How many times have you tried to diet/lose weight in the past?

How many times have you had some initial success only to fall short of your goals?

How many times have you achieved your initial goals, only to see them fly away faster than you were able to enjoy the fruits of your labour?

Why does this happen?

In most cases, the answer is simple. You've failed one test... This is a difficult test. This test I like to call consistent persistence.

Sometimes, you will be missing other essential components. You need to also include a variety of other things that will make the consistent persistence useful. If you are consistently persistent in doing the wrong things, you will still fail. So before we get in to the final key, let's review the other essential components.

Successful dieting and or weight loss should always be geared towards a total lifestyle change that you intend to be permanent. If you cannot healthily sustain the changes for an indefinite period, it probably isn't the right diet for you. Reasonable exceptions would include medically necessary emergency weight loss, with a view to changing the program once the crisis management was concluded.

If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a goal of maintaining that weight loss for at least five years. How many of the fad diets out there today could withstand a five year test? Not many.

With the diet changes (that can be maintained for five or more years in a healthy fashion), it is essential to increase your energy expenditure.

You can increase this energy expenditure with a variety of strategies. Some of those include supplements that boost your metabolic rate. As we have seen with the ephedra issue, it isn't always the safest choice. A safer way is timing your activity to boost your energy expenditure throughout the day. One of those ways is to exercise early in the morning before eating, and then waiting for a period of time after having concluded your exercise before you eat. If you have blood sugar regulation difficulties such as diabetes or hypoglycemia, this may not be the route for you to take.

Additionally, because your body will accommodate to any exercise regimen after a period of time, you will need to vary your programs.

Water consumption at adequate levels is a must in any successful plan. This will help to wash away the waste products and toxins that the body will release as you burn away the fat (which does store some toxins).

Adequate supplementation with good quality vitamins and minerals is also very important so that your body has the micronutrients it needs to drive its metabolic processes.

Ensuring that your body does not think that it is in a state of famine is also important. While it is a good idea to decrease your overall caloric intake, you want to make sure that you feed you body on a regular basis, so that it knows that food is still available and is coming soon. Six small meals a day is generally a good idea. Your choice of calorie sources is also important. For many health reasons, it is good to avoid highly processed products. Vine ripened, organic produce is also a great idea.

Another way to help yourself succeed and give your body a greater variety of micronutrients and enzymes is to eat a large variety of foods. Our bodies haven't yet really adapted to the advent of agriculture, let alone a few monocrops. Variety, variety, and more variety is a great idea.

Ensure that your rest is adequate and of good quality. If you do not rest adequately, all of your body's processes can be adversely affected.

Take time for yourself. Meditate or pray. This will help you on so many different levels that there isn't enough time or space to go into it.

Set yourself reasonable, attainable goals with specific time frames. If you don't achieve them, reset the goals and review your plan. Maybe the goal was unrealistic or the the plan was faulty. Entertain both possibilities. If you don't know how to tell, enlist professional help.

Measure your progress. Measuring in inches and energy is a better way to evaluate how you are doing rather than by pounds. Also very useful and a good measure of health factors, is to record how your body fat percentages change (for better or for worse).

So now you have the basic principles down. While a three month interval is a great way to look at progress points, if you stop there, you have failed. You need consistent persistence. At every goal point, re-evaluate your plan, refine it, work it, and then repeat the process. If you need a holiday from your routine, schedule it, don't improvise or you are likely to fall out of the routine and have a difficult time getting back into it.

Work it, re-evaluate it, measure your progress, and repeat.

Consistent persistence is the key to your success. This success must also be built on sound principles and be realistic, sustainable, and varied.

Don't let yourself be discouraged, keep at it and fight to maintain your consistent persistence because this is where success lives.

The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.

Emily Clark is editor at Lifestyle Health News and Medical Health News where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on topical health matters.