How to Break Unhealthy Eating Habits Permanently

Psychologists will tell you that it takes 21 days to break a bad
habit and replace it with an improved one. Changing unhealthy eating
habits is no exception to this idea. If you are in the process of
trying to improve your eating habits, follow these guidelines to help
you achieve success.List all of the reasons why making a change in
your eating habits is important or necessary. For most people, there
has to be a good reason to make a change. In the case of poor food
habits, the most compelling reasons usually have something to do with
improving health or losing weight.If, for example, you just learned
that you have type 2 diabetes, your doctor probably encouraged you to
make some dietary changes to help get your blood sugar under control.
If you understand that blood sugar control is needed to the prevent
complications of diabetes, you have an important reason to continually
remind you "why" you need to make this change. For change to last, the
reason has to be important to you.Don't make will power part of your
plan. All too often, people tackle diets or poor eating habits by
relying on will power, however taking this approach is probably a
recipe for failure. There are times when will power is just not
enough, and the urge to return to an old habit is strong.For example,
if you love dessert and decide to use will power to give up dessert
forever, it is only a matter of time before you find yourself in a
situation where the very foods you love will be present. Relying on
will power to kick in may not work if the dessert looks tempting and
you are hungry. It's much better to have a specific plan of what you
will do when encountering these situations.Start with 1 or 2 realistic
and measurable goals for yourself and work on them until you
consistently achieve the goals.Have a specific plan that spells out
when, where, or how you will carry out your goals.If your goal is to
cut down on ice cream, for example, your plan could be, "I will have
ice cream for dessert once per week on Saturday. I will purchase
individually portioned ice cream bars that are no more that 150
calories for a serving, and my portion will be one bar." In this
example, you have established when and quantified how much ice cream
you are going to have. Knowing that you can have ice cream at certain
times will work much better than trying to eliminate it entirely.By
following a few simple steps, you can begin to make positive changes
in your eating habits one by one.Breaking old habits and making
lifestyle changes is not always easy and does not happen overnight.
You have to become committed to doing things in a new way, and remind
yourself of the reasons why the change is important to you. Practice
your new habits until they are comfortable and become easier to
accomplish. Reverting back to an old habit does not mean failure, and
it's realistic to expect that this may happen. What's most important
is to re-commit yourself and get back on track as often as it takes to
get it right!