Mindset is everything when it comes to all aspects of health, and the way you think can completely transform eating habits. From helping you put an end to mindless snacking to changing the way you think about the foods you can eat, you can take your healthy eating habits to the next level.
Why Mindset is a Total Gamechanger
Mindset matters, and it matters in a big way. The way you think about health and nutrition is going to completely change how successful you are at sticking to your healthy eating goals. In fact, experts often agree that mindset is one of the biggest factors when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating habits. It can either help you or hurt your health goals.
When Mindset Can Hurt Your Eating Habits
If you want to transform eating habits, you have to look at your current mindset. If your current mindset is that you want a quick fix and want to dive into an unrealistic fad diet, you’re going to want to ditch this idea ASAP. While many people want a quick fix, fad diets that promise dramatic weight loss in a very short amount of time usually (like most of the time) just aren’t sustainable.
The end goal is to shift your mindset into thinking about your diet as a lifestyle change that you can maintain long term for better overall health. You have to get away from the mindset of viewing your diet as something that you’ll change temporarily, and then immediately go back to old eating habits when things get too hard.
The Mindset You Need to Transform Eating Habits
So, if one of your biggest health goals for 2020 is to transform your eating habits, here’s our mindset challenge to you.
Ditch the term “diet” and start thinking about your current eating situation in a bit of a different light.
Start to think about transforming your eating habits as a total lifestyle change, and remember that slow and steady wins the race. You don’t have to get rid of every source of sugar overnight—small and consistent change is going to help you get to your end goal.
Let’s take a look at five hacks you can start using right away to transform eating habits that may just help you feel better than you ever have before.
5 Mindset Hacks to Transform Eating Habits Starting Today
#1 Ditch the Guilt
Say goodbye to guilt when it comes to healthy eating. There’s just no room for it, and there’s definitely no place for punishing yourself if you slip up on your healthy eating goals. Stop feeling guilty, show yourself some grace, and just pick up where you left off if you do get off track.
This mindset shift can take some of the intense pressure we tend to feel around food choices.
#2 Think About What You Can Have, Not What You Can’t
This is a big healthy eating pitfall people fall into. It’s easy to think about all the foods you can’t eat and feel completely overwhelmed. When you shift your mindset a little, that’s when the magic really happens.
Want to go dairy-free in the new year? Instead of thinking about all the foods you can’t eat, think about all the delish dairy-free foods you can eat. This is a super powerful mindset shift that can completely transform how you think about healthy eating.
#3 Healthy Eating is a Form of Self-Care
Here’s another big mindset shift that can be challenging at first, but oh so rewarding. We have to stop looking at food as a reward or exercising if we overeat as a punishment. Both healthy eating and exercise are two forms of self-care, so we need to reframe how we think about them.
Take the idea of rewarding yourself with a bowl of ice cream if you reach a goal or making yourself run an extra mile if you ate that bag of chips. Just remove any sort of reward and punishment around the conversation of food and exercise.
Instead, start to think about how transforming eating habits for the better, is a form of self-care. So, reward yourself daily with nutrient-dense meals and snacks instead of looking at cheat meals as your “reward.”
#4 Keep it Realistic
It’s easy to get caught up in healthy eating goals and wanting to transform eating habits immediately. But, radically changing everything right this second may prove to be too overwhelming, and it may set you up for a ton of disappointment.
The bottom line? Write down what healthy eating goals you have, and then write out a plan to tackle them one by one. By no means do you have to remove gluten, dairy, sugar, and eat more plant-based foods all in one go.
Instead, shift that mindset and focus on one healthy eating goal at a time each week until your eating habits are where you want them to be.
#5 Take it One Meal at a Time
When you are transforming eating habits, things can quickly feel overwhelming. But, if you change your mindset a little and just focus on one meal at a time, things become much easier to handle.
So, ditch the idea that you have to meal plan and prep your entire week’s worth of food. Instead, just have a plan for what meal you’re going to eat next. This will completely transform your eating habits, making things so much more doable.
Change Your Lens, Change Your Health
If you want to transform the way you think about healthy eating, you may have to change your lens a bit. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be hard, overwhelming, or out of reach.
By simply changing your mindset, you may find healthy eating to be easier, more achievable, and more possible for the long-term. Give these hacks a try to make some serious mindset shifts to take your eating habits to the next level this year.
