How do I maintain a strict diet?

First things first I don’t maintain a strict diet but I choose to make healthy food choices and over time I have started to prefer my healthier options but to most people it does look like I am on strict diet. If you want to lose weight, if you want to get healthy food is a big part of that journey.

Here’s what I do:

Trial and Error

Initially when I started I tried cutting everything out, then I tried one cheat day per week but these things did not work for me. When I stopped all my unhealthy food in one go I would feel uncomfortable and I would end up thinking about food the entire time. Then the one cheat day also did not work because I would eat so much in that one cheat day just because I felt it was my only chance to eat...finally what worked for me was slowly changing my habits. I reduced my portions of unhealthy food, increased healthy options and slowly my portions of unhealthy food have become negligible and trust me when I say I don't miss them.

Find a replacement

I have a sweet tooth. After every meal I always go looking for something sweet to nibble on. There was a time when my meals were healthy but this habit of eating sweet after every meal was increasing my calories. I swapped the unhealthy desserts with frozen yoghurt or frozen fruit this worked for me. Finding a healthy food replacement for your unhealthy option worked well in this scenario for me.

Another bad habit I had was waking up in the middle of the night to nibble on something. Again I changed from nibbling on unhealthy to nibbling on healthy stuff but I was very keen on getting rid of this habit. So I started by making a deal with myself every time I wake up I play a game of solitaire or read 10 pages before I eat something usually that’s enough time for me to doze off that's how I got rid of this bad habit.

So you can either find a healthy food replacement or you can find some other distraction to change your habits.

Healthy food doesn’t have to be boring

Just because I choose to eat healthy does not mean everybody in my family will also make the same choice. There are times when T orders pizza on such days I make my favorite marinated chicken or some other nice food. There is always a healthy option for every meal including desserts so I make it a point to make interesting food for myself that way I don’t feel like I am deprived or eating boring stuff and this also makes it easier to stick to healthy options when you are surrounded by unhealthy options

Always have a plan

It’s really useful to have a plan, try to keep a very detailed plan (including all your main meals and your snacks). I know it takes a little bit of an effort and time but without a plan it’s easier to grab something unhealthy. If I know exactly what I will be eating when I am snacking, if I have packed my snacks I will automatically avoid the crisps and biscuits because I have my snack bag ready. This is simple and a very effective way of avoiding unhealthy food.

I am the queen of small steps

I don’t know how many times I have said this, take small steps. Start by reducing portions or swapping food then move towards cutting out one unhealthy food that you are addicted to and adding one good habit...don’t move to the next step till you have completely OK with this change and then move to the next change I find this way makes it a lot more easier and manageable.

I hope you found these useful :)

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Tanvee