5 Ways to stick to your diet plan

To be on a diet and to change your unhealthy lifestyle into a healthy one all of a sudden can be hard to sustain for various reasons. The fact that there are too many temptations out there or that we are busy travelling or the mere fact that we are lazy makes it all the more difficult. So here we present to you five great ways to help stay on track and committed to your diet to become a fitter and healthier person.

Set realistic short term goals:  Setting unrealistic goals like losing 20 kgs in a month or two or even having a long term goal of gaining or losing enormous amount of weight can just make things worst for you. Because it can seem so overwhelming that they paralyze us. Thinking about losing 20 kgs of fat, or gaining 20 Kgs of muscle can be a daunting task. For example, if you pressure yourself to lose weight too quickly, your plan to achieve better health may backfire.

Researchers who have conducted various studies say that they found that obese people who expected to lose a lot of weight were more likely to drop out of a weight loss program within 6–12 months. Therefore setting a more realistic and achievable goal can keep you from getting discouraged and may even lead to greater weight loss.

Stay away from unhealthy junk food:  This is one of the major reasons for people to put on weight-Junk food. It is overly fried, has less nutrients and is most of the time not fresh and is packaged food. It’s really tough to eat healthy if you’re always surrounded by junk foods. If other family members want to keep these foods around, at least keep them hidden, rather than being visible to you.

Junk food is full of fat, sugar, and salt, all of which stimulate your brain to release chemicals that make you want to eat more. So keeping unhealthy foods out of the house, or at least out of sight, can increase your chances of staying on track. Various studies have claimed that having food on display in various areas of the house has been linked to obesity and an increased consumption of unhealthy foods. So stay off it for your own good.

Making meal plan for the day and following it is a must:  We often start off with the best intentions about reforming our eating habits and getting fit, but often fall short purely due to a lack of planning. And then work or personal stress become spoilers. It so happens that you are so busy in the chaos of life and there you are ordering pizza or restaurant food from outside for dinner. So the trick lies in perfect planning and implementation of your daily meals.

Make a plan to sit down every Sunday and plan your meals a week in advanced. This will also help with your grocery shopping as you will have a definite list of ingredients that you need, and will end up wasting less food. Once you have bought all your ingredients, spend a few hours on meal preparation.

Don't be an emotional eater:  According to studies, most emotional eaters reach for high-fat, sugary foods that give them pleasure and distract them from their negative emotions. Because at the moment in time they think that eating these foods is the only way they can de-stress or boost their mood.

In most households when ever there is a celebration about any occasion it mostly revolves around food. Instead, give yourself a calorie-free pat on the back by schedule a visit with your friend or get a massage. When you stop seeing food as your prize for a job well done, the pounds will start to disappear.

Motivating yourself is the key:  Motivation is a very important aspect to change your lifestyle to a healthy one, but it is specifically important to have internal motivation. If your reasons for being on the diet are external; like pleasing a partner, then there are all possibilities that you would not follow through because the internal motivation from yourself is lacking. Write a list of all the reasons why this diet is important to you, and take it out every time you need a reminder as to why you must continue. When you’re tempted to indulge in unhealthy snacking, remembering what motivates you can help you stay on track.

..Divya