Enjoyed a few more cookies and less greens than usual over the last few weeks? It is OK! Food traditions are an important part of holiday celebrations. If people make you treats and invite you to gatherings, it means you are loved. Yes!
But at this point you might be itching for a big salad or a fresh vegetable stir-fry. The pendulum of healthy living tends to swing back and forth a bit, and that’s okay, as long as the changes aren’t extreme.
Here are seven steps to help you get back on track with healthier eating in a sane and sustainable way.
1. Think about where you are and where you want to be
These are three questions I often ask clients when we get started:
- Where do you see yours? drift eating habits, on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the mythical perfect diet? If you’ve been eating more desserts than usual lately, zoom out and think about your eating habits over the past few months, not weeks.
- Where would you like it? like to be? What number would be a good balance of manageable and supportive for your health? (Let’s not aim for 10.) You may be closer than you think!
- What could you do to get around? just one step closer to your goal, if you are not already there? This can be adding a vegetable to dinner most nights or snacking peanuts afternoon. Something you can keep when your busy life picks up again in January.
2. Ask yourself what is in your way
I like to think of a solid foundation for healthy eating to be the 4S:
- sleephe is doing well
- stress under control
- support from friends and family
- and one program with time for it.
Not one of these pillars for you? If so, would it make sense to deal with that first? Problems are not always easy to solve, but at least they are worth considering.
3. Set a goal that fires you up
“Don’t get diabetes” or “lower my high cholesterol” are reasonable goals, but you may find yourself more motivated if you also set positive goals such as “I will try a new fish recipe every week this month” or “I want to walk the Mother’s Day 5K.”
I learned about it from Carolyn Thomas, its author A woman’s guide to living with heart diseaseWHERE she wrote about it on her blog, Heart Sisters. He contrasts so-called “approach” goals (“Do this to feel great!”) with “avoidance” goals (“Do this so you don’t get sick.”) Guess which one behavioral scientists find more effective?
What goal could you get excited about?
4. Measure success in something other than pounds
It can help to have a way to track your progress, but people often default to weight loss. “I’ve already lost ten pounds!”
The problem with this measure is that weight loss is extremely difficult to maintain. For the vast majority of people, starting to exercise and eat better in the name of weight loss is setting yourself up for failure in the long run.
The good news is that you can be healthier and have more energy, even if you’re heavier than you’d like. These things that people do in the name of losing weight are still beneficial, even if the weight loss is elusive.
What are some examples of other things you can measure?
- Cooking a certain (realistic) number of meals at home each week.
- Bringing leftovers for lunch sometimes.
- Certain gait.
- Putting beans, lentils or chickpeas on the menu a few times each week. (Here are some quick and tasty ideas on how.)
If you’re the type of person who likes to count calories, consider watching your fiber intake. A recent study showed that higher fiber consumption significantly reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, or any cause. Now that’s something to get excited about!
5. Focus on addition rather than subtraction
With the aim of having more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fish or other lean proteins work much better than focusing on less sugar, less saturated fat, etc.
You’ll probably end up hitting those reductions anyway, but they’re “approach” vs. “avoid” goals. Which one are you most excited about?
It also helps to get really specific about your goal – make a plan. Instead of just saying, “I should eat more fruit,” you can say, “I’m going to grab a bag of frozen blueberries and have some every morning in my oatmeal.”
6. Allow yourself the foods you enjoy
…even if that means your overall eating habits are a 7 or 8 out of 10 versus a 9. It’s much more sustainable to eat for satisfaction. It is difficult to maintain a “diet” style diet.
One tool I recommend for enhancing enjoyment is the mindset of experimentation. Let’s say you make room in your meal plan for one new recipe a week and accept that it may or may not be a success. If you keep this up, you’ll have tried 52 new recipes by the end of the year! Not all of them will be winners, but you’ll inevitably like some of them.
7. Have a (simple) meal plan
Simple is the key. One-week meal plans you’ll find online often have 21 different meals plus snacks. Don’t try to do this! Complicated.
Just having a general idea of 2-5 easy meals to make for dinner is a good start. Breakfast and snacks can be rotated between 2-3 favorites. Lunches can be leftovers.
If you need meal ideas, you can sign up for the “Go-To List Challenge” which gives you a collection of my favorite recipes plus six days of step-by-step help to improve your recipe collection.
And you can use these meal planning templates, which come with a mini-email lesson on meal planning.
You can do this!
Are you ready?
This is possible, right? By setting specific, actionable goals that you can get excited about, you can start eating healthy, move in the direction you want, and feel better physically and emotionally!
What will you aim for? Come to the discussion on the free Sweet Spot Heart Healthy Cooking Club on Facebook.
