I don’t believe hitting the gym daily is needed for perfect Instagram abs. What matters is eating clean and staying fit for lasting health.
However, eating healthy and, moreover, sticking to a healthy eating plan for a long time can be very challenging. You can read about it from many different places, but practically, it’s pretty hard. Especially for someone who has been an unhealthy eater for a very long time.
I decided to practice more healthy habits last year, and my journey till now has been one hell of a roller-coaster. There were months where I did pretty well: ate healthily and was regularly working out. I lost a lot of weight by eating right (not less) and working out for 1 hour max (Zumba class) 4–5 days a week.
But then there were months when I ate well but couldn’t work out. Then sometimes I couldn’t maintain doing either because of my work schedule. I’m sure a lot of you go through similar situations. After all, we’re not perfect.
However, developing good habits doesn’t require you to be perfect. It needs patience, repetition, and discipline. Prioritising is important. It’s like what they say: Nobody is too busy; it’s just a matter of priority.
I’m only halfway through my journey. There’s still a lot of road to cover, but I can say that I’ve learned quite a few things so far.
Experience, for sure, is the best teacher.
Here are 10 ways to stick to a healthy eating plan, things that helped me stick to healthy eating:
Table of contents
1. Stop Buying Processed and Packed Foods
The trick is simple. You don’t buy it, you don’t eat it.
Being a night owl, I know how important a midnight snack is. I had this bad habit of munching on packaged junk food at night. The chips that were meant for “once in a while snacking” were bought in the evening and disappeared by night.
One day, I completely ran out of them and didn’t have time to buy more packs. But out of habit, when it was midnight, I felt crazy hungry, and I had to consider eating an apple that day, as I didn’t have anything else with me. I continued eating an apple every night for a few days, and that eventually became a habit.
Now I try to snack on healthier options as much as I can. It’s not that you can’t have it. It’s just that you’ll have to control how much and how frequently you consume junk.
When I stopped eating packaged foods, I lost 6–7 lbs in a couple of months, without any other dietary changes or workout.
This was my first step to healthy eating.
When I stopped eating packed foods I lost 6–7 lbs in a couple of months, without any other dietary changes or workout.
This was my first step to healthy eating.
2. Prepare Your Own Meals and Keep It Simple
You need to do two things:
Firstly, cook your food at home. Preparing your own meal actually reduces your appetite.
Secondly, make simple food that doesn’t require a fancy recipe or a long list of ingredients.
Now, let’s be real. We are not a professional chefs. It’s not necessary that we all enjoy cooking. Preparing a meal using rare seasonal herbs every single time is not practical.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Besides, sometimes you just want to grab something, especially when you are starving after a long day.
So just make a simple sandwich or simple pasta, using whatever spices are available on your counter.
Don’t go professional right at the beginning stage, because you will get demotivated just by the thought of going through that many steps to make a single dish. I do.
3. Carry Homemade Food to Snack on at Work or School
Well, this is a no-brainer.
Packed foods, no matter how healthy the claim say, are unhealthy. They contain all sorts of unhealthy fats, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives.
Artificial sweeteners actually increase your sugar cravings. You might consume it thinking you are cutting down calories, but at the end of the day, you might end up eating more sugary stuff than usual. They are even linked with high blood pressure and heart disease.
Preservatives, according to a study, can also have side effects, ranging from headaches, palpitations, allergies, to even cancer!
So you see, you are not choosing right if you are choosing packaged food. Dump your habit of “grabbing something on the way”.
Homemade foods are proven to be healthy; they contain a balance of nutrients, contain less harmful fats and more healthy fats, minus preservatives.
Homemade snacks promote weight loss. So buy some raw material and get started with something simple.
4. Make Small Changes and Keep Them Realistic
Let me put it this way.
Suppose you were previously eating 4000 calories per day, and now you’ve realised that you want to be healthy and decide that you will cut down the extra unnecessary calories. So you make a diet plan of 1000 calories per day (which, by the way, is not healthy).
Now, you see the problem here?
Okay, I’ll guide you through it.
