If you struggle to stick with a healthy diet, know that you’re not alone. Changing your diet to lose weight or be healthier can often be more challenging than we think. You may feel that eating healthy is unsustainable, too expensive, or boring. You might think that life is too busy to stay on track or get frustrated if you don’t lose weight fast enough.
These feelings are common and normal. We, humans, are habit-loving creatures, and our minds tend to give us some pushback when we try to change the way we’ve been doing things. This is especially true when we try to lose weight fast and make big sudden changes. Add in the addictive qualities of modern, highly-processed, unhealthy foods, and it’s no wonder changing our diet can often be a difficult task.
But changing to a healthier diet can be done. And it’s absolutely worth it.
Tips to keep your diet on track
Maintaining a healthy diet lowers your risk of developing chronic diseases, provides the energy and nutrients your body needs to function and age well, and supports a healthy weight. These simple strategies can help you lose weight fast, find more success with your diet, and reach your health and weight loss goals.
Pay attention to liquid calories.
With ever-expanding drink options in the store, it can be all too easy to overconsume calories through drinks. And it’s not just the drinks promising you can lose weight fast and with very little effort. Common beverages like flavored plant-based milk can be loaded with fat and sugar. Sports drinks, like Gatorade, and a lot of bottled iced teas can contain almost as much sugar as a can of soda!
Your best bet is to keep your beverages calorie-free. Pure, filtered water is always the best choice. If you’re not a fan of plain water, try using something like SmartSetGo.
Make sure you’re not just thirsty.
Almost 40% of people confuse being thirsty with being hungry. Because of this, people often eat when they’re really just thirsty. So, the next time you think you feel hungry, try drinking a glass of water before you eat anything. After drinking, wait 15 minutes and check in with yourself to see if you’re still hungry. You may often find that you’re not.
Measure, weigh, and count.
Without a doubt, one of the best strategies for successful weight loss is keeping a food log. By simply jotting down their meals, people who track their food regularly lose more weight over time. Tracking your food helps make you more mindful of what you’re eating and will positively impact your food intake.
Get a handle on your stress.
Feeling depressed, anxious, bored, or even happy can cause us to eat when we’re not actually hungry. Stress can be a particularly nasty trigger, causing us to crave hyper-palatable foods while eliciting changes in our nervous system that makes us crave those unhealthy foods even more. To make matters worse, these changes can also result in metabolic changes that promote weight gain.
Some strategies to help alleviate stress include:
Meditation
Breathing exercises
Going for a walk
Aromatherapy
Yoga
Exercise
Minimizing screen time (especially news and social media)
Addressing mineral deficiencies
Practicing a hobby
Spending time in nature
Reducing caffeine intake
Spending time with friends & family
Learning to say “no”
Eating mindfully.
To lose weight fast, you need to eat slow. It can take about 20-30 minutes for our gut to tell our brain that we’re full. When you eat too quickly, you can take in additional calories that you didn’t need before your brain has time to recognize that it’s actually full. Slowing down when you eat gives plenty of time for the fullness signals to reach your brain—and you’ll eat fewer calories. Eating slow, and focusing on the food, can also enhance the experience.
To eat more mindfully, appreciate your food, eat with all your senses, take small bites, chew each bite thoroughly (20-40 times), and eat slowly. Also make sure you aren’t driving, watching TV, or staring at your phone at mealtime. If you really want to up your game when it comes to eating mindfully, practice the Raisin-Eating Experience (on the second page of this PDF).
Stay active.
Regular exercise provides a laundry list of benefits when it comes to losing weight and improving your health. When combined with a healthy diet, it can help you lose more weight than diet alone. It can help reduce your appetite and boost insulin sensitivity. Regular exercise has also been shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and boost your mood.
While regular weight training and aerobic exercise are important, staying active also means adding more opportunities to move more during your day. This can mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away in the parking lot, or making sure to get up and take a 5-minute walk every hour you’re working at your computer. When it comes to activity and exercise, consistency is key. These strategies can help you stay motivated!
Don’t worry about being perfect.
Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to weight loss—even if you want to lose weight fast. If you want to be successful long-term, you need to approach it like a marathon, not a sprint (this is why DIY crash diets don’t work!). Mistakes happen. Slip-ups happen. Life happens. The trick is to learn from them and continue to move forward.
If you find that sugar is a trigger for you, find strategies to help stop the sweet cravings once and for all. If you have other triggers that cause you to fall off the healthy-eating wagon, learn to recognize them, and develop techniques to overcome them when they strike.
Lose weight fast and keep it off for the long-term
Successfully losing weight—especially long-term—is challenging for most people. But challenging doesn’t mean impossible. Remember, adopting a new way of eating or a more active lifestyle can take time. But that time gives your body and mind time to adjust and get used to these new changes, which makes them more likely to stick. You can lose weight fast and keep it off for good by consistently following these simple strategies.
And if you need more help, let us know! You can schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with us anytime to learn how the ShiftSetGo program can help support, encourage, and inspire you on your journey to better health!