles.

These might result in short-term weight loss, but research shows 95% of dieters put it back on.

Stress, emotions and everyday life eventually take over, and before you know it, you're back to square one.

It's a relentless cycle that can have a damaging impact on mental health.

Modern eating is bad for our waistlines, with 75% of people over 40 in the UK overweight or obese.

But, in fact, what we eat is less of a problem than WHY we eat.

Our minds hold the key to lasting weight loss, not diets or jabs, and they can either be our greatest obstacle or our most powerful tool.

To escape diets, you have to be able to create a new relationship with food in which you see it as fuel for your body not an emotional crutch.

In the research for my new book, I surveyed nearly 4,000 former dieters who had then been on my Slimpod programme. A staggering 85% said the biggest challenge when dieting is self-sabotage.

It's not simply about lacking willpower -it's psychological. Our brains resist change because they crave the familiar, even when it's harmful.

POWERFUL