We have all probably experienced one of these situations before:
- You embark on your diet with full force, but by evening you are already searching everywhere in the house for chocolate or
- You woke up in the middle of the night and start craving cheesecake or
- You are at a dinner party with your friends, trying not to take chips and salsa, but it’s so difficult.
If you are wondering, ‘how do I stop cheating on my diet’, here are seven simple ways to make cheating on your diet a thing of the past.
1. Follow the 5P’s of Success
The chances are that you heard the phrase: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
Undoubtedly, many of us have! And it is very accurate. If you fail to plan and simply depend on willpower to stop yourself, don’t be surprised when you find yourself cheating on a diet again.
Willpower is not always there when it is most needed. So if you want to overcome temptation, you need to have a plan! Planning as in creating a healthy grocery shopping list to avoid buying junk foods or planning what you will order for the weekend eating out plan.
And the simplest way to come up with one is to go through this set of questions:
- What if – everyone wants to have pizza for lunch?
- What if – it is late and I’m too tired to cook?
- What if – your darling partner leaves chips on the kitchen counter?
When you think through the possible temptations before they occur, your chances of success will increase. But that is just 50% of the battle.
You have to take things a step further by using a strategy known as “implementation intentions.” That is where you determine upfront what you are going to do when facing a difficult temptation.
You already have the “what if” questions. Now, what are you going to do at the moment?
Make use of this formula: “If I’m in situation A, then I will do B”.
- If I don’t have the strength to make dinner, then I’ll order a healthy pick-up.
- If there are chips on the kitchen counter, I’ll make sure I know what I will get as a snack before walking through the door.
- If everybody wants to eat pizza for lunch, I will ask a friend to help me avoid temptation and stay on track.
2. Be Good at Creating Tiny Barriers
A lot of times, the decision between a bag of Doritos chips and sliced veggies boils down to what is more convenient.
- The chips are on the counter.
- But the veggies, do you even any in the house? If you have them, are they cut up and ready to enjoy?
One question you should ask yourself is: “is your environment controlling you, or are you controlling your environment?”
It would be best to change your environment – to make temptations difficult and healthy choices as easy as pie. If you don’t want to deal with the temptations of junk food, remove it from your kitchen and if you decide you want it, make the extra effort or trip to get it.
That’s excellent advice, but trashing all the snacks in the house won’t be a good idea if you don’t leave alone.
So, what should you do? You can try to make tempting foods a bit harder to get.
Here are two examples of how to create obstacles:
- Bait: Are Doritos chips the first thing you see when you open the shelf?
- Tiny block: Place them on top of the shelf
- Bait: Is ice cream in the top row of your fridge?
- Tiny block: Put it at the rear bottom. (maybe, even toss some frozen vegetables on top of it).
Don’t ever belittle the impact that little changes can have on your diet.
3. Don’t Allow Yourself to Be Too Hungry
Remember the age-old advice, “don’t go to the grocery store hungry. You are guaranteed to make bad decisions”.
If you have ever gone to the grocery store hungry and also after you have eaten, you will notice a big difference.
Now try to apply the same concept to stop cheating on your diet!
- Don’t ever go to lunch hungry. You are going to make bad decisions.
- There’s nothing good in starving yourself until dinner.
Okay, how can you ensure you don’t go to lunch hungry? First, make sure that you have breakfast.
Or,
How can you prevent yourself from overeating in the evening? Eat every 3-4 hours during the day.
And most importantly: Eat before you eat! Sounds great, right?
If you are planning to go to dinner with your friends, eat something light before going out. Temptations tend to become less powerful when you are already satisfied.
4. Change How You See Cheating
Have you ever looked forward to your cheat day? The feeling of excitement that Saturday is just a few days away – Oh! I can’t wait.
If yes, how do you feel when the cheat day finally comes? You feel free, don’t you? You have deprived yourself all week long, and now, you are free to eat anything you want.
Can you see that our thoughts determine our actions? You see the diet as suffering yourself and the cheat day of how you would have loved to eat.
- Diet = Suffering
- Cheating = Enjoyment
But what if that’s not the case? What if you saw diet as a way to achieve the results you want and the cheat days as a stumbling block ruining your efforts.
- Diet = Accomplishment
- Cheating = Stumbling block
This perspective is what we mean when we say you need to change your relationship with food. Change your thoughts, and your actions will change. And when your actions change, you will stop cheating on diet, and the results will come.
Remember that nothing changes until something changes.
5. Stop Saying, “I Will Start My Diet Tomorrow”
This common diet saboteur is what we refer to as “the Tomorrow Trap.” It is what occurs when you sacrifice tomorrow’s happiness for today’s temporary enjoyment.
We have all got carried away at one point and thought, “I will eat just one cookie. It’s fine. I will start my diet tomorrow.”
But the problem is: we don’t stop saying that we’ll begin tomorrow.
We think tomorrow will be more comfortable. We may even believe that we are too tired, hungry, or anxious to make difficult decisions today.
You need to realize that tomorrow’s challenges will be the same as today’s. So, now is the time to start.
6. Take “The Broccoli Test”
Imagine yourself standing in front of your fridge, searching for something to eat. You are not clear on what you want. You just know that you want to eat.
At that critical time, you are at risk of cheating on your diet. And one important question you need to ask yourself is: “Am I emotionally or physically hungry?”
But how can you be sure? Take the “Broccoli Test.”
Just ask yourself:
Am I hungry enough to have some broccoli?
- If you answer “Yes,” then you are indeed physically hungry. Go and find something to eat.
- If it is a “No,” it could be that you are trying to avoid something. Maybe you are just bored and want to eat to pass the time. Or perhaps, you are feeling anxious.
The tip to stop cheating on your diet boils down to one truth:
It is not about the food. It is about what the food helps us avoid.
So, when you are unsure if you are really hungry and considering cheating on your diet, ask yourself:
- Am I hungry enough to have some broccoli?
- Am I eating this food or using this food?
7. Avoid Trying to Do This on Your Own
How many times have you said, “this is the last piece I will eat,” only to have another one later? You were unable to keep a promise you made. And this is what occurs when you live without accountability.
Now imagine if there’s someone you have told cake is not an option, and they support and hold you accountable.
That would make a big difference!
You may be thinking, “Who needs accountability? I can do this by myself.” Sure, you can. But if it were that easy, wouldn’t you have done it by now?
At times, we need a head start. We need to have someone to help us build our daily habits until they become automatic. And that’s why accountability is such a powerful thing.
With support and accountability, you can stop and end cheating on diet today and start over again. Many of the diet success stories out there began where you are at right now. So don’t give up on your diet.
If you are willing to stop cheating on your diet forever or have more questions regarding support and guidance, contact BioIntelligent Wellness today to schedule a complimentary consultation.
