How To Stick To My Diet Plan Without Cheating? “Why do we cheat on our diets?” is an age-old question that has plenty of answers. You know what it’s like. You get inspired to start a new diet, find success for the first couple of days, but then the temptation sets in. 

Your body starts to crave food that is outside of your diet plan. You’re finding it hard to resist temptation, so you start telling yourself that “one cheat meal” isn’t going to make a difference until your diet falls apart completely. If you need to look at how you’re not going to cheat on your diet, then you need to take a look at why you started your diet in the first place.

Why Do People Start Diets?

If you’ve ever heard people tell you that they’re on a diet, then the average person would assume they’re trying to lose weight. However, there’s a lot of diets out there whose purpose is not for weight loss but weight gain or allergy reasons. Some may be trying to cut out sugar or carbohydrates for health reasons, trying to balance themselves nutritionally, or just trying to lower their blood pressure by consuming specific foods.

Weight loss is certainly a good reason to start dieting as losing weight can help reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, or stroke.

However, diets alone can also help reduce the triglyceride levels in the body for those who are at risk for heart disease. Consuming specific foods can also help naturally increase energy levels without needing to rely on sugary energy drinks or stimulating caffeine coffee. Now that we know why people chose to diet, let’s take a look at how to start one.

How To Start A Diet.

There are a lot of different diets out there from low-carb diets to elimination diets. You need to assess why you need to diet in the first place.

If you’re trying to lower your blood pressure but you have excess weight, then you may want to start a diet that focuses on weight loss. If you find you’re suffering from fatigue and have higher-than-normal blood sugar, then you’ll want to speak with your doctor about the possibility of diabetes before going on a diet to reduce or eliminate carbohydrates and sugar in your diet.

However, if you want to start a diet, then you’ll have to have a certain level of commitment. Joining a diet group or informing your friends and family that you’re going on a diet can help you progress successfully as you’ll have people who can hold you accountable.

Cut out processed food. 

If you don’t know which diet to start but you want to start one to begin your weight-loss journey, then one of the best ways to start is by cutting out processed food. Processed food normally has very little nutritional value while being packed with excessive calories, sodium, or trans fats. Ideally, you’re not going to want to cut out unhealthy foods too quickly. You’ll end up shocking your body and making your cravings worse.

You’ll want to start weaning off unhealthy foods and start replacing them with naturally healthy foods such as lean meats, low-fat dairy, and whole grains. These food options are typically lower in calories and are nutrient-dense to help you feel full with less food.

While starting slowly is one way to keep yourself from cheating on your diet, another viable option is to set more realistic goals. Think about the “why” when you’re starting your weight loss journey. You can’t expect the only diet for a week thinking you’re going to fit into certain clothing sizes or lose all the weight in your problem areas.

That’s not how dieting works and that’s often why people quit. They quit because they don’t see immediate results. Starting slow and losing weight in smaller amounts can help improve your health by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Reducing your calories and losing weight is also one of the best ways to lower your blood sugar levels for those who want to diet for diabetic reasons.

Rewards for yourself.

Holding yourself accountable, starting slow, and setting realistic goals is important but you also need to reward yourself now and then. That doesn’t mean abandoning your diet by consuming an entire box of chocolate for every pound that you lose. You could potentially throw yourself out of your diet routine by doing that.

Make realistic rewards for yourself. Tell yourself that if you lose five pounds in a month that you’re going to buy yourself something you’ve always wanted.

Don’t just go out and buy it, use it as a way to reward yourself. Keeping yourself rewarded is a great complement to holding yourself accountable.

With all of these tips for starting a diet in mind, we need to look at why we cheat on our diet so you don’t make these mistakes when you finally start.

Why Do We Cheat On Our Diets?

Many people end up cheating on their diets because they start too quickly. As mentioned before, it’s important to start slow. Your body is accustomed to eating certain foods that when you cut it out too quickly, your body will end up craving it.

Giving in to cravings is how many people end up quitting on their diet too quickly. Another big reason why many people cheat on their diet is they use food as comfort. Stress can impact eating behavior. People end up reaching for carbohydrates, sweets, and unhealthy processed foods because it can increase the serotonin in your brain.

It’s hard to break out of the cycle of being unhappy and overweight. People subconsciously overeat when they’re unhappy and it just thrusts them into an almost never-ending cycle of wanting to start diets when the mood has improved and cheating on the diet when the mood has soured.

Following these tips and identifying why you cheat on your diet can keep yourself from cheating on any diet in the future.