Did you ever start a new diet and just feel completely overwhelmed? Right? I have totally been there. There are new rules to follow, foods you can eat, foods you can’t eat, plus you’re trying to figure out how to make all the changes at once! Usually this leaves us feeling stressed and overwhelmed and many times, we end up quitting, but it doesn’t have to be this way! Making smaller changes is less overwhelming and gives you a better chance of building a healthy habit that will stick.
We have all been shown diets that are all or nothing and while they may serve their purpose for the short term they don’t typically have the long term success we are dreaming about. This is because we aren’t actually learning healthy habits, we are just following a set of guidelines. Once you decide to stop the plan, the guidelines go away, and you are stuck feeling a little lost on how to maintain all the progress you made!
Instead of revamping your entire diet all at once, what if you just focused on one meal each day? Maybe you decide you will start improving the dinners you make for your family, or the lunches you prepare to bring to work. Does that sound a little easier to take on? Great! Then let’s dive on in!
Why Is This Less Overwhelming?
Do you know that feeling you get when you are starting something new? It could be a new job, or a new school, or a new program. You get a little anxious, right? You aren’t fully sure what to do but you want to do your best but it all just seems, well overwhelming! This is a completely normal feeling to have at the start of really anything new so know you aren’t alone!
From my experience this is exactly how people feel when they begin a new diet plan. They are used to eating a certain way and in one day everything they eat is changing and they are stuck feeling a little lost. Again, a completely typical feeling but it doesn’t have to be this way. When we decide to make a small change instead we are only focusing on that one specific piece.
Let’s say you decide you want to begin by focusing on dinner. That means you have to work on revamping 7 meals for the week instead of 21. Seems a lot less stressful already! You are able to put more energy into building healthy dinners and creating habits that will allow you to continue on that path in the long term. After a while of being successful you can then move onto another meal and tackling that one will seem much more manageable!
At the end of the day we are trying to eat healthier and while this process may take a little longer it is setting you up to be successful in the long run, which is our overall goal right?
How Will Building Healthy Habits Help Me?
I want you to stop reading, but only for a few seconds haha, and think about the habits you already have in your life. Go ahead, write them down. These are things you do automatically in your day every day such as brushing your teeth, making coffee (huge habit here lol), the route you take driving to work. You don’t think about doing these things each day right? I don’t need to map out my route to work because I drive it every day, I just go. These are all habits and now we want to add new ones that will help us lead a healthy lifestyle.
Building habits can get overwhelming also though if we try and create a ton of new ones all at once. This is why I love the idea of working on one meal a day because it takes away the stress of redoing everything in your day and focuses on one small piece.
What Does This Look Like?
It all sounds great right? But are you still wondering where to start? Don’t worry I won’t leave you hanging! Let’s go back to the example before when we talked about starting with dinner. What are some easy ways to start making healthier meals? Maybe you can add a vegetable to each of your meals first. This would mean you would continue cooking as you normally do BUT with each meal you would make sure there is always a vegetable. After that is being done consistently then work on making sure you are eating lean proteins or whole foods. You get the idea!
Building healthy habits is a perfect way to start leading a more healthy lifestyle that will be lifelong, which is our overall goal! When you start small and continually build it makes it so much more attainable because you are less overwhelmed and more willing to put in the work. Remember this is a lifelong journey we are going on so all your change doesn’t have to happen in one day!
Feel like you need more help? I’ve got you covered! I created this FREE Salad Cheat Sheet to help get you started building healthy meals! Grab it here!
