The best diet in the world won’t work if it’s not sustainable. Here are 6 ways to help you stick to your diet and finally see actual results.

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Simple question for you …

If a jar of cookies is in your pantry, you have two choices: 

Eat the cookies, or don’t eat the cookies. 

Which one do you think you’ll eventually choose?

Exactly.

When we have a ton of options at our disposal for highly palatable foods, we will almost always default to eventually reaching for and eating those yummy foods. Who wouldn’t? Cookies are awesome. 

Now, it’s important to note that you can absolutely eat cookies and still lose weight.

Just have a look at some of my clients who’ve worked with me in online coaching to lose weight, look good and feel great minus total restriction from foods like cookies.

But, in order to really break the yo-yo dieting cycle, you will need to have some willpower to know when it’s okay to eat the cookie versus when it’s time to put it away.

Today we’re going to talk about how to stick to your diet. You’re going to get a few of my subtle, yet actionable, strategies that you can start using today.

These tips could be the best way to finally break that barrier to losing the unwanted weight.

Let’s get into it.

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Stick to Your Diet by Fixing Your Food Environment

What’s in your kitchen?

When you have kids running around the house, the food options available expand exponentially. Especially when you get hit with the picky eaters that would spit broccoli back into your face in an instant.

Instead of fruits and veggies, you’ve got all kinds of snacky foods and small indulgences that lead to total temptation to stuff your face hole.

My household is no different.

While my kids do eat a lot of the same foods that I do, I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t provide full transparency on the options in my kitchen:

• Chips and pretzels 
• Cookies and crackers
• French fries and frozen pizzas
• Cheese sticks and peanut butter and jelly and all kinds of little heavily-marketed snack-sized bites of hyper palatable goodness

The difference is that I manage to avoid stuffing my face with those snacks because I have to lead by example for my clients.

But also because I’ve managed to create some barriers to those fun foods with some of the following tips you’ll learn shortly.

Now to be fair, my kids really do eat the foods that I preach about: 

• Lean proteins
• Fruits for most snacks
• Vegetables at every meal

It’s after they’ve satisfied those big rocks that we allow them to enjoy the chips and frozen pizzas.

This is how I approach my own diet and how I encourage my clients to do the same.

We learn to eat with balance and by adopting the concept of 80-percent nutrient dense, whole foods with 20-percent of my diet coming from the fun food variety.

Let’s talk about how to make this work for you.

I’m not going to sit here and imagine that you can just change all of this overnight, especially if you have small kids with eating preferences that pose a challenge to this exercise.

But here’s what you can do to help fix your food environment right now so you can stick to your diet.

I. Keep trigger foods out of your home

This one is the easiest to employ and obviously makes the most sense.

If you have a food that is a trigger, it’s time to think about removing it from your home.

A trigger food is one that you cannot resist. And not only can you not avoid the temptation to eat that food, it can trigger you to keep eating without much thought.

For example: I have a trigger for smaller candies like Peanut M&Ms. They are small and you can pop ‘em in your mouth without giving much thought. I’ll just pop a handful in my mouth non-stop throughout the day if I’m not careful.

Those M&Ms (the Peanut in particular) are triggers for me. So I never keep them in my house.

If I do want to enjoy some Peanut M&Ms from time to time (because building moderation into your day and diet is important for sustainability) then I’ll go to the store and buy a small package and eat it mindfully and as slowly as possible.

Until then, they are not allowed in my house … or else I’ll stuff my face hole.

II. Hide tempting foods from your eyesight

If you cannot remove the food altogether, you’ll need to take evasive action. So let’s add an extra barrier to entry.

Place those foods in hard to reach areas:

• Higher up in cabinets
• In the freezer (and under the frozen vegetables)
• Under a bed
• Hide them completely

Adding that one layer can be the difference between your mind giving you enough pause to say no to the indulgence … and stuffing your face hole.

III. If you want to eat healthier foods, keep those healthier foods front and center

Likewise, if you’re removing the triggers, let’s highlight the replacements.

Make sure the nutrient dense food options are within eyesight and readily available. Remove as many barriers to entry for these foods as possible. 

This way you’re more likely to reach for the apple on your countertop than scale the pantry shelves to reach that cookie stored in the deepest, darkest, highest corner of your kitchen.

IV. Create rules for your eating rituals

There will be times when you can and should enjoy some chips, pretzels or cookies. No diet should totally restrict these foods from your routine if they are truly things that you enjoy.

However, when you do eat them, the goal is avoid turning that indulgence into a binge.

One of the best ways to do this is to make sure you are being much more mindful of the experience. 

Set a few rules for how you’ll enjoy your fun food:

• While sitting down
• After measuring out one portion size of the treat
• Place the rest of the box, container of bag back where it came from (never eat out of the package)
• With a glass of water
• So you can enjoy the food slowly without guilt

If you need to turn off the TV and put down the phone to enjoy that treat mindfully and slowly, then so be it. Really taste your food. Savor the flavor.

It is not a cheat, it is not a reward, instead treat this food the way you should: as an indulgence that you are opting to enjoy in moderation before returning to your normal routine.

That’s how you build better relationships with your eating habits and it will go a long way towards helping you stick to your diet for the long haul.

V. Eliminate the random candy dishes and bowls

Every office has that person that leaves out a bunch of random candies and treats for all of the coworkers to grab mindlessly.

Don’t be that person.

How many times have you unknowingly passed by that desk and jar multiple times for random indulgences? Exactly.

While you can’t stop Kate in HR from supplying everyone else’s sugar high, you certainly can avoid being that dealer for the office.

Same rule applies at home. 

Remove the jars full of M&Ms for the entire family to pick at all day. Put them away. Pack those candies and treats in opaque containers and place them out of sight.

And if you have a Kate in HR that leaves out similar treats for random sugar junky hits, do your best to avoid that desk at all costs.

OR set a rule for yourself that you will allow one small portion of that treat, and will enjoy it slowly and mindfully at your desk at a certain time every day.

When you break it down that way, you’ve given yourself permission without total restriction and you can look forward to that moment each day.

It’ll go a long way towards preventing those random haphazard drive-by candy grabs.

VI. The No Doritos Rule

This is something that I preach to my online coaching clients in the Lean4Life Academy. One of my fellow coaches came up with the name, and it makes perfect sense.

Let’s say it’s the holiday season and you’ve got some travel coming up. Your grandmother makes the best homemade cookies on the planet and she’s cooking up a fresh, warm batch that will be awaiting your arrival.

While trekking over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house, you get an urge for some travel snacks and see an enticing bag of Doritos.

Nothing wrong with Doritos, they are quite tasty. But, you can get Doritos anywhere, any time you’d like.

You cannot get grammy’s special cookies anytime, though. This is an annual tradition. Your mission is to enjoy the fuck out of those cookies. Guilt-free. You can’t get them again for another year!

So you have my permission to eat them up. All of ‘em if you’d like.

Skip the Doritos, though. Those will still be waiting the other 364 days of the year.

Get it?

These simple rules go a long way towards repairing your broken relationship with food and eating. 

They will help you stay on point so that calorie deficit can do it’s thing to help you lose the weight. While also allowing room to still enjoy those treats in moderation.

That’s the key to long-term healthy success.

Let me help you learn how to actually stick to your diet … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Stick to your diet” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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