This post contains affiliate links. I appreciate your support!

To see this blog post in video, check out the Facebook live here.

“My diet starts on Monday.”

“That is not part of my diet.”

“I am going to cheat on my diet.”

Oh diets. We love to start them and hate to stick to them.

Here is the thing about diets. They work. (Bet you did not think I was going to say that.)

But, they do not work in the long term. You will most likely lose some weight in the beginning of your chosen diet (the first 2-4 weeks), but then that drop will stop. Typically, you lose water weight at the start because you are restricting calories or certain food groups (often wheat-based carbs) that require water to break down.

After those first few weeks, the diet might become unrealistic to stick to. Your body craves more calories, your schedule is too hectic to do intensive meal prep, or you cannot keep up with the regimented workout routine you started so gung-ho just a few weeks ago.

Your eating habits slowly slip back to normal and you are back doing the same things you were doing before without any type of lifestyle change. Your weight goes right back to where it was, and maybe even over. You get frustrated, sad, angry. Then, you pick another type of diet to start since that one clearly did not work for you. The cycle just repeats.

You need to change your mentality around dieting. The word “diet” itself should just be a reference to how you eat and not a cuss word you feel like you need to whisper or hide from. The word “diet” does not have a specific end date.

Instead of picking a “diet” to follow, start changing your personal habits. Do not let anyone tell you what blanket habits you need to change, because those might not be your biggest areas of concern. If you want to change your late night snacking habit, then start there. If you want to limit your processed foods, then start there. If you do not know where to start, pick a few things from this list.

Your ultimate goal is that you want to be comfortable around food and not have a diet mentality of, “I’m eating this way just for now,” but rather a, “I could eat this way my whole life,” mentality.

How can you stop dieting and start losing weight? These four ways will help.

1. Determine Your Ultimate End Goal. Sure you might have a goal to lose the weight, but why is that your goal? How does your quality of life change if you lose those pounds?

Maybe it would be more energy to play with your kids, feeling sexy for your spouse, or finally having the confidence to go after a work dream.

Once you determine this non-vanity metric (like a number on the scale goal), write it down somewhere. Put it in your planner, in a note on your phone, or on a post it on the fridge. When it gets more difficult to make healthier choices and stick to the habits that you have worked so hard to create, you will have that ultimate goal to fall back on and give you a renewed boost of motivation. Having this ultimate goal will also make you more comfortable around food because you know your food choices are not just being made solely on your weight loss goal, but on a lifestyle and life change goal. That takes the pressure off what you eat as you look towards the future of what is next.

2. Take Time To Reflect. Before you jump into another “diet”, I want you to think about how well diets have served you in the past. Answering these questions can be really eye-opening and might make you a little uncomfortable to realize how much you have tried with unsustainable success. Being uncomfortable is part of this process to keep the changes you make as realistic as possible.

Questions to reflect on:

• What diets have I tried in the past?
• How long did I stick to each one?
• Did those diets “work” for me?
• Are any of those diets sustainable to my current life?
• What other factors contributed to making that diet successful (if it was)? (workouts, age, time)
• Is this diet realistic to my current reality?

3. Slowly Build Up Healthier Habits. Part of the reason diets do not work in the long term is that they ask you to change way too much way too fast. Overwhelm is a real issue when it comes to sticking to a nutrition or workout plan.

Instead of changing a whole host of your eating habits all at once, opt for one or two healthier habits each week. Once those stick, add another.

• Want to stop having an after lunch sweet treat? Opt for a piece of fruit instead of candy.
• Want to start eating breakfast, but not hungry in the morning? Have something that is easy to digest like a smoothie.

4. Get Intuitive. Food has a major impact on your emotions, your energy levels, and your waistline. As you move through these habit changes, start tracking how you feel after you eat. Make a note of what you eat and how your energy levels are, your patience levels, and if any part of you feels better or worse (think bloating, stomach pain, cramping, etc). You can either write these down as a quick note in your planner or phone, or you can just be mindful of it as you move through your day.

For example, eating a bagel with cream cheese on my way to work makes me feel more lethargic and gives me sugar cravings early in the day. Whereas eating a breakfast burrito has me energetic, focused, and less likely to make sugar craving choices throughout my work day.

Once you start to see a consistent pattern in foods that make you feel your best versus foods that bring you down, you can start to walk away from those negative foods without guilt, fear of missing out, or concern.

Get started on changing your habits slowly and not just doing another “diet” and join the 5 Day Health Challenge. This could be the push you need to start taking that weight off for good!

Brooke Selb

I’m Brooke Selb, a Personal Trainer and Health Coach specializing in helping busy moms and moms to be to easily juggle mom life with family friendly recipes, and easy exercise routines to help you achieve your fitness goals that fit in with your already busy life with sound nutritional advice.