I want to start by saying that I know a lot of about diet failures. Over the course of my adult life, I have tried, and have failed at, countless plans. However, over the course of six months, I’ve lost nearly 60 pounds on a raw food diet. There are several reasons why I have succeeded this time when I failed so many times before. The tips below were compiled using what I think are the top three reasons that I am wearing a size six right now:

1. Chose The Right Plan: This sounds easy and logical, but I can’t tell you how many times I chose overly restrictive plans that were very unappealing to me. I love carbs and snacks yet I gave Atkins several tries before I realized it just wasn’t going to work because it was torture. Make sure you can live with what the plan is asking of you. If you don’t like to cook, chose a convenient plan. If you don’t like shell fish, the Mediterranean diet may not be for you. If you’re a food connoisseur, you may have a hard time with a prepackaged diet. Just be honest about your personality and preferences because doing so will help ensure your long term success.

2. Break It Down Into Tiny Parts: There are really only three aspects to diet success. This sounds crazy, but I know this to be true. These three things are decisions, actions, and habits. It’s really very simple but we over think and make it hard.

3. Make Good On Your Promises, Knowing Repetition Is The Key: Every day that you make good on your intentions, you’re teaching yourself that you have integrity and can be counted upon. Eventually, when you are tempted to cheat or make a poor decision, it is going to feel very wrong. Your body and your mind are going to reject it. Once you are in the habit of doing the right things, it’s much harder to do the wrong things. Good habits feed upon themselves and become second nature in a very short time. Once you have gotten into the repetitive habit of your desired diet behavior, you’ve successfully changed your lifestyle, which has been the goal all along.

To succeed on any diet plan, you only need success with these three things. To start, just promise yourself that you will concentrate on making positive decisions each day. That’s it. Once you are routinely making sound decisions, follow up with positive actions. Once you are routinely taking your desired action, turn your attention to creating desirable habits.

For example, here is how this worked in my own life. Once I realized my success hinged on these three things, I made a firm decision to go on a raw food diet and to give it everything I had. I was not going to try it, expecting to fail. I was going to do it, knowing I would succeed. Each day, when it was time to chose what to eat, I made good on my intention to consume the right foods. Once I got this down, I vowed to add one helpful habit per week. One week, I drank more water. The next week, I power walked every day after work. Today, I do these things without even thinking about them.

I know these three steps sound simplistic, but they have worked for me. Most of us know how to make the right decisions; we just don’t repetitively do so. Start by concentrating on just this. I promise you, the rest will fall into place on its own.