5 Tips To Help You Stick To Your Diet

5 Tips To Help You Stick To Your Diet

Getting motivated to stick to a diet plan can be a challenge.  No one is thrilled at the idea of having to sacrifice their favorite foods, spend extra money shopping for groceries, and spending hours in the kitchen each week preparing meals. 

But is this all just the sacrifice needed to get in better shape?  As someone who's gone from eating junk food every night to eating a healthy diet for the past 9 years, I can tell you that it really doesn't have to be that hard to eat healthier.  In fact, I consider it easier now that I've done it so long than my old junk food diet.  Here are a few of my best tips for sticking with a diet.

1. Focus on making your diet a habit rather than a means to an end.  This means making gradual changes to your natural way of eating.  So for instance, one month you focus only on swapping out sugary drinks with water.  The next month you replace your usual lunch with a salad.  Etc.

2. Learn healthy recipes and cook in bulk.  Preparing food in bulk is essential to save time and money.  This way you'll also always have healthy food available.

3. Throw out junk food.  Environment is stronger than willpower, so make sure you don't have any temptations around and, combined with the previous step, you'll only have good foods to choose from while at home.

4. Get a partner to keep you accountable.  You don't have to share your goals with everyone, but have at least one supportive person who you check in with.  Having someone to answer to ensures you stay on track long enough to make the new changes stick.

5. List all the reasons why you want to stick with a diet.  This can include the bad things about eating a poor diet and the good things about eating a healthier diet.  Write these things down, and read them while visualizing yourself experience the good and the bad.  This keeps your motivation high.

With these simple strategies, you'll be able to stick to a diet for as long as you want, ideally for life!  There's a great book on amazon called How To Stick To A Diet which has a lot of good info as well.