Starting Again: Your Step-By-Step Approach to Getting Back on the Dieting Wagon
You’ve fallen off the wagon, and you’ve fallen hard. The last few days, or weeks, or months, have involved you going back to your bad old habits – snacking on cookies and chocolate, serving yourself big portions, skipping breakfast, drinking sugary sodas…
…and you don’t feel great. You’ve put on weight, your energy levels are rock-bottom, and you hate that out-of-control feeling where you hoover up food just because it’s there.
So how can you get back on the dieting wagon? Here’s your step-by-step approach…
Step One: Draw a Line
Whatever the excuse for giving up your diet (maybe a stressful week, or a series of holiday celebrations that you never quite recovered from), it’s time to draw a firm line. So you’ve not stuck to dieting for a while. It’s not a big problem, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’re a failure, or that you’ll never succeed in losing weight. But you do need to be clear that you’re moving on.
Draw an actual line on your calendar or notebook, at the end of yesterday. Today’s the day you’re getting back into dieting. (Don’t kid yourself that you’ll “start tomorrow”, however awfully today’s gone – the best time to get healthy is always now.)
Step Two: Journal
Many high achievers cite the habit of keeping a journal as one of the main factors in helping them to succeed. If you’ve never tried journaling, now could be a crucial time to give it a go. All you need to do is sit quietly with a pen and a notebook or sheet of paper, and think about what’s gone wrong and how you’ll be putting it right. Many of us find it helps to work through problems and tricky emotions on paper – and many dieters have a love-hate relationship with food that needs some exploration.
Don’t beat yourself up by dwelling on your fall from the wagon, but instead think about where things went wrong, and consider what you could do differently next time.
Step Three: Throw Food Away
For some people, this is an almost impossible step. If you hate waste, it’s extremely difficult to convince yourself to throw away edible food – but it’s also a very powerful action. If you’ve got half a family-sized bar of chocolate in the fridge that you keep nibbling at (and cursing yourself for), then chuck it in the garbage. Ditto with that jumbo pack of broken cookie pieces, or those chips that you aren’t all that bothered about but which you keep eating just because they’re there…
This sends a very clear signal to your mind that enough is enough: you’re willing to take serious action to get back onto the dieting wagon.
(If you really can’t bring yourself to chuck food away, take it to a local homeless shelter, or give it to someone who you’ll know will appreciate it.)
Step Four: Get Others On Board
So your will-power’s high, and you’re starting to feel like you’re close to getting back on the wagon. Now’s a great time to make sure you have a support team backing you up.
Perhaps your partner will agree to forsake his/her favourite treats, in order to help you out by not having unhealthy foods in the house. Or maybe your kids will agree to try some new meals, so that you can get used to low fat cooking. A colleague might be willing to join you in a healthy salad at lunch-time, instead of getting fast food along with the rest of the office.
Step Five: Write a Menu Plan – And Go Shopping!
Plan out your lunches and dinners for the rest of the week (and make sure you have some healthy breakfast choices, like wholegrain breads and cereals). Then go shopping! You’ll have exactly what you need to make some great meals, without coming home to an empty fridge. And having a plan also means you’re less likely to succumb to the temptation to just order takeout …
Step Six: Keep a Food Diary
The best-laid plans of dieters occasionally go astray, of course; so keep a food diary too. Write down everything you eat – the mere act of doing this is often enough to make you think twice about eating something that you know you shouldn’t! You can also look back on your food diary after a few days to identify any patterns (perhaps you eat healthily until after lunch, then it all comes unstuck with that mid-afternoon coffee and cookie…)
How do you get back on the dieting wagon after a fall? Are you riding smoothly along at the moment, or clinging by your fingertips?
Written by Ali HaleRelated posts:
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[...] your diet and trying to get off to a really good start – or perhaps you’re trying hard to get back onto the dieting wagon. Usually, though, I believe that if eating out is part of your “normal” life, then you [...]
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