Healthy eating plans are all well and good but there's no way they're going to work if you don't apply two simple rules that you can implement in five minutes or less.
The secret to making a healthy eating plan work is to...
Make specific agreements with yourself about what you will and won't do.
These should be simple ideas that you can follow without having to put a lot of brain work into them.
First there are FOOD POLICIES.
A food policy is where you always eat or never eat something.
It's the easiest way to set up what you want to do.
A real simple example of a food policy would be...
• "I don't eat burgers.
" What makes a food policy so effective is that once you have it, you don't have to make decisions when you're most vulnerable to making a bad choice.
We have a limited ability to make good decisions.
We get tired using our head.
Have you noticed how people tend to eat the worst at the end of an exhausting day? And you know what? You already have food policies.
For example, do you eat food that's fallen on the ground? Do you pass on any food served with eyeballs in it? Maybe you won't eat gizzards or Brussels sprouts or poi or...
whatever your thing is that you just WON'T eat...
that's a policy.
The really great thing about a food policy is the more you follow it, the more it becomes a part of you.
It becomes automatic - just as mindless and easy as not eating things that have fallen on the ground.
A healthy diet needs simple tools...
You get to make up your own rules Here are some examples that have worked for other folks: • "I eat two vegetables every lunch and every dinner.
" • "I have a vegetable main course at every meal.
" • "I drink only water with meals.
" • "I only cook healthy eating recipes" • "I only eat whole grain bread.
" You can decide on policies that reflect your goals: eating more vegetables, eating less sugar, or eating less meat.
For example, if you want to reduce how much meat you consume, there are different ways to approach it: • "I don't eat beef two nights in a row" • "I only eat red meat on the weekend.
" • "I never order or buy meat for myself, but I will eat it if someone serves it to me.
" • "I don't eat meat.
" The second thing you can do is create CONDITIONALS.
These are similar to food policies except they give you some wiggle room.
For example, if you want to work in the occasional cookie, but you don't want the calories to displace the healthy food you normally eat, you might make a conditional like, • "I can have a cookie if I've already eaten six servings of vegetables today.
" Or maybe when you go out to eat, you might want to include a Margarita, • "I can have a drink before dinner if I order a salmon for my main course.
" You could say, • "If I stick to my healthy food plan all week, I can go out for a pizza Friday night.
" Conditionals make you aware of what you're doing; they help you weigh decisions quickly and easily.
But you still have a decision to make - whether or not you have that cookie or drink.
Food policies and conditionals make good decisions easier every time you're confronted with a choice.
Without food policies, you have to factor in how much you're going to enjoy the food, how much you're going to regret it later, how people around you might react, whether you'll get another chance to make a decision, when will you be eating next...
It's exhausting isn't it? Just a few well chosen policies can make a big difference.
And as they become second nature you can modify them or add new ones if you want to.
Food policies and conditionals will keep you focused and on track with your healthy diet plan.
And there are even more easy-to-do tips that will help you make good food choices and to effortlessly stay on a healthy diet plan.