This week’s Useful Website is one I just discovered yesterday and am already finding it to be tremendously valuable.  Maria’s Last Diet was created by a husband and wife team that specialize in the psychological aspects of losing weight and keeping it off.  They have put together a large database of articles concerning the typical weight loss issues but the advice given in the articles is anything but typical.  The focus is centered on the mental aspects of losing weight and answering those questions relating to our struggles with food and weight.

The About page on Maria’s Last Diet describes the website as the following:

Members of the Maria’s Last Diet community share one thing: a true desire to lose weight and keep it off.

Maria’s Last Diet is here to help women diet successfully. It is not a diet in the usual sense. There is no one particular food plan. Our mission is to help you stay on whatever diet you choose. Sticking to your diet is the key to your weight loss success.

The right diet and weight loss tools, information and support will enable you to reach your weight loss goal. Maria’s Last Diet applies psychological principles, tried and tested in research and clinical practice, to the universal problems that women have with sticking to their diets.

Are you wondering who Maria is?  I was! 

Maria is a fictionalized account of a woman’s struggles with food, dieting and weight loss. Maria is an “everywoman”. Her story is revealing. It shows how deeply the force of eating and weight problems can affect your life.

We offer the story of Maria to provide inspiration and understanding to women who want and need to lose weight. It tells the inner secrets of a life that you can relate to. Reading about Maria and the way she has overcome one of the biggest unsolved problems of her life will help you do the same, and give you the motivation to lose weight too.

One example of how I’ve found this site to be useful would be concerning my recent plateau.  I’ve read a good many articles about plateaus lately and when I began to read one from Maria’s Last Diet, in the back of my mind I was expecting more of the same.  Not so.  The article discussed the less common idea of not being ready to let the weight go.  Perhaps I have a fear of losing the last 26 pounds that is mentally blocking me from allowing myself to lose the rest of my weight.  The mind can be very powerful and this idea has intrigued me.  After six weeks of plateau-ing, I’m ready for some new advice!

So, my friends, I urge you to check out this site to see what surprises they might have in store for you.  And let me know what you think!  Post a link in my comments to any articles you have found useful as well.