When you make dietary changes, it puts a variety of changes in your body, both positive and negative. For example, when you cut down a lot of calories at once, you will feel hungry throughout the day. That is, apart from being moody and fatigued all the time.
Similarly, you are going to quit soon if you’ve never gone for a run before and try to pull off a 10-mile run on the very first day of your health plan. You most probably will end up with a pulled muscle. So, that’s not good!
You are never going to get through your program if you don’t give your body enough time to adapt. Give time to your body to slowly get used to the new settings. Cutting down a large amount of calories at once will traumatise your metabolism. You don’t want that. You need a healthy metabolism to support weight loss.
Therefore, make small changes at once. Don’t go from 4000 calories to 1000 calories. Speaking from experience, you’ll end up binge eating. So instead, start by cutting 200–300 calories at a time. This will help prevent hunger, fatigue and moodiness.
When it comes to exercise, start by going on a 30-minute walk or run. Can’t do that? Do even less. Do just 10 minutes. Don’t just start doing a marathon right from the very first day.
Bring about one small habit change at a time. Maybe start by quitting alcohol and drinking more water. This way, you will be able to make all the new changes a habit.
And remember, it takes anywhere between 02–254 days for a behaviour to become a habit. So be patient.
5. Start the Diet and Exercise at the Same Time
Remember, when I told you to add one change at a time, like 10 seconds ago? So, this is the only exception to that rule.
According to a study conducted at Stanford in 2013, it was found that people who start exercising and make dietary changes together are likely to get better results at weight loss when compared to those who start with either dietary change or workout.
In fact, changing only diet — like what most people do — may actually interfere with establishing a consistent exercise routine.
Also, psychologically, you are more likely to care if you are putting a lot of effort into something.
I started going to Zumba classes back in February of 2018. During that time, I became very conscious about what goes into my body and in what amounts. My going to the gym for any purpose was an achievement in itself because my old self could never imagine myself inside a gym following instructions. So when I did join, I felt it would be a complete insult to my efforts if I didn’t eat right. I started eating more fruits, and my choices in terms of food became healthier.
It’s best if you start the diet and exercise plans together, rather than individually.
According to the same research, the second-best option is to start exercising first.
Find out how much you should exercise in this post (P.S. it’s not a lot): How Much And What Exercises You Should Do To Boost Your Health?
6. Follow a Diet That Has Foods That YOU like and Contains All Macronutrients
This is important because if you force yourself to eat something you don’t even like, you’ll end up quitting very soon.
There are hundreds of different types of “diets” floating on the internet today. Honestly, who knows what long-term effects they have on our bodies? Most of the articles we read about them praise the good effects. But what about the bad ones? Do these diets have any side effects?
I believe in balanced eating. As long as you are keeping everything in moderation, you are good.
Some of these diets tell you to completely stop eating certain macronutrients, but the truth is, your body needs them for its normal functioning. Each of the macronutrient (fat, protein and carbohydrates) have a specific role in our body, and there’s a reason why a balanced diet chart always has all of them.
Also, an ideal food should be easily available and affordable. This is why I suggest you go for the things that are locally available to you.
This is the rule that I follow: if it’s coming from the ground, it’s healthy.
Go to the supermarket, pick up some stuff that comes directly from the Earth, not processed, not packed, but fresh. Prepare a simple dish (remember point number 2?) and enjoy the flavour. See whether you like it. Don’t like it? No worries, there are plenty of healthy food options out there to choose from. And yes, there’s something available for everyone.
This is why it is important to try out different foods.
If you choose food you like to eat, your chances of sticking to healthy eating would be higher.
7. Don’t Starve Yourself
Starving yourself is the worst thing you can do to your body. It’s plain cruel in my opinion.
Personal opinions aside, starving yourself actually is very harmful to your body.
When you starve yourself, your blood sugar levels fall, and that leaves you craving more. So when you do eat the next time, you overeat to compensate.
Starving also slows down your metabolism. This means, for sure, you’ll lose weight in the short term, but once you resume eating normally, you will easily gain weight as more energy will be stored as fat in your body due to slowed-down metabolism.
You will lose your muscle mass, and you’ll be fatigued all the time. You might even develop an eating disorder.
