One of the biggest mistakes people make when beginning a diet is trying to overhaul everything at once. For instance, most people cut out all carbohydrates on day one of a low-carb diet. Everything’s fine at first, but a few days later they feel irritable, sluggish, and persistent cravings. They eventually can’t take it anymore, breakdown, and binge eat their favorite high carb foods.
Obviously, this isn’t the best way to go about changing your nutrition if you’re goal is sustainable weight loss. The diet becomes too hard to handle so you revert back to your old habits of eating. You see, habits control our daily lives without us realizing it. For example, no one thinks twice about brushing their teeth, because they have done it for so long. It’s built into their schedule.
However, they haven’t always known how to brush their teeth. They had to learn how to do it and then make time to do it. This is how habits are built. We have to practice a skill over and over, until it becomes second nature. The great thing is the act of habit building is very effective for changing the way you eat, and will set you up for long-term success.
In order to create a new habit, there’s a simple four-step method you need to follow.
1. Focus on one thing
The biggest reason you’ll be more successful with habit-based nutrition as opposed to all out dieting is you only have to change one thing at a time. Have you ever tried to multitask? It always makes things much harder and the quality of your work suffers.
Research supports this notion as well. A Stanford study in 2009, revealed multitaskers are not as effective at completing tasks when compared to non-multitaskers (1). The result showed that focusing on more than one task at a time drastically reduces your ability to complete it. That is why most dieters fail. They change too many things at once.
So pick one thing. It could be drinking soda every other day instead of every day or eating protein with every meal. It doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is focusing on one change at a time.
2. Perform the habit for a minimum of two weeks
When learning how drive, you have to drive often. It’s not as if you’ll wake up one morning and have your license. But with consistent practice, you get better. The same applies to nutrition.
The simple reason behind this step is it allows plenty of time to practice the habit. One week isn’t enough time to make the habit stick but if you complete the habit successfully for two weeks you’re usually ready to begin a new one.
3. Track your progress
This step can be easy to overlook but don’t make that mistake. There’s a quote by management consultant Peter Drucker that states, “What get’s measured, gets done.” This means if you track something you’re more likely to complete it.
There are three options I recommend for tracking. You can use an old-fashioned paper and pen, excel spreadsheet, or an app. Two of my favorite apps to use are Momentum (iPhone) and Habitbull (Android). All you have to do is create your habit, then check the date if you did it. One cool thing is it will send you daily reminders so you remember to complete your habit.
Once you complete several days and build a streak, you won’t want to break it. This creates a fun and easy way to stay focused and accountable to yourself.
4. Evaluate
After two weeks is up, check your progress. If your completion rate was within 90-100%, you are ready to move on to the next habit. If you do this, maintain the previous habit while completing the new one. If it was below 90%, you can either repeat for another two weeks or make the task easier. Decide what works best for you.
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Most people think they need quick results. Unfortunately, quick results often fail to be sustainable. A habit based nutrition approach will not only give you great results but also the ability to maintain those results. That is where the difference lies between all out dieting and building solid nutrition habits you can use for the rest of your life.
References:
1. Cognitive control in media multitaskers.” By Eyal Ophira, Clifford Nass, and Anthony D. Wagner. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 33, August 25, 2009.
Photo Credit:
1. http://timemanagementninja.com/2014/10/exposing-the-multitasking-myth-4-better-ways-to-manage-your-time-2/
