Have you struggled over time to make healthy eating a daily habit? Do you ever find yourself mindlessly eating, rather than mindfully eating?
If the answer is “yes” then it’s well worth thinking more about the “what, when, why, and how” you can create, and stick to, a healthy eating plan.
Meanwhile, even if you’ve set your sights on a different aim like abundance or romance, healthier eating can benefit all areas of your life.
It boosts body confidence, may increase energy levels, and could reduce your risk of developing certain major illnesses.
Here are four in-depth tips to help you out.
Yes, willpower can help you choose a snack of fresh fruit over a candy bar.
But, if you mainly rely on willpower in order to make healthy eating a daily habit then you’re likely to end up disappointed with the results.
This is because experts on psychology and diet warn that willpower is a finite resource, so its ability to shape your eating habits will vary depending on the day.
For example, if you have to dig deep into your reserves of willpower in order to get up the courage to ask someone on a date, it’s not so easy to resist that big bag of potato chips when you go to the store after work.
The lesson here is not only that you don’t want to base your entire endeavor on willpower, but also that deprivation is unrealistic and unhelpful.
Instead of cutting out all your favorite sweet and fatty treats, do some math to help yourself work out how much of these things you can reasonably eat in a week while still losing weight or promoting better heart health.
In general, Law of Attraction work goes far better when people work to get to know themselves better throughout the manifestation process.
You want to be really tuning into your own fears and assumptions so that you can genuinely replace negative thoughts with more productive, positive ones. Positive thinking exercises can help.
One way to make these sorts of leaps in self-knowledge when trying to make healthy eating a daily habit is to be entirely honest with yourself about the choices you’re making. So, face up to the nutritional content of what you’re eating.
Plus, what that means for your body, and why you’re eating the things you are.
There are two elements of this ownership approach that promote better long-term habits.
Firstly, you’re less likely to trick yourself into thoughts like “This is organic, so it can’t possibly make me gain weight” or “Oh well, I’ve already eaten a pizza today so I might as well call the whole day a failure and eat a tub of ice cream as well”.
Secondly, you can engage in productive negotiations with yourself.
For example, if you want to have some of that ice cream, you can talk yourself through questions like “Could I have a small portion and still enjoy it?” and “What could I adjust about the rest of the day’s food intake to allow for this?”.
Regardless of why you’re trying to eat more healthily, you will encounter various roadblocks that make this more difficult in everyday life.
You stand the best chance of sticking to your new daily habit if you actively identify and prepare for these types of challenges.
Some of the most common examples include parties, family dinners, nights out with work colleagues.
So, what can you do? If it’s possible to check out menus in advance and find out what might work for you, this is a smart way of reducing stress and increasing self-control once you’re actually out.
However, if that’s not possible, just take a deep breath and work your way through the choices in the restaurant.
If you’re with good friends, they’ll understand and support what you’re trying to do, even it slows them down just a little!
Finally, it’s important to not only think about external things that might make you less likely to stick to your habits but also to consider the internal roadblocks to success.
Write these triggers down! Give serious thought to what you can do to mitigate them when they arise.
For many people, the major thing that sparks a break from a healthy eating plan is emotional distress. This is often called “comfort eating”. Similar responses can be seen to stress.
So, what could you do to handle stress in a better way? Different things work for different people.
Some things you could do to combat the urge to over-eat include:
Related article: Mindful Weight Loss Method: 7 Tips For A Healthy Eating Plan
