I go on a diet, I go off my diet. I think I need some new ideas. Got any?

You are absolutely right. When you want to lose weight, but you just can't seem to get out of your same old rut, it's time to start thinking in a new way.

An effective method to help you generate new ideas for solving a problem is to create an analogy. In a way, it forces you to come up with new and different ways of getting there. It opens your mind to possibilities you might not have thought of before. It helps you be creative and innovative.

So...here goes. The analogy for you to use (just one of any number of possibilities) is this: How is losing weight like crossing a river in a rowboat?

Even if this sounds a bit weird to you, go with it. In trying to make this comparison, in using the analogy, you'll be surprised at what you can think up to do.

Here's how to do it. Imagine crossing that river. At each category relate it to a weight-loss journey.

This is a way for you to get going in a new direction. Your original question indicates that you're after new ideas, and this is a way of shaping your thinking so you can come up with those new ideas.

Here is another way (both of these techniques are borrowed from Edward deBono's book Lateral Thinking). This technique is called the 'Why' technique. Here we are adapting some principles of lateral thinking and applying them to your problem of staying on a diet.

Using this technique, you can challenge your assumptions by asking three 'Why's'.

So, your problem is: "I go on a diet, I go off my diet." Instead of simply accepting this statement, try asking 'Why'. Why is this so? Let's say for demonstration purposes your answer to this first 'Why' is, "I go off my weight loss diet because I have no willpower."

Now comes the second 'Why'. "Why don’t I have any willpower?" Again, hypothetically, let's say you answer: "Because all I have to do gets me too tired and that's when I lose my self-control."

OK, now comes the third 'Why'. "Why do I have such an overwhelming amount of things to do?" Suppose you answer: "I guess I feel if I'm not doing everything for everyone all the time, then I'm not worth much."

If things actually went this way, you can see that you would now have a different perspective. Instead of "I go on a diet, I go off my diet", and feeling at a loss for what to do about this, the 'Why' technique may very well lead you down a more fruitful solution path.

If this feeling of having to do too much is at the heart of the matter, then that's what you can address. Instead of trying hard to find better ways to stay on a weight loss diet—maybe searching for diets that are easier to stay on—you would be taking another problem-solving path altogether. Because if you could tackle that feeling you have of not being worth much unless you are running yourself ragged, it might well end up in the on-a-diet off-a-diet problem getting resolved.

These lateral thinking techniques are very effective when you feel stuck in a problem. It always helps to try something new to get out of a rut. With dieting and losing weight, women have a tendency to think only about the next diet plan. Given the fact that this hasn't done the trick for you, a different way of thinking goes beyond the usual. Sometimes it is that usual way of seeing a problem that is the problem.

Here is one last way to think "laterally", that is to say, not come up with an immediate solution but open up possibilities for new solutions. This method has to do with establishing new labels.

For your purposes, let's say you label yourself thus: "I am a woman who can't stay on a weight loss diet plan." Again for the purpose of making an example, let's re-label you. Let's say you label yourself in a different way:

"I am a woman who very much wants to learn how to stay on a diet and lose weight."

This is a whole different view, isn't it? It points you in a different direction. Instead of someone who can't do something, you are now describing someone who has a strong desire to be able to do something. All you've done here is change your focus. The slant is new. It's still the same you, but your new label allows for all sorts of possibilities.

You want to lose weight. You very much want to learn how. You can probably already think of many, things to do following this concept of yourself. It is not just changing from negative to positive—it is more than that. Because maybe by labeling yourself someone who can't stay on a weight loss program, you've been putting yourself at a dead end. It is always true that the way you look at a problem has everything to do with solving it.

So now you have three interesting techniques to try:

• Analogy
• The 'Why' technique
• Establishing a new label

Any one of these might give you the new idea you're after.

© Maria's Last Diet. Maria's Last Diet is an online weight loss support website for women. At Maria's Last Diet, you'll find the tools to fix the thoughts, feelings, and automatic habits that fight against you when you diet. Because it's never just about the food. Visit www.mariaslastdiet.com for more diet tips and weight loss motivation.

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