By Shelly Stinson.
I have a lot of friends who are on diets. Some want to lose 10 pounds, some want to lose 100. But they all have one thing in common: they struggle with getting their minds where they need to be to help them meet their goals.
Changing the way you eat is like making your bed a different way every morning or taking a different route to work. First, you must remind yourself that you’re making the change so you don’t subconsciously do what you always used to do. Then you have to slowly and cautiously engage in the change itself, getting those actions to become your new habit.
That’s why it can be so hard to go from being a meat eater to someone who subsists on a plant-based diet. Your head wants to lead you the other way.
However, once you get the right mindset, a hard and steely reserve to continue until your changes become permanent, well, that’s when true change happens. How can you do that when it comes to eating primarily plant-based foods?
Remind Yourself of the Health Advantages
Choosing to eat mainly plants is very good for your health. It can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, you have an easier time controlling your blood sugar, and it even helps protect you against cancer. These are all good reasons to stick with this type of eating until it becomes a habit.
So when you feel like giving up, just imagine yourself being unable to live your life the way you want, because you’re not as healthy as you could be (like when you’re on the couch with the latest flu). That should help you stay the course.
Look For Ways It Has Enhanced Your Life
Sometimes it’s hard to see the positive changes you’re making because you’re so caught up in the struggles. One way to overcome this is to actually look for ways your life has gotten better since you started making the change; in this case, since you started eating a plant-based diet.
Do you notice that you have more energy? Are days easier to get through? One woman’s life was enhanced when she was able to reverse her skin condition, solely by eating a plant-based diet combined with juicing and integrative nutrition. Pay attention to these things because they have the potential to greatly raise your quality of life.
Weigh Yourself
With more than 1.9 billion adults worldwide being overweight, any healthy diet plan that helps lower body weight is a good thing. And that’s what eating a plant-based diet does. It helps you lose those extra 10, 20, or 100 pounds you’ve been carrying around for too long.
That’s why weighing yourself can help you stay with eating plants over meats. Once you start to see the fat drip off your body, you’ll wonder why you didn’t eat this way sooner.
Don’t Give Yourself a Choice
Finally, one of the main reasons changing behaviors is a struggle is because you give yourself a choice. You’re constantly thinking about whether you want to engage in the new habit or go back to the one that you’ve had for so long.
By removing this choice, you simply do without thinking. That takes the struggle out of the equation. And it makes it easier to live the life you want because you’re not constantly fighting yourself to do it.
Transitioning to a plant-based diet isn’t always easy, but it is doable with the right mindset. Do these four things and you’re well on your way to creating one. I have faith that you can do it. Now you just have to have faith too.
Written by Shelly Stinson.
Shelly is freelance writer based out of Denver, CO. Her interests include healthy living, being active outdoors and trying new restaurants. Find her on twitter: @Shellystins