A diet change - how to stick it out long term
What is a diet change?
Everyone has habits. But, when these habits become a burden, and you no longer feel comfortable in your own skin, it’s a sign that it’s time for a change: A dietary change. Intolerances and allergies can also lead people to overhaul their diet. Admittedly, such a diet change is easier said than done and the real challenge is sticking to the changes long term. Stress, irritation, external influences and peer pressure, can quickly force us back into our old habits causing our health to take a back seat. Some people rule out a dietary change all together, on the grounds that it is too time consuming and complicated, especially if they work and on top of that have a family to take care of.
However, those excuses won’t cut it anymore. A diet change is easy with the help of an Upfit Meal Plan. We offer you tasty, simple and healthy recipes, a compact weekly shopping list as well as competent advice from our Upfit Experts via Live Chat, per E-Mail or over the phone. This maintains motivation and helps you change those pesky old habits for good.
Why change your diet?
Fast food, crisps, sweets or unhealthy cantine food. There are countless nutrition traps in our lives, which stand in the way of us changing our diet. We are surrounded by advertisements and delicious smells which are hard to resist. We live in a consumerist society and are surrounded by sugar, fat and additives which can easily determine our daily diet if we allow them to. At the same time though many scandals surrounding certain food products and the consequences of an unhealthy diet have come under the spotlight in recent years. As a result our knowledge of healthy eating and dietary changes has increased.
“Sugar contains empty calories and the effect of sodium glutamate and additives has not been fully explored”
The consequences of an unhealthy diet
The consequences of an unhealthy diet are not just obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease – our taste buds also change as a result of unhealthy eating. Too much sugar and flavour enhancers such as sodium glutamate or yeast extract make low quality foods truly addictive. Our brain reacts to these substances and wants more. Sugar contains ’empty calories’ and the effect of sodium glutamate and other additives on our health has not been fully explored. We were therefore brought up consuming many unnatural foods. As soon as we cook something from scratch or eat some fruit and veg, it seems that something is missing from the flavour.
Reasons for a dietary change
- To reach your ideal weight
- Intolerances/Allergies
- Ilness
- Beginning (strength) training
- Environmental and animal protection
- Special diet (Vegan, Low Carb, Paleo)
- Health suffering (eating disorder, anorexia)
- A change to working patterns
- Pregnant/ Breastfeeding
These are all possible reasons for changing your diet. Take time to inform yourself about the various diets out there and decide which one suits you best. You may find it useful to refer to the Upfit Diet Comparison. Here you are able to compare all the various diets and find the one which suits you the best.
A dietary change takes time. The reason being that your old diet has become habit over time and you need to replace it with new habits. Just as with a sport or learning to drive a car, you must also train your new diet. If you stick with it, it will soon become automatic and it will replace the old habits. The secret to a successful diet change is therefore simply to stick with it.
As long as you are covering all of your micro and macro nutritional requirements, you don’t need to worry about the physical symptoms of a dietary change. If you notice very severe symptoms such as your hair falling out, stomach pains or bad skin, you should check you are getting all the nutrients you need. (Tip: you can work out your optimal nutrient requirements with our BMI calculator).
This is how you succeed at your dietary change!
“If your old diet has become habit, and you want to replace it with new habits, then you need to train these exactly as you would with a sport or learning to drive a car.”
Regardless of the reason you want to overhaul your diet – make sure you do it in a planned and controlled manner. Only then will you manage to change your diet permanently. It’s a good idea to share your intentions with your friends and family, so that they can support you. Make sure you get information and help e.g. from a nutrition plan or a food diary.
Step 1 of Diet Change: keep a food diary
The first step is to keep a food diary, to gain an overview of your current diet. Take photos of yourself before the change. Then research the various diets and think about which one would suit you best. Which diet could be best combined with your preferences? Which one would fit in well to your daily routine? Which will best help you to reach your goal? Alternatively you could try out something completely new.
Step 2 of Diet Change: Make a decision and commit to it!
Choose a diet. This could be e.g. a vegan, low carb, paleo or ketogenic diet or something else. Take into consideration all the Do’s and Dont’s of the diet.
Careful!
Do not combine two different diets at the beginning, e.g. vegan with ketogenic or low carb with low fat. These diets are often mutually exclusive. Therefore only consider combining diets once you are already well established in one of them. This is the only way to stick to a dietary change and to prevent a lack of nutrients, which will reduce your metabolism and circulation.
