{"id":66507,"date":"2012-03-19T11:47:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T16:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=66507"},"modified":"2012-03-20T10:34:23","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T15:34:23","slug":"5-habits-that-lead-to-diet-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/5-habits-that-lead-to-diet-success\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Habits That Lead to Diet Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You try to eat healthy and lose weight but inevitably, end up falling short. Frustrated as to why? A recent article from <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/03\/19\/health\/successful-dieting-habits\/index.html?hpt=he_c1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>CNN<\/em><\/a><\/strong> hopes to dig up some answers by examining the 5 habits of highly <strong><a title=\"Successful dieters don't make excuses\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/successful-dieters-dont-make-excuses\/\">successful dieters<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the scientific evidence backing all of the article&#8217;s findings, I can personally attest to the success of these strategies as someone who has achieved a 20-lb. weight loss and maintained it for 5+ years now.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/5-habits-that-lead-to-diet-success\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-66510\" title=\"eating-salad\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/eating-salad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of the habits listed in the article, I especially agreed with the last one which is all about <strong><a title=\"Will Power vs. Won't Power\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/will-power-vs-wont-power\/\">willpower<\/a><\/strong>. I think you really have to want to be healthy to achieve it. You don&#8217;t just wake up one day a healthy person. You have to work for it and keep working for it every day, forging new and healthy habits. And although it&#8217;s hard work, the benefits are absolutely worth it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strategy # 1<\/strong> &#8211; Be specific and set specific goals. If you want to lose weight, pick your goal weight and begin working toward that. If you want to run a 10K, get a running plan in place. Otherwise your goals remain out of reach.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Studies show that we only become motivated when our brain detects a difference between where we are and where we want to be. So by setting a clear target, we up the chances of our success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strategy # 2<\/strong> &#8211; Create an OK-to-eat plan. In an ideal world, we would always be in complete control of our meals. But too often, we&#8217;re not.<strong> <a title=\"tips for healthy travel\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/tips-for-travelers-on-eating-healthier-at-the-airport\/\">We travel<\/a><\/strong>, we vacation, we work from the office. We&#8217;re busy. But a simple solution is devising an &#8216;if-then&#8217; plan.<\/p>\n<p>If I&#8217;m at a fast food restaurant, then I&#8217;ll order a salad.<br \/>\nIf my friends want pizza for dinner, then I&#8217;ll get the thin crust with veggies.<br \/>\nIf I&#8217;m out for ice cream, then I&#8217;ll opt for one scoop instead of two.<\/p>\n<p>Studies show that we&#8217;re two to three times more likely to reach our goals if we devise a safe-to-eat plan <em>before<\/em> we find ourselves in tricky eating situations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strategy #3<\/strong> &#8211; Track your success. Celebrating mini-milestones is great. But when we focus too much on what we&#8217;ve achieved instead of how much further we have to go, we can lose site of our goal.<\/p>\n<p>To stay motivated, monitor your progress. If you&#8217;re 5 pounds into on your 20-lb. weight loss, visualize the 15 pounds you still have to go. Doing so will motivate you to keep working hard and continue in your weight loss.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strategy #4<\/strong> &#8211; Be a realistic optimistic by knowing that achieving your goals isn&#8217;t easy, and that working hard at it 2 days out of 7 won&#8217;t yield noticeable results.<\/p>\n<p>Believing you&#8217;ll succeed is vital. But believing you will succeed <em>easily<\/em> can be your downfall. A study following 24 women enrolled in a weight-loss program showed that those who thought they could lose weight without much effort lost 24 pounds <em>less<\/em> than those who knew it would be difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Realizing it will be hard work will empower you all the more to work harder toward achieving your goals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strategy #5<\/strong> &#8211; Strengthen your willpower.\u00a0Practicing self control is like building a muscle. The more you work at it the easier and more natural it becomes.<\/p>\n<p>To strengthen your will power, do something that causes you to override an impulse &#8211; like reaching for a healthy snack when you really want a potato chip &#8211; and add that to your routine.\u00a0And be reasonable in doing so. Pick one struggle area to work on at a time instead of choosing three, feeling overwhelmed, and giving up.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s how the experts do it! Just remember these 5 strategies as you work toward achieving and maintaining a healthy diet. You&#8217;ll be much more likely to succeed with these helpful tips in mind.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You try to eat healthy and lose weight but inevitably, end up falling short. Frustrated as to why? A recent article from CNN hopes to dig up some answers by examining the 5 habits of highly successful dieters. In addition &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/5-habits-that-lead-to-diet-success\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3687,3695],"tags":[1376,9581,9580],"class_list":["post-66507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-health","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-cnn","tag-dieters","tag-healthy-habits"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66507"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66519,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66507\/revisions\/66519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}