In reality, dieting shouldn’t be an event that takes place in your life temporarily. It should be a change of habits that naturally allows your body to shed pounds and keep them off long-term. Most dieters go on a yo-yo routine where they set up a start date and a goal to reach (usually one that’s completely unrealistic, too).
Instead of intimidating yourself with a dreaded start date, how about you just make a firm decision to start your diet right now to change your bad habits for some better ones? If it’s not as daunting, you’ll have a better chance for success.
Why You Should Start Your Diet Right Now
Giving yourself a start date can often mean you gain a lot shortly before you begin your diet journey. Why? You start stocking up on calories. Often people indulge and sometimes even gorge on foods they know will soon be forbidden to eat.
You may become depressed about your diet and instead of it becoming a normal part of your life to prevent weight gain in the future after you reach your goals, it sets you up for failure. The start date is the same problem dieters have when they fall “off the wagon.”
If they mess up one day, they set a new start date instead of just going forward from that moment on. What this does is add more time to your life where you’re not eating healthy. It’s like a hall pass to practice poor habits.
Keep Your Diet Quest to Yourself
With dieting and smoking and other habit reformation, you often hear the advice to make an announcement so that you’re held accountable. In some cases, this may be what you need. But it can also have a negative effect on you.
It all depends on the people you surround yourself with. The best thing about a sensible diet is that it doesn’t become “an event.” It’s simply improvements in the way you live life. So when you go and announce on your Facebook page that you’ve started a diet, you’re inviting criticism and intrusions that aren’t so helpful.
Most people won’t understand moderation dieting. They have been raised where you give up “bad foods” and if you do indulge, then you’ve broken the diet plan. You don’t want this type of pressure.
Some well-meaning (or just nosy) friends and family will shake their heads if you order something not typical of a diet menu. They’ll tell you all about how wrong the plan is that you’re on, because their aunt Sally’s best friend’s mother’s cousin just lost 80 pounds on a different program you should go on.
Your Lifestyle is Your Choice
When you start your diet, it’s better to keep it to yourself and just not have to explain why you got a ‘to-go’ box for the second half of your restaurant portion, or why you’ve decided to carry a water bottle around with you.
If people ask about your new habits, just answer about that particular one. Such as, “Water just quenches my thirst better.” Don’t declare, “I’m trying to lose weight and I have to drink eight, 8- ounce glasses a day,” because then they’ll push you from that point on, and the last thing you want when dieting is more pressure.
Free Download: How To Stick To Your Weight Loss Goals
Diets are notoriously prone to not being fulfilled. Making a resolution, a promise to ourselves that we’re going to do something different than we’ve done in the past can be a challenge. Statistics show that by the end of the first week, 25% of people have given up and gone back to their pre-resolution ways. But it doesn’t have to be that way. To help you stick to your weight loss goals, download this free Fitness Resolution Report to see how sticking to your promise doesn’t have to be like a prison sentence.
