Changing your diet isn’t just about weight loss. Sometimes it’s about preventing inflammation, sometimes it’s to ensure your energy levels, sometimes it’s for making the menopause a bit easier, and sometimes it’s because you simply want to eat better!
There’s any number of reasons why someone may take a more solid and committed approach to healthy eating – it just so happens that weight loss is the most common reason.
Because of that, we need to go over a couple of things that both work and don’t work when it comes to diet changes. It’s best to know stuff like this ahead of time, so when that moment comes when your diet becomes hard to follow or the effects seem to plateau, you know where you’ve gone wrong.
What Works: Taking it Slowly
You can’t change a diet all at once. That leads to cravings that are hard to overcome, and you may slip into bad habits without even realising it. Take it slowly instead. Make changes bit by bit and not overnight.
You need to give yourself time to adjust to eating new things, as well as less of other things. Anyone who loves having some squares of chocolate a few times a day knows just how hard it is to walk away when going cold turkey!
Cut back bit by bit, if you feel the need to. Don’t force yourself to eliminate ‘problem’ foods all in one go. Take your time, and be sure to take plenty of it if you want the change to really stick.
What Works: Using Supplements
If you’re changing your diet because it isn’t nutritious enough, you can give yourself an early boost by taking some supplements at the same time. If you know exactly what you’re missing thanks to a recent blood test, or you know there’s a nutrient that’s been sorely lacking in your diet for a while now, buy yourself a supplement that’ll help you to top up as the changes occur.
A lot of supplements also have secondary benefits, like an NAC supplement also having strong antioxidant properties, on top of being great for your immune system. If you’re taking something just to keep your levels balanced, as you find and add more foods to your diet that contain the naturally occurring substance, taking some tablets will pad you out and keep the health benefits rolling for longer.
What Doesn’t Work: Not Prepping Ahead
Many people ‘fail’ their diets because they have to come up with meals and healthy snacks on the fly. This then causes them to revert to the usual dietary habits, which you’re right now trying to break. Or, you may give up on seriously committing to the new diet because you don’t have the time or the energy for it.
And we totally get these reasons. It’s really very understandable that many people feel this kind of ebb and flow when it comes to changing their diet. If you’re too tired to cook a dinner that’s more nutritious or cuts out a certain food group you’re trying to avoid, it’s going to be hard to keep yourself on track.
That’s why you need to prepare ahead. If you’re serious about eating better and you want to know you’ll still be doing so in a month’s time, invest some of your energy into meal prepping. This means you can come up with the entire week’s breakfasts, lunches, and dinners ahead of time, and any effort you were going to put in has already been spent.
What Doesn’t Work: Not Eating Enough
If you’re going on a diet in an effort to lose weight, you’re obviously going to cut back on the amount of daily calories you have. In doing so you’re trying to create a calorie deficit, which will then give your body an excuse to start burning some extra pounds off.
However, you do need to still eat enough to feel energised. You need to know there’s fuel in the tank. Without enough to get you up and going, your new diet is going to make you feel like a zombie. If there’s one thing we can say for certain, that’s not healthy!
If you’re in the mood to change your diet and make sure the new one sticks, these are the kind of points to keep in mind. Some things are going to work, some things aren’t, and approaching with a clear head about both camps will make all the difference.