Every new year, resolutions are made. We all think this is going to be our year. We are going to do all these great things and live our best life. And for a huge majority of us, it is going to be the year we choose a diet, stick to it, lose weight, and get healthy. Our January 1st optimism quickly diminishes by the time February 1st rolls around. Either we are hanging on by a thread - or we’ve given up entirely. Check out the calendar - it is that time of year. If you are one who told yourself that you were going to eat better, move more, and lose weight, then you may be struggling to make it happen. Take a deep breath, chomp down on that carrot, and relax - we’ve got some good news for you. Here’s how you can stick to your diet and make your new year’s resolution last all throughout the year. It’s Deeper Than What You Eat You cannot simply look at the foods you are eating, choose the right ones, and ignore everything else. It is not sustainable because there is almost always an underlying reason why you have always chosen junk food over good food - and why you’ve let your body find its way to an unhealthy state. Take the time to dig deeper and understand your relationship with food. Learn about hunger and cravings and how to handle them. The more you educate yourself on eating healthy and how it relates to you, the greater success you will have. Be Your Biggest Cheerleader Nobody starts a diet with the intention to fail, but it is easy to lose motivation. You need to keep yourself motivated because there is no guarantee that anyone else will. Write a list of the reasons you chose to start your healthy eating journey - and read through them every single day, especially when you are feeling vulnerable. These can be superficial reasons, internal reasons, things you want to be able to do as a healthy person that you maybe cannot do so easily now, and so on. Anything that is going to motivate you needs to be on the list. Have an Accountability Partner Aside from cheering for yourself, it helps to have someone else working in tandem with you to meet healthy eating goals. This accountability partner can help you stay on track while you help them stay on track. In other words, you motivate each other to do better. Think about this - in a moment of weakness you decide to indulge yourself in one-too-many pieces of chocolate cake. Without an accountability partner, who is going to know? Sure, you may beat yourself up for it later, but you still don’t have to answer to anyone. This means indulging is rather easy to do. So, what if you have a friend who is going to call you and ask what you ate? What if he or she checks in with you and sees half of a new cake missing? To avoid this uncomfortable conversation, you will avoid the cake. See how that works? Plan Ahead When you find yourself hungry, it is easy to grab the first thing you see, isn’t it? If you plan ahead, this could be a yogurt, some nuts, or a piece of fruit. If you didn’t plan ahead, you may end up grabbing a bag of chips, a handful of chocolates, or a leftover bowl of macaroni and cheese. There is a reason why meal prepping is so popular. It gives you the right snacks and meals to keep you fueled with all the good stuff throughout your day. Stop Focusing on the Perfect Diet There are so many diets out there, each promising to be the perfect solution to losing weight and getting healthy. Truth is, there is no perfect diet. Many will help you lose weight - especially when you find one that suits your likes/dislikes. Sadly, most are very restrictive. What happens when you are on a restrictive diet? You lose weight initially because you have removed so many foods from your diet, but it usually becomes too hard to maintain. You want to have a slice of pizza, for example, so you allow yourself one cheat meal. That often then becomes one cheat day. Then a cheat weekend. Before long, you are on a downward spiral at the pizzeria. Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to restrict your diet. You can eat everything - it is just about how much or how often you eat it. A slice or two of pizza once a week is not going to make you put on 5lbs. Allowing yourself that pizza will keep you from eating a whole one after a month of pizza-free dieting. Make sense? Remember, too much restriction will almost always fail. Cook Meals at Home More Often You have a wonderful kitchen - have you seen it lately? All decked out with the latest pro-style, stainless steel appliances. Why not make use of them? Eating out not only keeps us from knowing exactly what we are eating, such as oils, butter, heavy creams, etc. but it also leads us to overindulge. For example, if you are craving a burger and fries, at home you may use lean meat or even a veggie burger cooked on the grill, resulting in much less grease - and much healthier for you. You can choose a whole wheat bun with all sorts of veggies. For your fries, you may bake them out of a bag or slice and air fry your own potatoes. When you cook at home, you have control over the ingredients and the amount of food that ends up on the plate in front of you. Not to mention that it just tastes better. As you go throughout your day today - and the weeks ahead - don’t let yourself get bogged down with old habits. You made the commitment to change your eating habits and get healthy. So grab an accountability partner, re-discover your motivation, and get in that kitchen and cook up some delicious, healthy meals.
