Habits are hard to break. Especially for a junk food junkie.
We mean to do good, we really do. We make plans, we prep food, we set a schedule. But suddenly we’re out in the real world without a snack stashed at the bottom of our bag and it’s somehow it feels impossible to stick to healthy.
Those chips just look too good. Junk food is easy to find, cheap to buy, and no one ever got a side eye while eating chips on the train.
Thing is, everyone knows that chips aren’t health food.
But telling yourself to give up all those chips forever, starting now!, is maybe the most unrealistic goal you can set. It’s usually setting yourself up for failure.
That is why there needs to be a master plan for everyone who’s ever been taken advantage of by a snack cake.
So, how do we make this happen?
SET REALISTIC GOALS
A great goal isn’t to eat no chips. It’s to eat less chips less often.
Instead of swearing that it’s all or nothing from here on out (and then letting the guilt hit when you finally cave), let’s revise the way we think about a goal.
Forever becomes this week. Nothing becomes half.
This week, choose that one guilty pleasure you indulge in (ok, OVER-indulge in), and then cut how much you usually eat in half.
There’s a lot of ways you can pull off what “half” means, and they’re all fine. For example:
- If you eat ice cream every day, bring it down to every other day.
- If you normally eat a full bag of chips every week, now that one big bag will have to last you 2 weeks.
- If you drink soda with every meal, pick one meal to have a soda.
Chips, ice cream and soda are still on the menu. They’re now just only there half the time.
SMALL STEPS LEAD TO BIG CHANGES
This is a week-long goal, but can (and should!) be repeated. Every week this goal can be revised and repeated with a new food you have a special relationship with.
Some weeks you’re going to kill it. You’re going to remember to pack a snack every! single! day! and won’t think about chips at all.
Another week might not be as motivated as find yourself looking for the same things you’ve worked so hard to stay away from.
No one is perfect, so don’t beat yourself up over the dirty details.
The great thing about working on habits this way, is that the bigger picture is always more important than what happened today.
Tomorrow is a chance to start over, grow and improve. If you can look back on the last week and see that you’re eating about half the junk you ate the week before, you’re right on track.
Now, you’ve set the standard for next week. Halve your junk food again next week, and you’ll see your small steps seriously add up.
LONG-TERM LIFESTYLE CHANGES
If you’re wondering when you’ll be done, remember you’re developing habits that are going to last you a lifetime.
It’s not about eating no cookies. It’s about eating only a couple of cookies, sometimes.
Once you feel you’re able to regularly eat chips only once or twice a week instead of daily, move on to soda. Or cake. Or peanut butter crackers, whatever. Taking it one at a time, one week at a time makes the impossible task of quitting your junk food habit, suddenly manageable.
Making sure sometimes foods are eaten only sometimes goes a long way to getting you to your healthiest.
Need a refresher on what qualifies as a “sometimes foods”? Check out this little guide on snack foods.
Got questions? Need a little personal hand holding? Let me know. I’m always here to help.
You got this!