To change, you have to change, whatever your weight management goal. Is it moving towards your ideal weight, shedding a few pounds or getting rid of your middle age dad bod?
If you’re at A and want to change to B, continuing to do what got you to A is unlikely to prove sufficient.
Einstein even defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
For weight loss, to change you have to change, in particular your diet. If your current diet is subpar, eating less of the same thing may not be enough. Just cutting back on quantity without improving diet quality may leave you hungry and with cravings.
Alas, long-term, hunger often wins.
We believe that to change, you have to change. Focus on improving your diet quality first. We wrote a short blog post on how we concretely do it here.
A few habits to consider to improve diet quality.
Drink water.
Drink plain tea or coffee.
Avoid liquid calories.
Eat minimally processed breakfast and dinner made of real food.
Cook at home.
Plan you meals.
Pack your lunch.
Pick restaurants and takeouts with healthy options, salads, good quality oils and proteins and simple filling dishes. Avoid ultra processed items.
Once your diet quality improves, you will most likely snack less. Going without a meal may also become easier, allowing you to fast intermittently.
Intermittent fasting then becomes an other way to improve diet quality. Skipping a meal instead of eating junk becomes an option.
Find what works for you. Drastic, all encompassing changes. Or planned tinier steps, starting with the habits you are willing to do and that have the most impact.
Remember the Pareto principle we wrote about here. Focus on what matters, what brings the biggest bang for your efforts.
Take time and brainstorm to come up with your own ideas on how to improve your diet quality, given your own preferences and constraints.
Find what works for you.
Do not set yourself up for failure. Avoid unrealistic expectations.
Start easy, easier than that is also good. And keep going, you’re on your way.
Celebrate the small victories and enjoy the process. In a few months, you could get rid of your middle age dad bod.
To build your system for weight loss, please see our ebook here or on Gumroad here .