Can't Stick to Your Diet? Habits, Emotions and Your Why

Nikkiey: Everyone has these goals of wanting a better body, to feel better, to achieve a certain look, yet they literally cannot nail down the most important aspect of getting that, which is eating right and following a proper nutrition plan. And day to day, choosing the right things that are going to serve them, serve the body, and serve the results that they want. So I started to research why it's so hard for people to follow through on, because I see this all of the time. So today, I'm going to share with you the research that I found, mainly around three specific topics.

But then I'm also going to share with you why I personally think it's so hard for people to do and to follow through on. And when I did research this, there were tons of things that came up, like time constraints, busy schedules, etc. And I just took all of those things as excuses to not making your health a priority.

I just sat down with my dad and had this conversation with him the other night. He was doing a great job starting to lose weight. But I'm like, dude, I need you to focus on building up some muscle, getting into some strength training. I need you to be strong. He's 55 years old, so he threw out the excuse of time. And I was like, next time you say you don't have enough time, just instead say you aren't making it a priority and see how that feels. Immediate agreement from him.

So I say the same to you. I see busy moms. There's a specific woman that comes to my mind. Two sets of twins at the age of four. She lost 80 pounds during COVID. She's a doctor in a busy ER. She made the time. She made it a priority for her health and for her family and for herself. So point being, don't drown in your excuses as to why you can't stick to a nutrition plan.

Now, outside of those, let's dive into the first thing that I found when I researched, which is totally understandable. And that first thing is a lack of knowledge. Many people may not have a clear understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet or how to make nutritious choices. And thinking back to the start of my journey, that was definitely the case for me too. I was ignorant to this information. And mainly because nutrition is such a complex field and there's so much conflicting information out there, which can make it so difficult for people to understand.

Additionally, people may not have a clear understanding of portion sizes, calorie needs, and all the things that get down to the nitty gritty: what one individual specifically needs and the role that nutrients play in overall health. The lack of knowledge can make it super difficult, which is totally understandable, for people to make informed choices about what to eat, especially when and how much, and what they need specifically with the lifestyle that they live.

So what can you do about that? If you have a lack of knowledge in nutrition or a lack of understanding, work with a professional who is an expert in this. They can give you the tools and the resources to be successful. And one way that you can do this is just by checking out WarriorBabe.

Number two is emotional eating. Emotional eating refers to the habit of using food as a way to cope with emotions rather than to satisfy actual physical hunger. People who engage in emotional eating may turn to food to comfort themselves when they're feeling stressed, anxious, sad, bored, etc. Emotional eating can be difficult to break down because it's tied to emotional patterns and habits that are deeply ingrained in individuals.

For example, when you're stressed after a long day at work and you come home, you're finding the comfort of your couch. You're finding the comfort of Netflix, relaxing, unwinding, and typically snacking and food is involved in that. So to help you overcome emotional eating, it's important to first identify and address the underlying emotional triggers that you experience and that drive that type of behavior. And as you become more aware of the act happening, you'll be able to ask yourself questions at a conscious level as to why you may be wanting to indulge in this type of eating.

If you can then identify that you're stressed, and you ask yourself, why am I choosing to eat this? Or, what am I feeling right now that makes me want these snacks? Naturally, answers will come. I'm bored, or you're feeling a little stressed. Then by identifying that, you can make a shift to do something different, like drinking a glass of water instead, or simply saying, no, I don't want this, and then going back to watching TV without the food. Or my number one hack for solving this for myself at the start of my journey was going into the bathroom and brushing my teeth.

Number three is habit and addiction. So here's a story for you guys. I worked in the emergency room, and I used to sometimes work the 3 to 11 p.m. shift. And so after that shift, I'm starving. I'm ravenous. This is the beginning of my journey, when I didn't have any good nutritional habits in place. And there was a McDonald's right next to the emergency room. So I would leave the emergency room after 11 p.m., go down to the McDonald's and grab the number two, where you get two cheeseburgers. And I had developed that habit over time.

Addiction, on the other hand, refers to a physical or physiological dependence on a substance or behavior. So when it comes to food, addiction can refer to the dependence on certain types of food, such as sugar or processed foods and processed carbohydrates. And people who are addicted to certain foods may experience withdrawal symptoms, such as having cravings for those foods, or experience irritability and fatigue when they try to cut them out or stop eating them. Both of these, habits and addictions, can make it difficult for people to make healthy choices in their diet because they're strongly tied to certain behaviors and cravings.

So breaking these patterns can be super challenging and requires a lot of willpower. But the main thing is you becoming more consciously aware of why you're choosing to eat this way or why you have this habit, and recognizing that it's not serving you for the good, it's serving you for the bad. And if you continue in that habit, you're not going to get to where you want to be with the results that you want to accomplish. So you have to become more consciously aware. Having the knowledge and the understanding of how to do it, how to break it, will help you take sustainable, actionable steps to change it.

So those are three of the things that I found when researching this topic. But like I said at the beginning of the video, I wanted to share with you guys why I personally think it's so hard for people to stick to their nutrition plan. Now, I agree with all of the things that I just shared, but why I personally think it's so hard for people to do is because you only make what's hard, hard, by telling yourself that it's hard and believing that story. So many people say, oh, following my nutrition plan is hard at the beginning. But if you actually devote time and don't say that it's a waste of time, it could dramatically change the actions that you take.

With one story, it's too hard, you of course won't take the supporting actions. With another story, I'm excited to do this and to learn and to take action, then you will take actions that support the outcome that you want. Two totally different stories that will give you two completely different outcomes.

Nutrition, or what I call macros, is a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. Anything at the beginning of your journey is going to be hard. It's just like riding a bike. At the beginning, you have training wheels on it. You take them off, then you're learning. Same thing with nutrition. Anything is hard at the beginning. If you give it devoted attention, time, patience, and consistency, it can be so worth it, because it just becomes easier and easier and easier and a way of life. So don't look at it as something hard. Look at it as you're learning. You're going to take on this experience. You want to get better and you want to understand it for the well-being of yourself and the results that you want to accomplish.

The second reason I personally think following through on a nutrition plan is so hard for people is because their goal isn't meaningful enough. Their goal isn't big enough. Their why isn't big enough. So for example, think about why people really make a change or start eating better. Why do they do it? In some instances, typically it's because they had a big health scare, and all of a sudden they take it seriously and they make it happen. Or more on the aesthetic side, a partner cheats or a divorce or breakup happens and the woman gets a revenge body. They make it happen that way. They're reacting to the situation. Something big has to happen in order for change to happen.

Why, though? Why react? Why not be more proactive for yourself? Think about it like this. What you do now matters 10, 20, 30 years from now. What you do at 50 years old matters when you're 70. And that outcome could be completely different. If you eat healthy right now, when you work out right now at 50, that can mean a strong body and fewer fractures when you're 70 years old. The trajectory of your health could be completely different depending on what you do right now.

So what I'm saying is, be proactive towards your own happiness, your own health. Be proactive towards your own goals. Don't be reactive to other things and scenarios. Don't react. Get yourself right and everything around you gets right. Make your goal meaningful enough. Following through on your nutrition plan should seem so easy to want to do when you have a big goal that's meaningful like that. And the trajectory of your whole health could be completely different just by following through on your nutrition plan.