Many people look to change their diet. Being healthy, ageing well, losing weight, having more energy, clear your skin, these are all reasons to seek a healthier, more natural way of eating. However, many people that tries a new diet end-up falling off the wagon sooner or later. The problem is not about the lack of motivation, or even the diet itself, but rather emotional factors that refrain us to stay on track. Discover the psychological bumps you can encounter when you make a complete diet change and learn how you can avoid them.
The 7 main reasons people fall off the wagon
Most diets focus on restriction. When you start a new diet, whether it’s for losing weight or to start a healthier lifestyle, you often focus on what you can’t eat, which for most of us, makes us crave those foods even more. Feeling deprived can make you eat even more of the very thing you want to avoid.
Your diet isn’t sustainable. The pleasure of eating is a huge factor in our ability to stick to a diet. If you don’t like what you eat, chances are that you will jump off the wagon sooner or later. You have to find a diet that fits your real life. If it leaves you hungry, or screw-up your social life, the price you pay might be too high to commit to it forever.
You want immediate results. We live in a world that glorifies instant gratification. No matter what diet you choose and the reason to commit to it, it will take some time to see results. The problem is that the minute we change something in our diet, we want to see the difference right now. Most of the time, we simply quit because we are frustrated by the results (or the lack of it). Your body needs time to adjust to a new lifestyle, so be patient.
You have no plan to fight temptation. Following a diet when we stay at home is so much easier. The minute we start going out, food is everywhere. And the problem is not really the abundance of food, but rather the quality of it. Cooked, processed, fatty and sugary treats can be found at every corner, which makes it much more difficult to stick to your diet. One good way to avoid this threat is to have some healthy food on hand wherever you go.
You’re too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes. You must stop to see every single craving as a failure. Craving comfort food once in a while is quite normal. Allowing yourself to enjoy comfort foods in moderation, with an abundance of healthy foods can make a difference in sticking to your new diet or not.
It’s everything or nothing. This is probably one of the biggest issues with people seeking to change their lifestyle. You just found a new diet. You’re excited to start and your fridge is stocked with new healthy foods. You might even have bought fancy kitchen tools to help you make new healthy food creations. The thing is that it’s quite difficult to change your whole lifestyle all at once. It might go well from at first, but if the lifestyle is too different of your old habits, it’s likely that you might fall off the wagon more often. Again, we need some time to adapt to a new lifestyle. Changing your lifestyle, one habit at a time, might be much easier to make sustainable changes.
You’re too shy. You might want to change your lifestyle and commit to a new diet, but are afraid of what people around you might say. It can be annoying to hear the comments and questions, but you have to learn to deal with it. There’s nothing wrong as being seen as a health nut (believe me!). Creating sustainable healthy habits is not only a good way to achieve your health goals, but it also might even inspire others to do so.
Have you ever tried a new diet? Were you able to stick to it? What are your best tricks to stay on track?
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