Step 3 of Diet Change: Train your new diet!
During your first driving lesson, you probably thought that you would never get the hang of it. Everything was new and complicated and you probably made lots of mistakes. But over time the more and more you practised driving and repeated it, you no longer needed to think about what you were doing – driving a car became second nature.
This is exactly the same for a dietary change. Through regular repitition and “training” your new diet it will soon become second nature. It is important to stay focused and to keep on “overwriting” the unhealthy “old programme”. Train the diet that will lead you to your goal by creating yourself a detailed shopping list. Look for delicious recipes, which you can integrate into your new diet or alternatively let us create a professional nutrition plan for you.
Step 4 of Diet Change: Resist temptation
One-off cheat days are of course allowed every now and then. However, on all other days you should stick to your new diet and see it through. Ban sweets, crisps, alcohol etc. from your fridge and shopping basket: “Out of sight, out of mind” as the saying goes. If you pass by a bakery or tempting fast food restaurant on the way to or from work, chose a different route. Set yourself fixed appointments for going to your gym or sports club. Find yourself a training buddy or use a free running- or training plan. Surround yourself with people who share your goals. Tell your friends and family about your goals. You are less likely to let your diet slide, if you are worried about disappointing your loved ones.
Step 5 of Diet Change: Monitor your successes
Document your successes! This maintains your motivation and strengthens your self worth. Have you managed to change your diet and got one step closer to your goal? Regularly note down your weight or the circumference of your arms, legs, waist etc. and compare to the values at the beginning of the diet change. This acts as an incentive to continue eating healthily, and not to fall back into your old habits.
Foundations of the Upfit Diet Change
Has this article still not convinced you to change your diet? Then let us create you a professional nutrition plan! With an Upfit Nutrition Plan, we can support you with various goals, namely weight loss, building muscle, body definition, and healthy eating. Once you have given us all the relevant details about your body, your eating and shopping behaviour, and your food preferences, we will create a personalised nutritional plan for you from a data bank containing thousands of foods and recipes.
When creating your individual plan, we take into account all the details you provide us with such as allergies/intolerances, the time you have available to cook and your food budget. All plans are created according to the latest scientific findings and supply you with the optimal amounts of micro- and macronutrients. This ensures that you do not feel drained and exhausted during your diet change. Losing weight according to your personal needs and without feeling hungry are the promises of the Upfit Diet Change. Would you like the whole package and to achieve maximum results? Complete your nutrition plan and say goodbye to your problem zones.
Conclusion
A dietary change is doable and achievable! Approach it systematically, follow the 5 steps and you will succeed. You can find information about the various diets and their suitability in our Diet-Check-Coach Article. Are you worried that you won’t be able to integrate a diet change into your stressful daily routine? Don’t be! Begin straight away with an Upfit Nutrition Plan and let us advise you! We will help you to reach your goal!
Frequently asked Questions and Answers
Are you unhappy with your weight or your shape? Do you have an illness, an allergy or an intolerance? Or perhaps your attitude towards a particular food has changed? Then a diet change may be exactly what you need. Along with physical activity, nutrition plays a decisive role in weight loss and building muscle. Diet also has a considerable impact on your health and performance. In short, if you are feeling out of sorts, you should take a careful look at your diet. We don’t just mean cutting out certain foods. You need to make sure you are still getting all the micro and macronutrients you need and that the diet change is sustainable. You should approach your diet change carefully.
A successful diet change requires time and patience: It won’t happen overnight.
Step 1: Keep a food diary to assess your current diet, and to see where you can make changes.
Step 2: Research the various different diets and decide on one. To start with, do not combine two or more diets.
Step 3: Train your diet and integrate it into your life, so that you stick to it long term.
Step 4: Resist temptation! The occasional cheat day is ok, but try to resort to your old eating habits as little as possible.
Step 5: Review your succeses and use them to motivate yourself to keep on eating healthily.
We help you to change your diet. Do you want to lose weight, define your body, build muscles or simply eat more healthily? Do you want to combine one of these goals with a classic, pescetarian, vegetarian, vegan or paleo diet? No problem! Simply tell us how active you are, how often you are able to cook, whether you like to cook in advance, and which foods you just don’t like. From this information we will create a tailor made nutrition plan and provide you with relevant information on the topics of diet and exercise. Guaranteed, you will reach your goal.
