People often think of a diet as something horrible that they have to endure temporarily, for as long as it takes to reach their goals. Not only does this leave you vulnerable to gaining the weight back after you are “done”, but this makes the whole process of losing weight much more difficult and more stressful.
When most people go on a diet, they usually try to make a huge overnight change, that they try to sustain without giving their mind and body time to adjust to. This leads the mindset that you are partaking in something unpleasant that threatens your normal lifestyle, and that one day you will be rid of once you have reached your target weight.
When you internalize the thought… “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle,” the healthy decisions that you make become less burdensome and much more meaningful, because instead of perceiving your journey as something that goes against your lifestyle, you’ll begin to accept the healthy changes as a PART of your lifestyle.
A healthy diet is not something that must be “endured,” because when you are losing weight by eating clean, you will not be hungry.
Healthy dieting is a lifestyle change
Transitioning to a healthy diet can be difficult at first, but it helps to know that when you are consistent, within a matter of months the changes you have made start to become a normal and welcome part of your lifestyle.
As you eat more and more healthy foods, you’ll discover foods that both taste amazing and help you lose weight, and at the same time foods you once thought you couldn’t go without will hold less power over you.
Healthy weight loss deriving from eating healthy foods and exercising, can be easily sustained forever, where diets that focus on restriction and not quality of food, can not.
Foods that are natural to the human diet… that are very nutritious and have not been significantly modified, cause healthy weight loss when eaten due to how filling and energizing they are while being low in calories and digesting slowly all at the same time. These qualities mean having a full belly and a satisfied appetite, while your body remains in a calories deficit/ fat burning mode.
This is how losing weight the healthy way allows your healthy diet to become a sustainable and enjoyable part of your lifestyle.
The first day of the rest of your life
The first day of your diet shouldn’t be something that you dread, and turns your world upside down. It should be a small yet definitive transition into a healthy lifestyle that will build overtime, and last forever.
That’s not to say that you won’t ever have a difficult time and go back to old habits temporarily, this will sometimes happen… but it doesn’t mean you’ve failed, it’s just a minor setback in the long run.
Be excited about bringing healthy things into your life rather than struggling with the mentality of cutting things out of your life so much. Take time to discover nutritious foods and fun workouts that not only carry you towards your goals, but that you also genuinely enjoy.
Having a healthy lifestyle mentality will give you confidence that you will reach your goals no matter what, because discovering a life that you love and that is also good for you leaves plenty of room for error, but none for complete failure.
Small changes add up to huge results
Making changes in steps doesn’t mean small results at all. Even a small change held with consistency can make a big difference right away.
When I first started my new healthy lifestyle I replaced one meal per day with chicken and brown rice, and allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted for the rest of the day.
Just replacing one meal per day made me start losing weight within the first week, and as I made even more small but consistent changes over time, the whole picture of my habits changed significantly and I lost weight faster and faster.
Since then my diet has continued to improve by adding one new healthy item at a time, which has consistently led me towards my goal at a pace that makes me happy.
More importantly the foods that I crave are now healthy foods, and so my healthy diet has truly become a natural part of my life.
Whole, natural, highly-nutritious foods are not only the key to healthy and hunger free weight loss… but they are also what will allow you to maintain your weight and stay healthy for the rest of your life, effortlessly.
Find healthy things that you enjoy
The key to making your healthy habits a complete lifestyle change, is to find things that you enjoy, and that also make you thinner, stronger, and healthier.
Try new healthy foods until you find the ones that you love, and experiment until you find your favorite ways to prepare them, so you begin to look forward to your healthy diet.
Beyond food, also find activities and workouts that you enjoy so that exercise is fun to you rather than a task.
Before I changed my diet and lost 80 pounds I would have never imagined how much I would come to enjoy all of the nutritious, natural foods that fill my diet, but now it’s like I can’t eat enough of things like apples, brown rice, baked chicken, and so many other foods that keep me thin.
Find your balance for how you want to live your life
Each of us has our own unique goals and set of circumstances, and each of us will have a different balance of habits that will both help us to reach those goals, and keep us there.
You may be surprised at how enjoyable staying in shape can be if you take the time to find healthy foods that you love, workouts that you look forward to, and a positive mindset that makes it easy for you to make healthy decisions.
I am always surprised at how much I have come to love the healthy food that I cook, and how my natural habits keep me in shape now.
Reaching your goal weight is another beginning, where you actually get to start living your life with your new healthy body.
When that day comes, living healthy won’t be a struggle anymore, it will be a natural and proud part of who you are and how you choose to live.
All you’ll need to do to stay fit is keep being you and repeating the healthy habits you developed during your transformation, or even push forward even harder to reach another goal beyond what you originally imagined.
So when you start to wonder, “how long will I have to diet,” reframe your thinking to, “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.”
If you want to start eating healthy consistently, and truly make your weight loss routine a lifestyle so that you can finally reach your weight loss goals and not worry that you’ll slip back, try the 8-week weight loss challenge!
It’s a healthy diet that gradually builds week after week, so that you can fill your life with healthy habits one step at a time and feel confident that you’ll be able to stick to your healthy journey. Sign up below for your free PDF copy or read more about it here!
