No matter how serious you are about living healthier, it’s human nature to fall victim to temptation. Over time, your life may seem to get too busy or you may feel frustrated with a lack of results, but these aren’t reasons to throw in the towel. If anything, you should use these occasions to reaffirm your dedication to living a healthier lifestyle. As you do that, employ some of these tricks to strengthen your resistance to temptation in the future.
Resist Deviating from Your Healthy Meal Plan
Read Daily Reminders
While adopting a healthier eating plan may be preferable to sticking to a diet temporarily, both strategies require motivation to work. If you lose sight of the reasons you’ve changed your eating habits, you’re likely to return to them. To avoid this, make out a list of all of the reasons you’re making these dietary changes and keep it with you. Before you open that soda or buy that donut, read through your list.
Be Mindful of Your Meals
How much you eat is just as important as what you eat and you can resist overindulging by being conscious of your meals. Sit down and take the time to enjoy your meal. If you’re looking at your phone, watching television, or eating as you work, you’re more likely to overeat or eat the wrong kinds of foods.
Don’t Eat and Drink to Feed Cravings
Most people don’t understand the difference between craving and real hunger. You’ll eat less if you only eat when you’re really hungry. Similarly, people don’t realize that alcoholic beverages carry empty calories, which can sabotage an otherwise healthy lifestyle. Try to reduce alcohol intake and see how that affects your results. If you think you have a drinking problem, find more information on addiction to decide whether or not you need professional help.
Have a Cheat Meal
You can’t be expected to resist all temptations all of the time. If you try, you’ll likely end up veering away from your healthy living attempts altogether. Give yourself one meal a week, during which you allow yourself to have a high carb combo, a sweet treat, or a couple of drinks. This will help you stay on track throughout the rest of the week.
Staying on Target with Your Fitness Goals
Setting Fitness Goals
The other part of living a healthier lifestyle is getting enough physical activity. It can be difficult to keep exercising if you’re working towards a goal that is too ambitious. Instead of trying to lose 50 pounds before the end of the year, dedicate yourself to losing five pounds this month. When you reach that goal, try to lose another five pounds. This will keep you motivated while avoiding a situation in which you feel frustrated.
Make an Appointment
Another problem people run into is finding the time to fit in their workouts. It’s easy to say you don’t have time to go running today and that you’ll make up for it tomorrow. Before you know it, you’ve forgotten your fitness goals altogether. When you make an appointment to work out and mark it down on your calendar, you’re far less likely to skip it.
Spice Things Up
Trying to hit the gym every day can be tedious and, over time, it will feel like a chore that you really don’t want to do. Go to the gym two or three days a week and find other activities that you enjoy for those other days. Go swimming, play basketball, or take a hike in the woods. By incorporating a variety of activities into your routine, you’ll stay interested in fitness and you’ll force your body to use more muscle groups.
It’s easy to get distracted from your nutrition and fitness goals, so you will have to stay focused on your desire to live healthier. By looking for fun and exciting ways to stay motivated, you’ll be less likely to fall in a rut. While living healthier may require some sacrifices, it should also incorporate pleasures that will satisfy cravings in a positive way.
Leave a Reply