Other than this, starvation can cause some serious health problems like headaches, low blood pressure, menstrual problems in females, constipation, dehydration, confusion, etc.
So overall, it’s not a good idea to starve yourself to lose weight.
Eat everything, moderately, and work out. This is the key to a healthy life.
8. Practice Mindful Eating
What is mindful eating?
It simply means giving attention to your food. It’s not just eating slowly and chewing more, like what most people believe.
I like to put it this way: mindful eating means to notice the texture, the flavour, and the realisation that you are what you eat. Realisation that your food is going to provide you with nutrition and is going to make you healthy. Noticing how full you are after eating your food, and how good your food makes you feel throughout the day.
So yeah, it literally means to pay attention.
It has been proven that mindful eating can help you with weight loss.
Mindful eating was also found to be beneficial in controlling binge eating in research.
Don’t eat while watching TV or making a presentation. Sit down at your dining table, set up the mood and eat slowly.
It takes 20 minutes for your brain to register that you are full. Eating slowly will help you eat exactly how much you need to eat and prevent overeating.
Mindful eating requires practice and patience, and in a world full of gadgets, self-control is also a challenge. Put your damn phone down for 20 minutes and eat with attention!
Find out how you can get started with mindful eating in this post dedicated to this topic: Mindful Eating: How to Eat Mindfully For Good Health.
9. Know the Difference Between Hunger and Craving
It is essential to know when you are physically hungry and when it’s just your emotions telling you to eat.
Why is it important? Because emotional eating can cause bingeing.
So, how to differentiate?
Hunger comes from the stomach. It’s when your stomach feels empty. It will intensify over time, and it will not go away if you wait for some time or do something else.
Cravings, on the other hand, come from the mouth. If you wait for some time, it will go away, and the cravings will not intensify over time, but the urge to eat will.
When you go on and open up that packet of chips, ask yourself, Am I really hungry? Where is the desire to eat coming from?
If you have difficulty identifying, the simplest technique is to wait for 5–10 minutes, and put your attention to something else for a while, and see if it goes away. If yes, then it was your taste buds calling you; if not, then go feed something to your poor stomach.
If you are able to differentiate between these two and control your cravings, you can declare yourself a pro in terms of healthy eating, because controlling yourself is the one thing that most people fail at.
10. Track Your Progress
What is the best thing in the world when you work hard? To see positive results. Isn’t it?
How good did it feel when you got good grades in school? Or how amazing did it feel when your work got praised at your office and led you to a promotion?
Pretty good, huh!
The same thing applies here.
Use apps to monitor your progress, or include it in your bullet journal. Or maybe just use a simple diary or notebook. Write down from where you started, and where you’ve reached to date. How much weight have you lost, and what healthy habits have you successfully incorporated into your daily life?
Take advantage of your phone, and click plenty of pictures from every angle possible.
Go back and see these notes and pictures once in a while to see how much you have progressed.
Believe me when I say this, there is no bigger motivational factor than a positive result.
So, How To Stick To A Healthy Eating Plan: What To Remember?
Healthy living is not easy because of the kind of society we live in today, especially for beginners. As I said before, it takes patience, repetition, and discipline to build a healthy lifestyle, and it takes time and effort to adopt good habits.
It is important that you try to give 100%. Don’t give in to your cravings, and work out as regularly as possible. And if you do fall out of healthy living sometimes (which will happen, fyi), remember that tomorrow is always a new day to start over. With regular efforts, you will be able to stick to a healthy eating plan effortlessly.
A healthy lifestyle starts with healthy choices. Are you making the right choices?
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.
Reference
- Harvard Health Publishing. (2011, February). Mindful eating — Harvard Health.
- Mills, S., Brown, H., Wrieden, W., White, M., & Adams, J. (2017). Frequency of eating home cooked meals and potential benefits for diet and health: cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1).
- Sanjay, D., & Sharma. (2015). Food Preservatives and their harmful effects. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 5(4).
- Shaikh-Lesko, R. (2013, April 21). Change diet, exercise habits at same time for best results, study says.
© 2018 Sneha S | Project: Living Better (Previously published on another site)
Updated: December 2025
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