Getting Into Great Dieting Habits

Much of what we do each day is habit … and that covers our eating and exercising as well as the rest of our lives. If you always skip breakfast, that’s a habit. If you always eat a donut at 11am, that’s a habit too. And if you end up getting take out most evenings – despite resolving to cook – guess what? Yup … it’s a habit.

The good news is, you’ve probably already got some good dieting habits – and you can build on these to create a simple set of habits which will lead you onwards to success. Sounds good? Here are the three steps you need.

Step #1: Figure Out What You Already Have

Firstly, work out what you’re currently doing right. I’m sure you’ve got a few good habits that you’ve picked up while dieting. They’re things like:

You always eat a piece of fruit with your breakfast
You drink six glasses of water a day
You take the stairs rather than the lift at work
You’ve ditched the sugar in your tea

… and so on. Identify some of these small, daily habits. You may well have come a long way over the past few months or years: if so, celebrate that, and recognize that you have made progress. Changing these little habits is vital to long-term success.

Once you’ve figured out some of your current good habits, find one which you can “tag” an extra habit onto. What do I mean by that? Well, if you’re currently drinking six glasses of water per day but you struggle to do any exercise, how about having a brisk five minute walk each time you get up from your desk for another glass of water?

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all “habits” – part of your daily routine – so think about using those too. How about making a few vegetable sticks a habitual part of lunch? Or brushing your teeth straight after dinner, so you’re not tempted to snack in the evening?

Step #2: Identify Two Small Changes to Make

Once you’ve figured out some places where you can “tag” extra habits, decide what you want to change. A few dieters do succeed by making massive changes all at once – but most of us do better by making small, incremental changes.

You could pick a couple of ideas from this list:

Eat an extra piece of fruit each day – perhaps at lunch or dinner
Get twenty minutes of exercise every day – how about a daily pre- or post- dinner walk?
Brown-bag lunch for work, instead of heading to the canteen. (Find a way to integrate making a packed lunch into your morning routine, eg. straight after your shower.)
When you think you might be hungry, reach for a glass of water before having a snack.
Keep a food diary, writing down everything you eat.
Whenever you make a cup of tea or coffee, do squats and lunges while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil.

Don’t try to do everything at once – just pick one or two of these ideas and get them fully implemented before you start adding other habits. If you need more to pick from, check out 101 Ways to Weight Loss.

Step #3: Replace Bad Habits

As well as adding in new good habits, you need to tackle the bad ones that you’ve already got! A great way to do this is to find something to replace a bad habit with.

Perhaps you always buy a candy bar mid-afternoon – how about having a couple of oatcakes instead? Maybe you end up getting take out because you’re too busy to cook in the evenings – you could find a series of simple, 10 minute supper recipes and get all the ingredients into the fridge and cupboards.

Just like implementing good habits, you don’t have to tackle all your bad habits at once. Pick one or two each week, and really work on changing them. Sometimes, simple steps like keeping snack foods out of reach, or leaving your vending-machine change at home, can really make the difference.

What good habits do you already have? What extra ones could you adopt? And what bad habits do you need to ditch?

Written by Ali Hale

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