Healthier Eating Habits That Last

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• Re-Write Your Eating Habits Story
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Full Episode Transcript:

Healthier Eating Habits That Last

Hi there, welcome to the Eating Habits for Life podcast. So today I want to talk to you about healthier eating habits that last. Meaning, the eating habits that will last a long period of time. That way, your efforts to change your eating habits are not wasted, and you continue to get numerous benefits from healthier eating habits.

Because that’s typically the whole reason why you want to change your eating habits, right? So that you reap the benefits for years to come. So that you do change your eating habits one time and don’t keep slipping back and going through this cycle again. Like most diets. We don’t want that.

I know for me, when I realized that I needed to change my eating habits, more specifically the emotional eating that I was doing that was leading to some weight gain and just feeling of lack of energy and disappointment in myself, i was thinking that this was going to be a permanent thing.

I wasn’t planning on just changing my eating habits for a few months and then going right back to eating bread, pasta, pretzels, cereal all the time. I wasn’t thinking that I was going to change my eating habits to lose that 5 pounds and then revert right back to what I had been doing to gain those 5 pounds in the first place.

So, I know that you don’t want to do any of that either. You want to change your eating habits for life. And I want to help you. That’s why that’s the name of this podcast.

Alright, so one of the very first steps to having healthier eating habits that last, is to decide what eating habits you’d like to break up with completely and what eating habits you’d like to just improve. For example, if you’d like to stop eating Donuts for breakfast permanently, then that’s an eating habit that you’re breaking up with for good. Breaking up with as in like a relationship.

Or if you’d like to just eat Donuts for breakfast once a week, instead of every day, then that may be an eating habit that you’d just like to improve. And really, it’s all just up to you. You get to decide what you’d like for yourself. You can always re-decide down the road, of course. But at least start out with deciding what you’d like to aim for long term. Keeping in mind that we’re not going to jump right from A to B.

If you want to break up with Donuts for breakfast completely, you’re not going to go from cutting out Donuts completely the first week that you’re trying to change this eating habit. That’s just because that’s too drastic of a change and your brain is going to be like “what are you doing to me?”

This will make it much harder to successfully change that particular eating habit. It’s going to make those cravings so intense. You’re going to feel like you’re resisting that urge to eat doughnuts every morning. And likely, you will get to the point of just saying, screw it.”

Or you’ll just find a replacement for the doughnut that’s just as bad. I sort of got ahead of myself a little bit. We will get into this a little bit more, because how big of a change you make is an important part of healthier eating habits that last.

So, decide which of the eating habits that you currently have that you would really like to change, and determine how much you’d like to change them, again, meaning if you want to break up with a certain eating habit completely, or just change it to some degree.

Another example would be when I wanted to stop eating cereal for dinner, this was an eating habit that I was very willing to break up with. I told myself that cereal is for breakfast only and was not going to be my breakfast and my dinner. Since then, I’ve actually stopped eating cereal completely, because it’s just not filling enough for me, but my point is, that you get to just choose some things that you want to start with. You can always make some further changes later down the road if you want to.

And I just want to say, that it really is up to you, and that’s so important, because if you are doing something just because someone else told you that that’s what you “should be eating or shouldn’t be eating, that’s not likely to last. You have to really understand why a certain food may not be great for your body and decide for yourself that you want to either decrease or completely eliminate that food.

And I’m not a believer that you should eliminate foods that you still want to be able to enjoy. If you like eating ice cream, and you want to be able to enjoy ice cream for the rest of your life, then keep that as one of the things that you can enjoy. Just modify it if you want to. It’s more so about the behavior itself, then the food. Meaning, if you are eating sweets in response to stress and boredom, that is something that you’re probably going to want to change.

You want to eat sweets because you’re intentionally deciding that you want to enjoy the sweet thing in that moment and not try to use it as a medicine or a treatment for an uncomfortable emotion like stress or boredom. Yes, boredom is an emotion. You want to get out of that habit of automatically turning to food when you’re feeling an uncomfortable emotion.

Alright, so you guessed it the next very important thing with healthier eating habits that last, is not to make these drastic changes all at once. That’s just way too much. That includes changes in the amount you’re eating and what you’re eating as well. If you change the amount you’re eating, you’re going to feel hungry all the time, and that’s just going to make it more difficult for you.

You’re not going to feel good. You’re going to be more tempted by foods that you see in front of you that you may not want to be eating. You may get to the point that you’re overly hungry, and then it becomes a feeling of urgency, and then you might just grab the quickest easiest thing no matter what it is.

So don’t want to be going from foods like pizza and doughnuts to carrot sticks. That’s a really big change. And if you’re doing that for multiple meals or multiple days, that can be extremely difficult. You’re going to feel very deprived, because the carrot sticks just don’t compare to the pizza and the doughnuts. Or maybe you think carrot sticks taste like dessert, so maybe that’s totally fine, but I’m guessing not.

Smaller changes are easier for your brain to handle. They’re easier for your stomach to handle. If something is easier, you’re more likely to be consistent with it. And consistency is absolute key with habits.

Think about it like this. Let’s just say that you spoke English for your entire life, and you wanted to learn French. You bought a program that will teach you French, which includes your own personal French instructor or teacher.

You wouldn’t just be given all of the things at once and be expected to learn them in a week. It would be set up so that you would first get used to maybe one French verb and the conjugations for that verb. You’ll get really good at learning those and using them and understanding them in different sentences.

And then you’d maybe learn some other terms so that you can start making your own simple sentences with that verb. So, it would be set up so that you’re learning little bits at a time to make it easy for yourself to then form and understand sentences with that verb. You’d really hammer home that verb and its conjugations, so that you felt comfortable with it before you moved on with the next thing.

