1. Make use of skimmed milk - When you compare skimmed milk and the regular kind, they are actually the same, except for the fact that the former contains lesser fats and calories than the latter. In other words, skimmed milk still has the necessary nutrients that one needs from milk such as vitamins and minerals. However, it can help you better in losing weight than drinking the regular kind.

2. Monitor your weight - Monitoring your weight is one of the things that you can do in order to motivate yourself more in losing some of it. This is especially true, if you are able to lose a number of pounds each time you climb onto the weighing scale. To ensure that it is the case, then do it only once in a week or every couple of weeks.

3. If you are following a certain workout program, start with the routines you don’t like best - When you have a workout program that you need to follow, there is a possibility that you don’t like certain routines in it. To get the most from the program, perform the routines you don’t like at the start. You don’t want to do them at the last part, since you may already feel tired, and may have a tendency to skip them.

4. Reward yourself each time you lose a number of KG - When you are able to reach your short term goals, it is a good idea to reward yourself each time. Although losing a number of KG can already be rewarding, treating yourself for your favorite meal, going out with your friends, or buying something new, can provide you with more motivation to continue doing the things that helped you lose weight.

5. Finally, don’t expect perfection - Nobody is perfect. We have all heard that statement countless times, but many of us still find it hard to apply it to ourselves and our diets. We take an all-or-nothing approach, thinking we have to stick to our diet plan 100% of the time, perfectly, or there's no point following it at all.

This puts huge pressure on us and makes us feel terrible if we slip up. It also means that after a slip-up we are likely to think, "I've messed up yet another diet, I just can't do this," or "This diet doesn't work," and abandon it. In short, perfection-related diet mistakes mean that we will use the smallest slip-up as an excuse for a massive binge.

This problem is worst for dieters who like to follow very restricted plans where no treats are allowed. Inevitably, life gets in the way and instead of planning how to cope with the challenge of a party or a wedding, they try to eat nothing all day and then cave in, abandoning the diet completely.

Your weight loss does not have to be a straight downward line. It's OK to have occasional diet mistakes, slips and gains along the way, as long as the overall trend is downward. And it's much better in the long term to lose weight slowly. It's much more likely to stay off that way.