5 Ways to revive your healthy eating goals and succeed for good

You had a New Year’s Resolution to eat healthy and feel like a failure

You swore this year would be different. You would start eating healthy in January, but by the third week you gave up. It was too hard to keep up with once your life got busy, and you got tired of salads and smoothies. Now, you feel like a failure, but it’s not too late to revive those healthy eating goals. There is a way for you to be successful, not just this year, but for good.

The mistakes you made.

Here’s the problem with most New Year’s resolutions to eat healthy, you try so hard in the beginning that you deprive yourself of any joy in your meals. You rely on willpower, which only lasts for so long. You have an all-or-nothing approach, and when you eat one unhealthy thing, like a slice of birthday cake, a fast-food meal, or a few cocktails, you give up on your whole plan.

5 ways you can be successful with your healthy eating goals forever

Change your mindset – Don’t take an all-or-nothing approach. You have to allow for some foods that are not “healthy” . In fact, stop thinking of foods as “good” or “bad” .Think of food as food that nourishes your body or doesn’t nourish your body. Eat more foods that give you nutrients that your body needs for energy, a healthy immune system, and organ function. For example, foods that are grown in a garden will have lots of nutrients. Foods that are manufactured in a plant will have few to no nutrients at all. It’s okay to eat these non-foods on occasion, but know that you are not fueling your body.

Don’t rely on willpower – Somehow, we all believe that when we fail at a diet, it is because we just didn’t have enough willpower. We should be stronger! But, willpower just doesn’t work for most people. You need to have a reason why you want to succeed at eating healthier that is bigger than just wanting to look good in a swimsuit. How do you want to feel when you eat healthier? Will you be more confident? Will you feel excited because you can keep up with your kids on the playground, and it is important for you to be involved in your children’s lives? Did you have a scare at the doctor’s office and you never want to feel that way again?

Do you want to feel sure that test results come back clear? Visualize how you will feel when you reach your healthy eating goals.

Make small changes – Instead of changing your whole diet, restricting foods, and being miserable, try adding things to your diet. One of the goals I shoot for is eating 5-7 servings of vegetables or fruits a day. I think of it like, “I need to have two servings at every meal. ” I’ll have a smoothie or vegetable hash for breakfast, a salad for lunch, stir fry, spaghetti, or a few types of roasted vegetables for dinner. It’s much easier and more enjoyable to add things to your diet instead of removing them. Once adding fruits and vegetables to your diet becomes a habit, you can try removing artificial sweeteners and other artificial ingredients from your daily intake.

Meal plan – We all get rushed, busy, or just plain tired. When we do, it is so much easier to fall back into old habits, like eating fast, processed foods. To keep that from happening, plan your meals ahead of time. You can create a binder or Pinterest board of meals that you like to cook. Include some meals that take only minutes to prepare for those days when you just can’t take the time to cook a big meal. Keep frozen berries and vegetables in your freezer. I like to make extra servings when I cook, so I can freeze leftovers in single-serving containers. I pull those out for lunch sometimes. Meal services can also be a healthy option if cooking is not your forte.

Allow for setbacks or indulging on special occasions- Don’t think that just because you had a day of eating processed foods at the theme park, you can’t still be a healthy eater. You can still have your Aunt Helen’s double macaroni and cheese at the family holiday celebration. The next day, you’ll just remember why you wanted to be a healthier eater. You’ll visualize the way you want to feel and you will get back to eating the foods that give you energy and nutrients.

If you do these five things, you can revive your healthy eating goals and succeed for good. Any time you fall off the wagon, you pick yourself back up and remember why you wanted to be a healthier eater in the first place.

Every day you will wake up and visualize how you want to feel. Since you are not on an all-or-nothing, restrictive diet, you can make this a lifelong change. You will feel your confidence grow as you choose yourself over and over again.

Lori Booty is a Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach with over 20 years of experience teaching elementary school and a Masters in School Counseling. She is the owner and creator of Beautifulimmunity.com. Lori began her health transformation after watching her mother battle a traumatic illness and she realized her own health was not as good as she wanted it to be. She found out that nutrition held the key to improving her symptoms and not medications with terrible side effects. Throughout her journey, she's found that there are many natural remedies she could turn to for her family and not always have to rush to the doctor. One of the most surprising remedies she found was that her thoughts actually impact the quality of her health. She now works to support women who are exhausted from raising kids and caring for aging parents to get back their own health without using medications or crazy, complicated diets.

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