The 5 Top Tips for Sticking to Your Diet
Are you struggling to stick to your latest diet? When you are on a diet, it can be really tempting to grab a bag of chips off the grocery store shelf or stop at a fast restaurant on the way home from work. One of the major concerns with dieting is being able to follow through with the guidelines of the diet. If you want to increase your chances of success, take a look at these 5 tips for sticking to your diet.
#1 – Plan Your Meals Ahead of Time
Plan your meals out ahead of time, possibly a week at a time. You can take a look at all the meals you intend to eat for the week and make a shopping list. When you wait until the last minute to prepare a meal, you are more likely to make unhealthy choices. Write your meal plan for the week down on a sheet of paper and attach to your fridge for quick reference.
#2 – Clear Your Cupboards
If you have a bag of cookies tucked away in a kitchen cabinet, throw them out. Go through your kitchen and clear your cupboards of any food that is not allowed on your diet. If you have opened food that you need to get rid of, such as canned goods, give them away to a local food drive.
#3 – Keep Track of Your Weight Loss
Tracking your results will give you extra motivation to keep at it. Use a text file on your computer to keep track of your weight loss. Another option is to create your own weight loss journal, using a notebook. Write down your current weight, every two weeks.
In addition to your weight, you may also want to measure yourself. Taking your measurements provides a more realistic indication of how successful your diet has been. Measure your waist, your hips, calves, thighs, and arms. When you weigh yourself, you are not taking into account any muscle gain. The scale only provides part of the picture, use your measurements for a more accurate look at your weight loss.
#4 – Avoid Weighing Yourself Daily
While weighing yourself occasionally and keeping track of it in a journal or text file can provide extra motivation to stick to your diet, weighing yourself daily will do the opposite. You will not see results from day to day. In fact, you may have off weeks where you do not have any weight loss. Weighing yourself daily can discourage you from your goals.
#5 – Let People Know You Are Starting a Diet
Tell your family, friends, and co-workers that you are going to be following a diet. This will give you additional motivation and help you follow through with your plans. Your friends and family will help you stick to your goals and keep tempting junk food away from you.
Telling people about your diet also makes you accountable for your choices, as you would not want to go through the embarrassment of telling people you quit your diet a few days after starting it.
Remember these tips, to increase your chances of sticking to a diet. Plan your meals ahead of time, to avoid last minute choices, clear out your cupboards of food that you cannot eat on your diet, track your weight loss results, avoid daily weigh-ins, and let people know that you are starting a diet. These tips will help you avoid making bad decisions and straying from your diet.
As a final suggestion, to help you stick with your diet, remember the reasons why you started your diet in the first place – stay on your diet to continue losing weight and achieve positive health benefits.
