HEALTH & WELLBEING

By Marné Amoguis

The Ultimate Guide for Starting a New Diet

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Starting a new diet means lifestyle changes that can be difficult to deal with. If you’re someone who always seems to be starting a new diet and it doesn’t go anywhere, then the odds are you’re not making the right choices. All diets start with good intentions, but they always seem to fall short somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, many people have a difficult time keeping up with their diets and usually return to their regular way of eating. Luckily, there are ways to start a diet and make it stick. Here’s the ultimate guide for starting a new diet.

Start Tossing Food

Before you can implement your new diet, you should organize your fridge and pantries to ensure you can stay on track. Toss everything from processed foods and junk food to expired foods to make room for healthy food. Organizing your kitchen can seem like a big task, but you can start small by tossing out expired foods or bags of food that are almost empty.

Next, start dumping the highly processed foods that have added sugar or fats. This will be difficult if you have a sweet tooth, but your cookies and sweets must go so you can keep the healthy food in your kitchen. If you want to buy cheat foods or foods you use to reward yourself for sticking with your diet, never buy them in bulk.

Remember, while junk food is delicious and makes for a quick snack, it should be one of the first things to go. As soon as you stop eating junk food, you might see some pounds drop from the scale.

Instead of tossing all of your food into the garbage, consider what items you can donate to a food bank. That way, at least, the money hasn’t gone to waste, and you can help others while helping yourself get healthy.

As you purge your kitchen and look for things to throw out, you can ask yourself a few questions:

• Do you know how to cook a meal with this?
• Is this healthy?
• Will this food help me feel energized throughout the day?

If you answer yes to these questions, then you should probably keep the food, as long as it’s healthy. However, if you answer no to any of them, then it’s best to toss them and make room for something you know how to cook, is healthy, and can help you keep up your energy levels throughout the day.

Foods you should always toss include:

• Breaded meats
• Fried food
• High-fat dairy
• High-fat condiments
• Chips
• Sweets

Restock Your Kitchen

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Now that your kitchen is clean and ready for some fresh food, it’s time to make a grocery list. Your goal should be to fill your refrigerator with whole foods and keep processed foods at a minimum. When you go to the grocery store, you should spend most of your money in the produce section and limit purchases of packaged goods.

However, you should have dried foods and items you can quickly prep, such as tuna and soup. Of course, you should also bring home some meat if you’re not going on a vegetarian or vegan diet. Healthy meats, such as fish and chicken, can be prepared without added ingredients and still taste delicious.

When restocking your kitchen, you should also think about the drinks in your home. For example, if you drink coffee in the morning and load it up with sugar and sweeteners, consider getting a sugar-free sweetener instead so you can avoid additional calories.

Set Goals

When you start a diet, you likely have an ultimate goal in mind, such as losing a specific amount of weight. However, you can break up your larger goal into smaller goals you can easily reach to keep yourself motivated throughout the dieting process.

A broad goal, such as eating healthy, can be difficult to achieve because it doesn’t give you anything to work toward. Instead, focus on small goals you can achieve every single day or pound-specific goals you can realistically reach every month.

Address Other Health Concerns

Other health concerns can lead to weight loss in a variety of ways. While some health conditions directly contribute to weight gain, others can lead to emotional issues that can cause you to stress eat. By treating your condition and addressing health concerns with your doctor, you can set yourself up for success when it comes to dieting.

After you’ve established your goals, you should find a way to track them. For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, you could use a calorie counting app to track calories and weight loss. The success you see while tracking your progress will help you to stay motivated.

Practice Patience

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Dieting requires lifestyle changes, which can be difficult to implement all at once, and you can’t expect immediate results. Making long-lasting changes won’t happen overnight, and you’ll likely experience setbacks. For example, it can be tempting when you work from home to eat a quick, unhealthy meal at your desk while you continue to work because you don’t want to take the time to make food. Unfortunately, eating at your desk can ruin your diet. Setbacks are nothing to worry about; what’s most important is you have a plan for getting back on track when you make mistakes.

Instead of thinking about the fact you're on a diet, consider the fact that you’re making lifestyle changes instead, and the process may not be linear. Many diets fail because they’re only done for a short period in which the dieter returns to their regular eating habits after reaching their goals. However, if you want to continue to be healthy and keep the weight off, you’ll need to consistently stick to your diet. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t satisfy your sweet tooth now and then.

When you start a diet, you make a drastic change that can be difficult to cope with. Not only will you need to make conscious efforts to avoid junk food, but doing so during a busy workday can be difficult. Of course, it’s more convenient for you to order food delivery than bring your lunch, but spending an extra ten minutes a day to prepare your meal can help you lose weight and keep it off.

Starting a New Diet

When it comes to starting a new diet, consistency is key. After you’ve tossed out all of the junk food and restocked your kitchen, you need to be prepared for things that are out of your control. For example, your family and friends might want to go out to eat, but this doesn’t mean you should break your diet. Instead, choose something on the menu that’s healthy so you don’t feel guilty about it later.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marné Amoguis holds a B.A. in International Business from UC San Diego.

She is a contributing writer at 365businesstips.com where she loves sharing her passion for digital marketing. Outside of writing, she loves traveling, playing music, and hiking.

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