Is that diet right for you?

I see lots of diets and one thing I always notice is how easy the diet is to actually do, rather than how good it looks on paper.

A good example of this occurred the other day when I looked at a diet that was a twenty-one day eating plan. It was very good, it looked nutritionally sound and the balance of food was about right while the suggestions for what to eat each day were good enough to keep most people happy but there was one really big drawback.

Whoever wrote the diet either owned a supermarket or else had never had to shop because the cost, wastage and 'buyability' of the food was very bad!

It reminded me that, when you read a diet in a magazine or book, you need to look at it and answer these three questions - never mind how mouth-watering the daily recipes look!

First, look at what you need to buy for, say, four or five days. On a diet you have to eat what you are told to eat so can you buy in small enough quantities to avoid wastage? That is, if the recipe suggests a banana today, when do you get to eat the other four you will have to buy because they come pre-packed? If the answer to that is next week, you have a problem.

To be fair, in the UK which is where I live, it is now becoming easier to buy single quantities but it is still a chancy business to know in advance that you can get, say, one banana or one carrot.

If, of course, you have a big family then this might go some way to solving the problem although an even better way is if two (or more) people chip in to buy the food and all do the same diet.

Secondly, can you shop often enough to get the fresh food that you need? Most diets stress fresh food, which is good, but fresh food means that you have to shop more often. Most people shop once a week and eat fresh food at the start of the week and then fall back on frozen, tinned or packets for later. On most diets you just can't do that.

Work out what you will need and how often and where you can shop, or who else you can get to help you out. Again, if two or more people can get together then the problem can be easily solved.

Lastly, how expensive is the diet? You would be amazed at the number of people who start a diet and then find that the weekly food bill has suddenly doubled! Check what you will be eating and that it falls within your weekly budget and go back to number one and check on wastage which is also where the money can really drain away and make sure that you can afford the diet.

If it is going to cost more and, for some reason, that often seems to be the case, make sure you can change your budget. Most importantly, don't just hope that it will all work out. There is nothing worse than getting a few weeks into a diet, getting on well and then finding that you've run out of money to finish the month.

It can be a bit of a daunting task working out what you need and what it costs so, if you are unsure how to do it, sit down and make a list of what you need for, say, one week. Now go out to the store (or look at an online store) and have a dummy run to see what the actual cost is, you may be surprised when you add it up at the end!

So, before you start a diet, spend a few days and take a realistic look at the food that you will eat. Ensure that you can buy in the right quantities, at a time when you need the food and that the overall cost of the diet fits into your budget.

The big danger with a new diet is that you will like it and get on fine but be forced to compromise by one of the problems mentioned above. Unfortunately, as we all know, once you begin to fall off a new diet there is usually no way back!