The same is true for healthier eating habits that last. You’re going to want to focus on some small, more specific changes and get good at those before you add on more. That way it doesn’t seem overwhelming.

Imagine if you’re taking that French course and everything was thrown at you at once and you just had to try to memorize it all? And then you were expected to understand paragraphs of French text or listen to someone speaking French and be able to interpret immediately.

Especially when you’re used to English, right? It would seem incredibly frustrating and make you very tempted to just want to give up. It would also be very unsatisfying, right?

You really need to show your brain that you can have those small wins with healthier eating habits. Just as you would with learning something very simple and specific with the French language and showing your brain first that you’re able to understand that. You’re able to form a simple sentence with that verb. Or that you’re able to decrease from having doughnuts every single day for breakfast to just six out of seven days for breakfast.

And if you’re trying to lose weight and that’s part of the motivation for you trying to change your eating habits, don’t expect to lose a lot of weight immediately. If you’re doing so, that means you’re making some really drastic changes to your calorie intake or to the specific foods that you’re eating. This is not likely to last.

Think about long term. Do you just want the satisfaction of dropping 20 pounds in two to three weeks, only to not be able to keep it off or feel like you’re not really enjoying your eating habits? Or do you want to do it the more gradual way, where you’re addressing eating behaviors and making those smaller changes so that you can gradually lose weight, but it’s something that’s very maintainable. Something that you feel confident you’re not going to gain back.

I’m guessing you’re probably going to choose that option over the first. And that’s what I’m all about as far as with my coaching philosophy and that’s what this podcast is all about. So if you want healthier eating habits that last and you also want gradual weight loss that stays off, you want to still be able to eat the foods that you really enjoy eating, then you’re definitely in the right place.

So, when I was doing a lot of emotional eating and it was all carbs, I didn’t just completely cut out all the carbohydrates and call it a day. I realized why I was eating processed carbohydrates constantly, and I started actively working on things to help myself with those underlying reasons. I also started implementing those smaller changes. Such as not having cereal for dinner any longer and working in some salads with steak or crab cake or chicken on top.

That was a super easy thing for me to do. I would buy the frozen crab cakes from the grocery store and just heat one of those up and put it on top of a salad for dinner. I might have also had a piece of bread with that, but that was all way better than eating two or three bowls of cereal for dinner or just eating a big bowl of pasta with butter and parmesan cheese.

Okay, so another way to help you with healthier eating habits that last is to find some foods that you like that are on the healthier side. You don’t have to start eating a whole bunch of vegetables all the time if you are someone who hates vegetables. But what are some things that are healthier choices that you do enjoy?

What are some things that would be easy for you to add that are healthier? For example, do you enjoy eating bananas? If so, maybe you can exchange a couple of your midday snacks that were on the less healthy side, for example maybe chips or cookies, on one or two occasions during the week for a banana instead.

You don’t have to stop eating all the chips and all the cookies all at once and move over to bananas every single day. Just make those small changes. Or maybe instead of eating 4 cookies, have a banana and one cookie.

If you don’t really know what healthier foods you enjoy, then maybe it’s time to start taste-testing. If you live with other people, and they eat healthier foods, try some of the foods that they’re eating. Be open-minded. Just because you didn’t like this food 10 years ago or when you were a kid, doesn’t mean that you won’t like it now. That’s very common. I used to hate beans when I was a kid. Now, I love them and eat them all the time.

If you want to have healthier eating habits that last, you’re going to have to find some healthier foods that you enjoy. Otherwise, if you’re eating foods that you don’t enjoy just because they’re healthy, that’s not going to be very fun for you, and not likely to last a very long time either.

So, you can even start with making a list right now of like 20-30 different healthier foods that you enjoy eating. That sounds like a lot, but it’s really not. And then maybe a list of 5 healthier foods that you’re willing to try again. That way, you’re at least aware of some things that you can add in as you go, that you also enjoy.

Otherwise, if you really don’t have any idea, or only have a couple of things in mind, you might feel like it’s nearly impossible for you to have healthier eating habits. Because you’re going to be thinking well “what do I eat instead of these things that I’m eating now?” Or you might be forcing yourself to eat things that you really don’t like to eat, just because you read somewhere that these were the foods you ”should” be eating.

Okay, so there’s one more thing that I want to add to help you with healthier eating habits that last. And that is, to always be aware of and grateful for the benefits. Being aware of the benefits along the way as you’re changing your eating habits will help with motivation to keep up with those changes. Being grateful for the benefits once you have them will also help with motivation to continue the changes until their actual habits. Reminding yourself how your life has improved, in many different areas, is very helpful for a boost in motivation. And it’s just fun as well.

I do this with my clients, because it’s a very good measurement of progress, but also because of it being a good motivation to continue.

Alright, this episode is getting long enough, so we will call it a day. If you’re a new listener, check out the other episodes, be sure to follow the show so that it pops up in your library, so you don’t forget about it and you are reminded when new episodes are published every Thursday.

If you have been a listener, then I know that this podcast resonates with you and if you want further help or feel like you’re really stuck, I invite you to book a free 60-minute consultation with me.

I will learn about your challenges, your goals, and then tell you what exactly would get you from where you are now to where you want to be. Many people tell me that they feel more optimistic and gain clarity just from talking.

So, to book a free consult with me, it’s really quick and easy. If you’re listening on the episode page on my website, you’ll see the button to book a free consult. If you’re listening from a podcast listening app, you’ll see the link in the episode description.

You’ll choose a date and time on the calendar that works for you. Then you’ll choose if you want to meet via Zoom or phone. Alright career women, thanks for listening, take care and I’ll talk with you next week.