3 Common Diet Mistakes
1. Black + White Thinking
Otherwise known as ‘All or Nothing’ thinking. This is a mistake that is made all of the time. It can appear in a bunch of different forms:
Cutting out carbs / fats / chocolate / fried foods / carbs after 6pm / basically anything that was previously enjoyed but is now deemed as “bad” quote unquote.
What you need to be doing is:
Prioritising the good stuff i.e. veg, fruit, fish, whole foods etc. applying the 80 / 20 rule. This is where 80% of the time you’re choosing to do and eat things that get you closer to your goals while, 20% of the time you get to enjoy the things you love (in moderation*: chocolate , crisps , wine , cake – yes you can have all those things and still lose weight!!)
In moderation*, using the example of a chocolate bar:
Eating the thing you love 3 or 4 days of the week instead of every day.
Having a smaller portion of it.
Choosing a similar but different chocolate bar i.e . a protein bar instead of a Snickers bar or a lower calorie bar – maybe a KitKat instead. Just check the nutrition label or scan the barcode with MyFitnessPal.
2. Over-Focusing on the Details
You don’t need to make sure that every single micronutrient on MyFitnessPal is perfect by the end of the day.
And that’s the same for hitting 10,000 steps in a day. Are you pacing around the living room at 10pm at night to get those last 100 steps in? If your average steps are 3000 a day, then your goal is to just raise that by 1000-2000 steps and go from there.
You also don’t need to be weighing your food to the exact gram. Adding and removing grains of rice until the scale hits exactly 60g instead of 59g or 61g is just not worth the effort.
Why? Because too much pressure will make things unenjoyable and you won’t stick to it long term. Plain and simple.
What you should do is, become more active than you were and eat better than you did and day by day, you’ll get to where you want to go.
3. Jumping into the Deep End
Would you cliff jump into unknown waters? Well…I hope not
You’d see if it was safe, you’d check the waters at the bottom for depth and other dangers. You’d jump off other, smaller cliffs first. So why would you go from eating 3-5 meals a day to 0?
Everything is trial and error, a journey to discovering what works for you:
Want to try fasting? Okay, then start with having 1 less meal, 1 day a week and record how it makes you feel, in the moment and afterwards. Does it make you feel better? Yes, refer to a) No, refer to b).
Want to try cutting out carbs? Okay, then cut out carbs for 1 day and record how it makes you feel, in the moment and afterwards. Does it make you feel better? Yes, refer to a) No, refer to b).
a) Great then that works for you. You can gradually experiment some more.
b) Great now you’re one step closer to understanding your body. Try something different.
This is just a little guide to help you get to where you want to go and stay focused and on track. Your in this for the long run!
