According to a brain study, the gray matter volume in the brain predicts your ability to exercise control over your food choices, and this volume differs from person to person.

If you find it hard to stick to your diet, it’s not your fault; it could be your brain playing games with you, and you need to learn to fight it.

Arm yourself against it with these helpful tips.

Prep Your Meals

This is the single most important thing you need to do when going on a diet. Pick a day of the week—the weekend, for example—to prepare each of your meals. Cook the protein, the veggies and whatever else needs to be cooked and divide it into portions and refrigerate it.

You need to do this because, on a typical day, you may not have the time or the patience to think deeply about what you need to consume to stay healthy and therefore, you will go for quick, easy and possibly unhealthy options.

If you’re not sure about what constitutes “healthy,” get in touch with one of our nutritional coaches and let them guide you.

Toss the Triggers

Triggers include foods, places, or even people. Anything or anybody that makes you want to cheat on your diet NEEDS TO GO.

This means all those chocolate chip cookies, nuts, cheese, ice cream, and other unhealthy or sugary items in your pantry or refrigerator need to be given away.

If you’re an emotional eater, you need to stay away from people who negatively affect your moods, such as certain co-workers, friends, and family.

And needless to say, restaurants that do not have diet-friendly options are off the list. Eating out is okay, but that does not have to equate to eating unhealthily.

Distract yourself

Any craving that you experience will take about 2 to 10 minutes to subside. The key is to distract yourself during this period by doing something productive and completely unrelated to food until that urge to cheat is gone.

You can do plenty of things, like making a pending phone call, water your plants or scroll on Instagram until that urge is over.

Stay Hydrated

Drinking water is so important when it comes to losing weight. Not only is water going to give you glowing skin and fill up your tummy, but drinking cold water, in particular, will also help you burn calories; the colder, the better.

The switch from eating everything you want to only eating what’s good for your body is hard. Initially, we all feel like we have zero self-control; the cravings are mind-altering. But it’s not impossible to stick to your diet.  

We, at On The Go Fitness Pro, specialize in helping you navigate the finer details of dieting through our nutritional coaching services and personal trainer Alexandria. Get in touch today!