17 Ways To Help You Stick To Your Diet And Lose Weight
Why is it so hard to stick to a diet and what is a good diet to stick to?
1. Make your diet expectations realistic
Most people want to achieve their weight loss goal as fast as possible. They often set unrealistic expectations of how long it will take and they overestimate what’s achievable in their current lifestyle.
So they make a start, get some results but stop after a few weeks because it’s too big a change too soon. ¹
What they should do is think about the big goal and then break that down into smaller more manageable goals.
Here’s what we mean…
❌ Bad example - “I want to lose 2 stone in the next month and I’m going to cut out all junk food and only eat chicken and broccoli”
✅ Good example “I want to lose a stone in the next month, I’m going to eat less junk food and only have 1 treat a day and focus on making half of my plates of food fruit and vegetables.”
Can you see how these two approaches are different?
This is why we came up with The REF Method:
Realistic
Enjoyable
Flexible
If you consider and think about these 3 parts when you’re breaking down your big goal into smaller more manageable goals, you’re more likely to stick to your new healthier diet and lose the weight you want to lose.
2. Ask yourself why you want to lose weight
Having a strong compelling reason helps you to stay on track with your diet because you’ll be taking action every day towards becoming the person you want to become.
So ask yourself these questions –
What’s my purpose?
What are my reasons for doing this?
Why is this not a should but a must for me?
Really think about the answers to these questions, because these are what will keep you on track with your weight loss journey.
An exercise you should try with someone you know and trust is the ‘5 whys’.
Get someone to ask you the question, what’s your goal? Get them to keep asking you why until you get to the heart of the reason you’re doing this.
3. Just do it!
“I’ll do it later”
“I’ll start Monday”
“I’ll start in the new year”
We hear statements like this all the time. Get rid of the excuses, there’s never going to be a perfect time to start… so just start now.
4. Change your environment
It’s going to be more difficult to stay on track with your healthier diet if every time you go to the cupboard you’re bombarded with the foods you’re trying NOT to eat.
So here’s what you need to do:
Identify the problem:
“Every time I open the cupboards I see the wrong foods.”
Change and remove:
Rearrange the cupboards and break the pattern.
If every time you open the cupboard and the first thing you see are the foods you're trying NOT to eat, chances are you're more likely to eat them.
Research supports this too, showing when junk food is on show you’re more likely to choose this, eat it and thus gain weight. ² ³
Instead, make sure the foods you see when you do open the cupboards are the ones that'll help you stay on track.
But we can go one step further and remove the temptation altogether by not buying it. If it's not in the house you can't see it, think about it or eat it.
See how these small changes can help you to stay on track with your diet and reach your weight loss goal easier?
5. Don’t have an all or nothing mindset
This is one of the biggest reasons we're unable to stick to our diets. We think of them as all-or-nothing.
One beer, chocolate bar or bag of crisps can make us feel like we've blown it and like we've let ourselves down.
And then what do we do? We think "sod it" and eat more. But let's be clear, are an extra 200 calories of chocolate, crisps, or beer going to throw our diet out the window? No. But 2000 calories might.
We need to stop thinking about our diets this way. It stops us from ever getting to our goals.
When something doesn’t go to plan, take a moment, stop and think about why it’s happened, and then get back on track straight away.
A few “off-plan” choices make very little difference in the grand scheme of things.
6. Get friends, family, and work colleagues on board
Sticking to a new healthier diet is so much easier when you’ve got the support of those around you. So get your friends, family, and work colleagues involved.
7. Be patient, changing habits takes time
There really is no magic bullet, it takes time to change your habits. Research suggests it can take 66 days to form a new habit, so stick with it.
Don’t worry the habits you’re working on now will become second nature, but only if stick to them. ⁴
When we’re working with clients we focus on something we call “Habit Stacking”.
This is where we introduce a new habit every 2 weeks that supports their goals and means they won’t get overwhelmed in the process.
8. Eat less and move more
If you’re sat down watching TV it’s a lot easier to munch your way through a bag of Doritos, as opposed to getting out for a walk and taking your mind off food.
When you eat less and move more you will be way more likely to reach your weight loss goal. ⁵
9. Have a game plan before you eat and drink out
Eating out when you’re trying to be healthier can be difficult, but you can make it easier for yourself.
Check the menu online beforehand, this will give you time to decide what you could eat and drink that will fit you and your goals.
This means you have a plan when you’re eating out, you won’t feel rushed, you’ll be able to make better more informed decisions and you’ll be able to stay on track with your diet.
10. Change how you socialise
How many of your social gatherings are based around food and drink? If you answered A LOT it’s time to do something different.
Examples:
Going for a walk with your family
Going for a park run and meeting new people
Doing some yoga with your work colleagues on your lunch break
Mountain biking with friends
11. Don’t let travelling derail you
Whether you’re travelling for work or pleasure, when you’re out of routine it’s less easy to stick to your diet.
Here are a few tips:
Finding places you can eat healthier from ahead of time
Have a grab bag of healthy snacks you can take with you that won’t go off and stop you from buying less healthy foods
See it as a challenge to stay on track with your diet when you’re travelling
12. Track your progress in MyFitnessPal
Tracking and monitoring your food in a diary can help you stick to your diet. We recommend downloading MyFitnessPal on your phone, as it makes tracking your food super quick and easy.
13. Prep your meals in advance
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Life is going to get in the way from time to time and you’re more than likely going to get in late from work, go to the freezer and want to grab the quickest thing you can find.
Don’t let that quick thing be a pizza when you could’ve prepared a healthy high protein meal way in advance that’ll take you a few minutes to warm up in your microwave.
14. Always eat a high protein breakfast
Protein helps you to feel fuller. If your first meal is high in protein you’re less likely to overeat the rest of the day, stay on track with your diet and reach your weight loss goal. ⁶ ⁷
Here’s one of our high protein oat recipes you should try.
15. Upgrade your favourite foods and make them healthier
There are a few ways to approach this.
Make small changes to your diet that don’t feel too drastic:
Swap out semi-skimmed milk for skimmed milk and save yourself 15 calories per 100ml of milk with no taste difference
Swap out full-sugar tomato ketchup for reduced sugar ketchup and save yourself 39 calories per 100ml with no taste difference
Swap full-fat coke for coke zero and save yourself 139 calories
If you track your food in MyFitnessPal, you can look at your food diary and see where you can make these small changes
What you should also do is make your favourite meals healthier without sacrificing taste…
Here’s a link to the recipes on our blog.
See what one of our clients, Jez, had to say about still being able to enjoy his favourite foods.
16. Make sure you get plenty of filling foods into every meal
As you lose weight the number of calories you need will go down. So it’s important that you find foods that are going to keep you feeling full.
Research shows the most common foods that keep you feeling full and satiated, here’s that image:
Credit to ⁸
What you can notice from the image is the less processed and protein-rich foods are way more satiating.
To help you stick to your healthy diet we recommend you fill 2/3 of your plate with foods, like potatoes, fruit and vegetables and fill 1/3 with protein-rich foods, like steak, fish, and lentils.
17. Figure out what works for you
There really is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to finding and sticking to a healthier diet so you can lose weight.
For me I’ve found that bigger meals, as opposed to smaller more frequent ones, helps me stay in shape, full, and satisfied. Whereas I know Nick prefers smaller more frequent meals.
Ultimately the best diet is one you can stick to long-term.
