It’s hard to maintain a diet, especially with all the temptations that are around us, not to mention the commitment that’s needed to do it for the long term. However, setting the right goals and going about it the right way, is going to help you stick to the diet itself and ultimately see the results too.

It can be demoralizing when you can’t see the results, especially in the early days. With that being said, it’s useful to know how and what you need to maximize your efforts and hopefully keep the diet in place. Here are a few tips on how to stick to a diet and see results. 

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Start today – not tomorrow

Many people when it comes to a diet, will make often make the comment ‘Oh I’ll start tomorrow’ or ‘The diet starts next week’. Having this attitude is never going to lead to a productive diet, especially if you’re willing to slack even before you’ve started the diet itself.

Instead of starting tomorrow, start today instead. Even if you’ve already had an unhealthy meal, make the rest of the day snacking or the meals you’ve got left to eat, into healthy options. Starting a diet shouldn’t be something you organize at a later date. In order to make it an effective one, it’s something that you’ll definitely want to take action on straight away.

Choose sugar-free drinks

For those who have a sweet tooth, it’s very easy to opt for a sugary drink whether that’s a fizzy coca cola or a mammoth, calorie-heavy milkshake with all of the trimmings. It’s important to choose wisely when it comes to your drinks as they influence your weight also.

Think about drinking more water than anything else because that certainly helps to remove toxins from your body, as well as keeping your body hydrated. Water is also helpful for energy levels too, which is needed when you want to lose weight or at least adapt to a healthier diet of food and drink in general.

If you don’t like water, consider any sugar-free drinks and flavor your water with juices or perhaps even fresh fruit and vegetables.

Buy healthy snacks

When you have unhealthy or calorie-heavy snacks in your cabinets, then you’re going to munch your way through them. While you may be able to show restraint and eat them in moderation, it’s useful to have a balanced amount of snacks available in your pantry.

Healthy snacks whether that be fruit, nuts or low-calorie biscuits, are all good to have when you’re trying to diet. A lot of diets involve cutting foods out but when it comes to the best diets, it’s worth reducing your calorie intake, rather than restricting foods that you may regularly enjoy consuming.

When looking at diets, it’s worth re-looking at the keto diet. In fact, keto 2.0 is a new take on the keto diet that adds a bit more flexibility to the diet itself. The increased carb and protein options in this diet make it more sustainable, especially for the long term.

Cut out alcohol 

One of the big contributors when it comes to weight gain or struggling to maintain weight/losing it, comes from alcohol. Alcohol is very calorific, especially when it comes to glasses of wine or bottles of beer.

It’s therefore useful to cut down or cut out alcohol when you’re dieting. If you enjoy alcohol, it’s something that you might simply want to reduce or seek out alternative alcoholic beverages that aren’t as calorie-heavy.

Have more healthy days than ‘cheat’ days

With much of the dieting malarky, it’s not always easy to have a healthy day every day. Sometimes, you’ve got a social event where you’re eating out at a restaurant and perhaps indulging in a three-course meal. Other days might just be off days where you need a little pick-me-up in the form of a takeaway.

Having more healthy days though is better to lead with when it comes to your diet. While ‘cheat days’ are valid, try to limit how many you have in comparison to the days when you eat healthy meals and snacks. It’s all about balance!

Plan your meals ahead of the week

Be sure to plan your meals ahead when it comes to eating healthy. You make rash decisions when you’re hungry, which can lead to meals that aren’t necessarily that healthy. Planning and even bulk-cooking your meals at the start of a new week or at the end of the previous one might be just what you need to stay on top of the diet.

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Planning meals is something that doesn’t take a lot of effort and can be effective in helping you sustain the diet for the long term.

Aim to put at least one vegetable or fruit on your plate per meal

For those that are struggling to meal prep or find meals that they can incorporate into their diet, always make sure there’s one piece of vegetable or fruit on the plate. Once you have that, you can work around the rest of the meal. Sometimes, a bit of inspiration is needed in the form of fresh greens and juicy fruit.

Don’t be afraid to mix up fruit into your lunches and dinners too. For example, watermelon and apple are often two regulars when it comes to fruit in salads.

Try to avoid snacking unless you’re hungry

Finally, when you’re snacking, try to only snack when you’re hungry. Many times, people will snack out of boredom and that doesn’t help anyone who is trying to stick to a diet.

With that being said if you find yourself getting bored and wanting to snack, distract yourself or keep the calories low when snacking. Otherwise, limit yourself to food to snack on when you’re actually hungry.

Sticking to a diet and seeing the results can be hard to manage, especially when neither is easy to do, to begin with. However, with these tips, you should be able to stick to them and see the results of your hard work.