Ways to keep your motivation high while eating well
Keep a food diary
Start here: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Jot down what you eat along with the calories, and add up the total at the end of the day. Simply seeing it in writing helps you make better choices almost automatically.
Picture how you want to feel
Hold a clear image of the strong, energetic, comfortable-in-your-skin version of yourself you're working towards — and remember you'll get there through exercise and healthy eating, never through starving yourself. Going hungry only makes you hungrier by the hour, and your body won't reward you for it.
Surround yourself with healthy-food inspiration
Fill your feed and your kitchen with the vivid colours of crisp, juicy vegetables and delicious fruit. Seeing all that natural colour makes the healthy choice the appealing one.
Keep things in perspective
A small cheeseburger or a single doughnut is calorie-equivalent to a big, generous plate piled with unlimited, low-fat vegetables. Same calories — very different amount of food, and very different way you'll feel afterwards.
Remember: weight loss is about 70% food, 30% exercise
If you walk for an hour every day but keep eating junk, the scale won't budge — burning off even one small chocolate biscuit would take about 12 laps of a large football pitch. Eat well, and you won't need punishing exercise programmes to see results.
Turn on the music
Make a playlist of your 10 favourite songs. At roughly 3 minutes each, that's a 30-minute workout ready to go. Put on something comfortable and walk — around the block or around the garden. It relaxes you, gets you some fresh air, and lets you soak up a little vitamin D from the sun.
Build in a flexible day
Eating healthily all week can naturally pull you away from junk food, but it also helps to plan one more relaxed day. Make a huge fruit salad and enjoy fruit to your heart's content — it fills you up so the cravings for junk fade, and even though it's a little more than your usual daily intake, it's still a nutrient-rich, satisfyingly sweet meal.
Merve Tığlı, Dietitian