Before You Start A Diet In 2021, Ask Yourself These 7 Questions
We’re quickly approaching the time of year where you’re probably rapidly searching the web for “diets that work”.
Especially after the year we’ve had, you’re likely looking for some stability. Maybe even for a sense of community. You want to feel like you’re investing in something that’s both good for your body and mind.
Wouldn’t it be nice that when everything around you might feel like it’s going wrong, at least you know you have your health plan and the community that surrounds it to lean on?
It’s the feeling of confidence, not just in yourself by choosing the right diet, but also in your decision. In the skills and knowledge you’re acquiring, in the friends you’re making, in the future you’re building.
This is the way we were intended to thrive and survive naturally, anyway.
A diet is so much more than just restrictive meal prep and calorie counting (in fact, I recommend staying far away from those types of diets).
You’ve been isolated enough this year, don’t let another typical diet be the reason you feel stuck in isolation more than you need to be.
Well, my friend, I’m here to help. While you’re sifting through your options, before you make ANY decisions, make sure you ask yourself these questions first:
- How long do the results last?
When you start a diet, you really want it to be the starting point of a new lifestyle for yourself. This isn’t something that you do for a few weeks or a month, lose a few pounds and carry on with how you were living. This is something that you maintain and you want to embody for the rest of your life, so you live a long, healthy one.
You’ve likely experienced yo-yo dieting and what it can really do to your subconscious. It can tear you down rather than build you up, right? There’s no room for that when your focus should be on where your diet is taking you, not the toll it’s taking on you.
Look for people who have stuck with the program for years and continue to get A’s on their “health report card” (if those existed…). This will be a clear indication that you won’t have to worry about seeing those numbers go up and down on the scale, and instead, you can throw that yo-yo away and start to get excited about what the rest of your life will look like.
2. How many people have done this program?
The best way to see how people have benefited from a diet is to literally see how people have benefited from a diet. You want to see success stories, testimonials, people singing their praises for the program and never looking back once they started.
Look for people of all ages, backgrounds, all over the world. This will give you an idea of what you can expect, but not guarantee, as everyone’s different when it comes to how a diet will work.
And hey, wouldn’t these people make great friends along the way? They’re the ones who will spark inspiration in you and be the reason you start believing, “If it happened for them, it can happen for me.” And guess what? It’s the truth.
3. Are you being sold a supplement?
During your research, you might find that a lot of programs sell supplements alongside their core content. Typically, they act like it complements the diet itself, but in reality, this is just another way for them to make money.
If you’re living a healthy, balanced lifestyle, you won’t need any sort of supplement.
Supplements just make things confusing, don’t they? When you’re starting an entirely new chapter of your life, the last thing you need in the mix is to spend your hard-earned money on powders and shakes that are nothing more than that, powders and shakes.
Look for programs that put an emphasis on natural diets so that you don’t have to waste your money on wasteful jars of “blah” that really aren’t all that appetizing anyway.
4. Will you be going through the process alone?
When you start a new diet, a lot of people just keep it to themselves. They don’t want to toot their own horns, either for fear of failing or whatever the reason may be. And a lot of programs actually encourage this by not creating a safe community space for their members.
Look for a diet that offers you a community that will allow you to create accountability partners, space where you can ask questions and share wins and challenges or obstacles. A community can really lift you up when you need it most, especially when they understand what you’re going through.
Just like I shared in a point earlier, when you’re working with people who have been in the program for years and continuously see results, don’t you want to talk to them? Pick their brain? Swap stories and recipes? Of course! So your diet plan should certainly encourage exchanges of that type and even provide an environment for you to do so.
5. Do you feel like you’ll fail or succeed?
For a lot of diets, when you first start it’s not very often you’re set up for success. You’re slammed with all of these changes you’re expected to make right off the bat. New workouts 5 times a week, juicing every meal, whatever it may be, it’s certainly one thing: discouraging.
You know what you need, and that’s not it.
Look for a diet that truly sets you up for success. You don’t want to start things off immediately being afraid to fail. You want to be given the tools and methods it’ll take to create lasting results for yourself, so much so that it’ll be nearly impossible to actually fail.
6. Do you feel empowered or restricted?
A lot of the time when you start a diet, you’re instantly restricted to the things you can have and the things you can’t have. You’re left with nothing else to lean on besides your willpower. That’s daunting, restricting and not any way to feel empowered along your journey. And frankly, it’s impossible to maintain a diet this way in the long run.
Willpower and motivation are hard to come by when you’re feeling caged in. It’s too overwhelming to tap into these things when you need them most.
Instead, look for diets that empower you to make informed food decisions; decisions to eat foods that make you feel better and fuel you to live the lifestyle you want to live.
7. How long can you sustain this lifestyle?
This is perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself before starting any diet.
You want to avoid the crash diets that last one week and offer limited results. It’s unrealistic to pick up and drop off a program constantly and expect it to change your life the way you want it to.
When life gets busy, you don’t want everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve to just fall to the wayside. It needs to be something that can be instilled in you, ingrained in your life in every which way.
Look for a program that you can stick to for life. Yes, that’s a long time. But if it’s a long time, don’t you want to ensure you feel your best for it? You owe it to yourself to choose a program that provides you with the tools it takes to create and maintain a lifestyle.
Now, do you feel like you’re ready to make an informed decision when it comes to choosing which diet program is best for you in 2021?
If you check for all 7 of these things, you’re certain to install some lifelong, sustainable habits that will help carry you through a beautiful, fulfilling life.
If you’re looking to redefine your health in 2021 and find a healthy lifestyle that makes you feel energized and free, then make sure to sign up for our 3 video series below to discover how you can make the new year, your best year.
