This is a Guest Post from Tom Corson-Knowles. @JuiceTom is the founder of the Authentic Health Coaching show, the #1 Podcast show on Podomatic. Tom blogs regularly about making healthy lifestyle choices, natural weight loss tips, and growing your own fruits and veggies with aeroponics.
We’ve all wanted to change our eating habits at one point or another. Maybe we overate and felt that horrible stomach ache afterwards and thought, “I’m never going to eat that much again!” Or maybe we look down at our gut one day and realize we can’t see our toes anymore – oops! It’s time to change…
But making long-lasting changes to your diet and lifestyle is about more than just WANTING to make the change – you have to back up that desire with some action – the right action.
No, I’m not going to lecture you on the virtues of will-power and self-discipline, or the worst diet cliché, “eating in moderation.” I’m going to give you some rock-solid action steps that WORK – no fluff, no cliché, none of that typical diet advice that’s in one ear and out the other.
This is how you make changes to your diet – and make them stick – forever. Ready to get started?
Make Small Changes
The problem with fad diet programs, besides the fact that they don’t work, is that they try to get you to make MASSIVE CHANGES to your eating habits RIGHT NOW. The problem with this is that your own mind simply won’t let you do something like that – you have a self-defence mechanism in your reptilian brain that protects you from doing anything dangerous.
And your brain must help you defend yourself anytime you make a massive change that is painful (which 99% of the time, it is painful to eat only broccoli all day when you are addicted to eating fast food every day).
So what happens? You start a new diet. You start eating your new food and you think, “Oh god this is terrible! I’d rather eat McDonald’s.” And so your subconscious mind says “this is too painful – we can’t let him do this!” And in a few days you revert back to your old habits – because it’s more comfortable and less painful.
You see, there are two basic human motivations – pain and pleasure. And the pain of that rapid dietary change is SO MUCH GREATER than the pleasure of eating broccoli or the small benefits you will see in the first few days of a new lifestyle diet.
This is why you need to start with small changes. Small changes mean smaller pain – yet, surprisingly enough, just as much pleasure! You see, when you set a goal and achieve it, it doesn’t matter if your goal is to eat 1 apple today or 100 apples today – if you hit your goal, you hit it!
And you will feel just as good having accomplished the 1 apple goal as you would had you accomplished the 100 apple goal. Except, you actually FEEL BETTER accomplishing the smaller goal when it comes to your diet because it’s MUCH LESS PAINFUL.
The Magic Formula
So if you want the magic formula for making dietary changes that last – it’s simply to set smaller goals and achieve them.
There are a few keys that will help up your success rate even more for a dietary change program like this. First, set small goals – we covered that. Just make your goal as small as you can possible make it to start out. Then, once you KNOW you got the hang of it, increase that goal.
For example, if you were going to set the goal of eating the recommended 7-13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, that’s great – for a long-term goal. Now you need to set your goal for tomorrow and next week. Just start with 1 more serving a day – just one apple – and stick to it.
After a week or a month, whenever you feel comfortable, then increase it by one more. It’s SO SIMPLE – yet most people would rather spend hundreds of dollars on fad diet books and trainings than actually set a simple goal and achieve it.
The next key to making sure you stick to it is to track it – track everything. If your goal is 1 apple a day, track every day – how many servings of fruits and vegetables did you eat? Track your baseline before you begin, and every day throughout the process until you’ve got your new habit nailed down.
Tracking does several things that help you succeed. First, it lets you know when you messed up (accountability is key!). Second, it lets you know when you succeed (celebrate every day you hit your goal!). And third, tracking keeps you focused on WHAT YOU CAN DO to improve your health and not WHAT YOU CAN’T DO.
So many people focus on things that are out of their control – and so they feel out of control – and so they don’t do anything at all to improve their situation. When you track it, you know you’re in control – and you will feel better and make better decisions.
I’m wishing you success on your path to a healthier lifestyle!
About Guest Blogger
Making small changes is a great idea! I was listening to an interview (more on running a business, but he principle still applies) where the person being interviewed said “I don’t know 1 thing that will grow your business by 100%, but I can show you 100 things that will grow your business by 1%.”
