Here's why you're struggling to stick to your new diet regime.

If eating better was a goal you had for 2024 yet you feel you failed miserably, there may be a valid reason for that other than a lack of discipline. Setting a new goal every week that your diet starts Monday and then allowing yourself to binge eat every waking moment up until then is doing yourself a massive disservice.

Improving your eating doesn't have to be over complicated. Truth be told, I wouldn't advised to do a complete diet overhaul over night. In fact, it's the small, yet regular changes that make the biggest difference and have the greatest impact. So with 2024 begining to come to an end, there is still time for you to achieve your goal of improving your eating. You don't need to wait for another Monday to roll around or for 2025 to begin. You can start addressing things now.

Here's why you may be struggling to ditch bad eating habits in favour of a new healthy lifestyle:

1. You are changing too much at once. As mentioned above, I never expect a client to start and stick to a whole new diet over night. Why? It's overwhelming and it's impossible to stick to such a drastic change long term. Instead, small, frequent changes should be made. I encourage clients to set small goals each week for themselves that will contribute to their overall goal. For example, someone who skips breakfast, drinks multiple cups of coffee per day and then binge eats a day’s worth of calories for dinner may set the goal of eating a good breakfast 4 x in a week. Once they achieve that goal, then they may like to look to eat a good breakfast 7 x in a week. Once that goal is achieved, they may like to move onto reducing caffeine consumption and so on and so forth. Small, achievable and attainable changes are ideal when changing eating habits. And this is what we should be prioritising. So rather than saying I’m going to start my new diet on Monday, look to see what small goals you can set for yourself to slowly improve your eating habits.

   2. Your calorie intake is too low. Most people associate healthy eating with lower calories when this isn’t always the case. Just because you are consuming low cals, doesn’t necessarily mean you are eating better. Instead, ensure you are consuming enough calories to fuel your body. There was once a time where 1200 calorie diets were pushed onto women to try and drop weight, where we now know that’s far too low. Eating low calorie diets may be easy to stick to initially, but when your hunger catches up with you, your body will trick you into eating more calorie dense foods that go against your ‘healthy eating’ goals. When the body gets hungry, it will start to crave high calorie foods that are usually filled with simple sugars like sweets and take away foods because the body is searching for adequate energy. This then creates a yo-yo-yo diet affect where you begin to binge eat and then try and reduce your calories even further. Not only does this hinder your goals, but it’s also damaging your relationship with food. And so, low calorie diet approaches should be abolished.

   3. You’re not eating enough sustainable food during the day.

   Similarly to under eating calories, not eating enough during the day will also cause you to go hunting for more food in the evening. And so, the binge eating cycle begins again. Skipping breakfast, not eating enough protein, fats or carbs, replacing meals with coffees, teas or shakes for example, all contribute to a lack of sustainable food during the day. There’s are a reason why you crave sweets and sugar and calorie dense foods of an evening after a day of ‘clean eating’ and it’s usually because you did not eat enough macronutrients during the day.

   When implementing a new diet regime, start small. Make small, weekly changes towards your bigger goal and ensure you are giving your body the right fuel it needs. A diet rich in nutrients that includes a good amount of protein, fats, carbs and fibre and calories is most ideal. Healthy eating is a lifelong investment not a short term fix.

   If you find you are unable to break this cycle of inconsistent eating, then reach out to professional. We are here to help.