The more monitoring you do – and feedback you get – the higher your chance of success as a result of accountability, awareness, focus and motivation.RossandHelen/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Like many people, you may have committed to improve your diet this year. Perhaps, for example, your aim is to lower cholesterol, reverse prediabetes, stay healthy as you age or run your first 10K this spring.
After setting goals and choosing an eating plan that’s right for you, chances are you sailed smoothly through January.
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So far, so good.
After four weeks of stick-to-itiveness, though, that initial surge of enthusiasm could be starting to wane. Too little time, life’s daily stressors, lack of support or not focusing on progress can cause well-intentioned people to lose steam.
If this sounds familiar, now is the time to take steps to rally motivation and set yourself up for success.
The following tried-and-true strategies will increase the likelihood of achieving your diet-related health goal – and maintaining your healthy habits over the long term.
Monitor and review your progress
The more monitoring you do – and feedback you get – the higher your chance of success as a result of accountability, awareness, focus and motivation.
Tracking your personal lifestyle and health data – be it your daily calorie and nutrient intake, workouts, resting heart rate, waist circumference, body composition, blood pressure or glucose level – allows you to see how well you’re advancing toward your objective.
Self-monitoring also helps you make necessary adjustments for continued success.
Check in on your progress regularly. It’s a powerful way to reaffirm your commitment to your goal.
Plan meals, meal prep
Consistently eating a nutritious, high-quality diet comes down to being organized. And the busier you are, the more important advance planning becomes.
Establish a day and time of the week to plan your weekly meals and snacks. As you plan, consider making leftovers for easy meals the next day.
Schedule in time to prepare meal components for the week too. For instance, batch cook hardboiled eggs, quinoa or farro, overnight oats, turkey chili, roasted vegetables or grilled salmon.
Planning your meals helps keep you on a healthy eating track. You’ll be less likely to order take-out or make impulsive food choices.
Avert hunger, cravings
Focus on adding a wide range of healthy foods to your diet that can fill you up and nourish you – rather than placing emphasis on the ones you should limit or avoid.
Letting yourself get too hungry during the day makes it all too easy to grab food that’s close by, which typically isn’t an apple or cottage cheese.
Eat three protein-focused meals each day. Skipping or skimping on breakfast and/or lunch can invite hunger and food cravings later in the day.
If the time between meals lasts five hours or longer, add a between-meal snack to keep hunger at bay and stabilize your blood sugar.
Choose snacks with satiating protein and fibre such as a handful of nuts, roasted chickpeas, edamame, yogurt or cottage cheese with berries, apple slices with hard cheese or nut butter, homemade trail mix or tuna with whole grain crackers.
Plan restaurant meals ahead
If you’re breaking in new eating habits, you might feel anxious about dining out. Restaurant meals, often served in hefty-sized portions, tend to be higher in calories, fat and sodium than meals prepared at home.
To help ease stress about staying on track when eating out, research the menu before you go. Decide in advance what you will order.
Not having a plan in place makes it more likely you’ll end up ordering what you feel like eating in the moment.
Be kind to yourself
Don’t except to be perfect. Anticipate obstacles along the way as you pursue your goal and after you’ve achieved it.
Staying on track for the long term means giving yourself permission to lapse occasionally rather than beating yourself up when you do slip. One poor food choice or missed workout is not a major setback. Nor is it the ruin of all your hard work.
Avoiding an all-or-nothing mindset makes it much easier to get right back on track.
Make sure your eating plan is one that you can happily sustain. That means including occasional treats and special meals so you won’t feel deprived.
Be patient, too. New habits don’t form overnight, nor do they become engrained after the common myth of 21 days.
Research suggests that it takes at least two months for a new health-related habit to set in.
Follow up, reassess
Once you’ve achieved your goal, celebrate your success.
Then switch your focus to maintaining that health goal. Reassess your habits over the months and years to come.
Keep those accountability systems that allowed you to accomplish your goal handy. To prevent slipping back into old habits, check in with yourself every so often by self-monitoring.
To remain focused, make a list of the reasons why you pursued your health goal and how you feel now. Read that list often.
Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private practice dietitian, is director of food and nutrition at Medcan. Follow her on X @LeslieBeckRD
