Avoiding the seven deadly sins of dieting.

• Position: Nutrition

You have started a new diet, and have been good all week, making sensible meals, managing your portions, even exercising a little--then the weekend hits. You eat and drink too much; you give up. Not so fast, advise nutritionists at Natural Solutions magazine. A couple of slip-ups will not undo all of your hard work. The key is to know the dieting pitfalls you are likely to make and plan ahead to avoid them.

Here are the top seven dieting mistakes. How many are you making?

Skipping breakfast. Research shows that people who do not eat breakfast actually weigh more than those who do. There is a mistaken belief that, if you skip breakfast, you are saving calories. The problem is you end up snacking and eating more at other meals because your body is so starved for food. Always begin your day with a healthy breakfast. Black coffee, an egg, whole wheat toast, and a half-grapefruit only has 250 calories and will stave off hunger pangs until lunch.

Too many liquid calories. Did you know that a regular soda daily can pack on 15 pounds in one year? Then there are those lattes, fruit smoothies, and alcohol. These liquid calories do little to satisfy any hunger and the calories add up fast.

Not exercising, If 30 minutes is too much to even think about, start with 10 and see how it goes. If exercising is a drag to you, try something fun like bowling, playing ping-pong, or dancing. The idea is to get moving and have so much fun that you will stick with it.

Using extreme diets. These do not work and can be very detrimental to your health. When you deprive your body of food, two things happen: your metabolic rate slows down to make up for...