We think we need to make these big drastic changes in our lives, but quite often small changes, accumulated over time, will succeed better and faster than trying to attempt a big change.
I work in a restaurant, and one of the things I’m trying to do is cut back on the amount of sodas I’m drinking. What I’m trying to do now is to drink water which is healthier and better for me followed by a splash of the soft drink for the taste. Usually works well when I remember to do this :D
Great post! Thanks for sharing!
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Hey Grady,
Great comment! I definitely believe the same principles apply to business, your health, and success in whatever area of life. If you want to make changes, you’ve got to make sure there’s pleasure involved and that you reduce the pain, otherwise you just won’t stick to it.
It’s the same thing with health too, I can show you 100 ways to improve your health but not one way to improve it 100% – because there’s just so many variables. People get caught up in all the details instead of just eating an extra apple or drinking water instead of soda – Often the simplest actions have the biggest results in your health and in business.
Tom
Tom Corson-Knowles recently posted..How To Stop Your Food From Losing Nutrition And Vitamins
We think we need to make these big drastic changes in our lives, but quite often small changes, accumulated over time, will succeed better and faster than trying to attempt a big change. Thanks for sharing.
Julia recently posted..Low Carb Diets That Work
Amen! The person who will consistently make small changes will be lightyears ahead of the person who every once in awhile tries to make massive changes.
Tom Corson-Knowles recently posted..How To Stop Your Food From Losing Nutrition And Vitamins
Emotional eaters are in a vicious cycle. They often eat to cheer themselves up when they are depressed. While eating might make some people feel better, it is only a temporary solution. After the eating episode, most people actually feel worse than they did before, because now they feel guilty for having eaten for the wrong reasons. People do not usually eat healthy foods when they are engaging in emotional eating episodes, instead choosing junk food and sweets..
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Yes Ashley, emotional eating is a vicious cycle. I’ve found there are two good ways to break the cycle – physically or emotionally. Physically, you can make changes to your diet. Stop buying the junk foods that trigger you and start buying more healthy whole foods. You can transition to it slowly with small goals. The other way is emotional – journaling and asking yourself questions like “Why am I eating so much?” “What emotions am I feeling?” “Why am I feeling this way?” and really look into your own emotions – they’re there for a reason to tell you to change something about your life!
Tom Corson-Knowles recently posted..Setting Adventurous Fitness Goals – How To Get Motivated, Healthy And Have More Fun
Thank you!
You can’t go wrong with this advice!
And it’s always a healthy habit to eat vegetables and fruits on a daily basis. Consuming fruits and vegetables not only gives one more strength and enhances one’s immune system; the nutrients contained in these food sources help in in losing excess pounds.
Drinking plenty of water is also highly recommended.
Thank you for sharing this valuable information!
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You’re welcome George. I’m glad you enjoyed the article :) Keep eating your fruits and veggies!
Tom Corson-Knowles recently posted..Setting Adventurous Fitness Goals – How To Get Motivated, Healthy And Have More Fun
Changing eating habits for me is like quitting smoking. I agree, we have to make changes bit by bit, because it never works when you make them all in a sudden. The withdrawal effect is worse.
We are what we eat. Always remember that every action has an equal reaction.
People do not usually eat healthy foods when they are engaging in emotional eating episodes, instead choosing junk food and sweets.. Thanks that you’ve shared.
So true, It is like quitting smoking or quitting drug addiction, It was really hard for everyone to change habits. We really need to do it with huge amount patience… And start in small changes first… :)
Thanks for the great advice! This is what my big problem before. I can’t refuse to eat my favorite food at one time. But when I learn how to switch and change my eating habit, I slowly decrease weight. You tips here are really effective!
Nice post Tom. I’m on board with the small goals plan. I believe that’s how it’s done because small goals are bite size and easier to chew (food pun, yes!).
As for dieting, I don’t believe in it. Only lifestyle change is worth attempting. Any temporary food regimen does nothing to remedy the underlying problem. Of course, some people don’t want to remedy the delicious taste of McDonald’s fries. :-)
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