10 easy ways to stick to a good healthy diet
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 5:56AM 
Leo, author of Zenhabits (one of the best blogs on the web), is not a big fan of dieting — the word diet conjures up images of hunger and chewing on celery or doing some kind of fad diet. But he does believe in trying to eat a healthier diet.
Below Leo shares 10 tips and tricks he found useful in sticking with a good healthy diet.
1. Know your motivation. I have a friend, Jerry, who is getting healthy so that he’ll be alive and well to see his 3-year-old son grow up. When he gets tempted by evil junk food, he asks himself whether he’d rather eat the sweets or see his son grow up. When you have a powerful motivation like this, and remember what choice you’re making whenever you face temptation, it’s easier to be strong when you’d otherwise cave in.
2. Take it in gradual steps. You don’t have to overhaul your diet overnight. I highly recommend changing your diet in small steps — just drink water instead of soda, for example, or eat fruit instead of candy or chips. Once you adjust to this small change, make another a week or two later, and so on until you’re eating much healthier a few months later. This small and gradual process makes it much easier to stick with a healthy diet.
3. Don’t be drastic. I’ve seen fad diets like the Cookie Diet, Atkins, the Banana Diet, and different cleansing fasts — and I don’t recommend a single one of them. They’re drastic, and very few people can last with them for a long time. And the fact is, while you might lose a lot of weight with a drastic diet in a short amount of time, as soon as you get off the diet and go back to eating unhealthily, you’ll gain the wait back. Don’t do anything drastic — make long-lasting changes.
4. Choose foods you love. This is incredibly important. If you hate eating salads, don’t make salads a key to your new diet. I happen to love salads, but everyone has different tastes. Don’t eat foods just because they’re good for you — eat them because they’re healthy AND you love them. For me, that means berries and almonds and oatmeal and salads and yogurt and cottage cheese and tofu, but for others it might be salmon and lean grass-fed beef and asparagus and walnuts. Find the foods you love that are healthy, and you’ll stick with the diet much longer.
5. Pack food. Always bring healthy food with you, wherever you go. Sometimes this just means packing snacks if you’re going on a few errands (I like almonds and fruit), other times you might want to pack more substantial meals and pack them with ice to keep them fresh. Packing your lunch to work is a great idea, along with a bunch of snacks to keep you satisfied all day without eating the donuts someone brought in.
6. Eat before you go. If you’re going out to a restaurant or party, eat a small healthy meal first. That way you won’t be starving and won’t need to eat a huge amount of unhealthy food. You can get by on a salad or some fish and steamed veggies or an appetizer or something like that, and still enjoy the company of your friends and loved ones.
7. Don’t get hungry. When you allow yourself to starve, you will often binge, because your blood-sugar levels are so low that you crave instant sugar (or refined flour). When you’re starving, you are more likely to indulge in donuts or cake. So eat snacks throughout the day, or small meals, so that you never get super hungry.
8. Indulge in little bits. I don’t believe in going extreme and not allowing myself to eat treats such as … mmm, chocolate cake. But the key is to eat healthy most of the time, and when you do indulge in a treat, do it in small amounts. Two or three bites of cake or ice cream, for example, won’t kill your diet but will satisfy your sweet craving. Eating a whole tub of ice cream? Not recommended.
9. Clear your home of unhealthy snacks and foods. If you have junk food in your home, you’re more likely to give in at some point and eat it. But if you clear your home of these foods, you won’t have that temptation. Clear your fridge and cabinets of candy, baked sweets, fried foods, foods made with refined flour, fatty and greasy things like chips and fries, and so on.
10. If you indulge, burn it off. Sometimes all of the strategies above will fail. That’s OK. Don’t beat yourself up about it — just get back on the wagon, back on track. Look at it as a small bump in the road. And better yet, get outside and burn off the calories by running, walking briskly, playing sports, whatever it takes. Then start eating healthy again.
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Reader Comments (15)
This list has got to be my favorite because of tip number 4. I agree that you should not choose a diet program that prohibits you from eating the foods you love. You will stick to the diet longer if it offers you the healthy foods of your choice.
Linda Flink
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Extremely helpful tips. Despite a lot of people going on diets, its just a very small percentage who are really committed to them.
Jamie Lore
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Great insights! I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this post. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. Thanks for update.
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I definitely agree with these tips. Dieting isn't instant, so don't be too drastic. It takes several days, even weeks before you can adapt to a new dieting. And the most important of all is to never get hungry.
Steve Kerr
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Fresh fruit juice is much healthier than soft drinks or energy and contains nutrients your body needs. You do not just eat healthy foods, you can drink your nutrients too!
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Thank you for sharing inspirational tips! I've been looking for such tips to have a successful diet program. Last year, I went to Los Angeles. Tummy tuck and breast implants (Los Angeles-based) are popular in this city that's why I went here to have these treatments. I want to maintain my current shape, so I'm finding good ways for maintaining it.
Enjoyed reading your blogg, I like it when I read about good nutrition than about
fad dieting .It is important to look long term than short term and possibly risking your health.
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is to hard to me to stick to a good diet plan, I like to eat between meals, I love sweets foods, if I made a diet for sure I have to Buy Viagra but this don't bother me, the problem is leavea my old bad habits.
I really enjoyed reading your post. I appreciate the steps you have shared for sticking on diet. It could be hard yet challenging so I’m going to try these tips on.
Ten very good points1 :) I agree with Linda in that No.4 is my favorite. It's suprising how easy it is to find healthy foods that you love if you have the right info. Many of the foods you already consider your favorites are already healthy and many actually have properties that increase the rate your body burns fat. eg. Coffee, Chicken, Potatoes, Mustard, Onions, Tomatoes, the list goes on. Don't over indulge and eat them as naturally as possible. Chicken tastes so much better as a breast than it does processed.
Very informative blog! Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet and they are low in calories. Thanks for sharing this informative information with us.
these ten points are good and helpful to choose a healthy and perfect diet.i like to read informative blogs and this blog is also so good and helpful.
thanks for taking time to discus this topic..
I tasted with a yogurt to get a healthy diet and all what I got was a several diarrea that make me be on restroom for a entire week, and 6 or 7 hours per day. xlpharmacy magazine says the best you can do to be healthy is to do exercises and eat only fruits and vegetables.