Forming new habits and changing old ones is the key to lasting results when it comes to fat loss.
Most people will be able to follow a diet/meal plan for 6-12 weeks with enough motivation, and they will get results from doing so.
However, when its finished is where the problems start, as most people will go back to what they were doing before they started and end up losing the results they gained.
This happens for a few reasons:
- a diet/meal plan will not teach you anything about the nutritional values of food.
- you wont learn how much you were eating or how much you need to eat for your goals.
- you wont have learned how to incorporate the foods you like into your plan.
- diets/meal plans are usually too restrictive and lead to binges.
These short term strategies lead to short term results.
For long lasting results it is better to focus on forming/changing habits. This can be hard, but if you use the right approach and stick with it, the rewards are there forever.
How to form new habits
First, you need to determine which area you need to change.
For example, if you are a person who tends to eat very quickly and therefore end up eating too much, you could start by practicing the habit of eating slowly.
You could do this by:
- having no distractions while eating,
- chewing your food an extra 5 times every bite,
- having a drink of water between every bite or
- placing your utensils on the table after every bite.
Then pick a meal you can start with and practice eating slowly every day for a week.
keep track of how you progressed and if you feel confident start practicing it at a second meal and repeat the process until you are now eating slowly as a habit and so eating less food overall which.
You can use this process for any habit, such as:
- eating protein at every meal
- eating 5 portions of veg and 3 fruit everyday
- training 3 times a week
- drinking 2-3 litres of water every day
- sleeping 7 plus hours every night and so on.
I would reccommend focusing on 1-2 habits at a time as this leads to better results.
You can also use this process to change any habits that might be hindering your progress such as eating 8 biscuits with your tea.
Start by cutting back to 6, then 4, then 2. Over a few weeks you will have cut out 6 biscuits a day which is a lot of extra calories a week.
This process of forming/changing habits does take patience, commitment and determination, but if you can develop 4-6 new healthy habits and change 2-4 old destructive habits you will have drastically improved ability to maintain your weight and lead a healthier life.
If you need any help with this process, get in contact below. Thanks