Following a diet or generally trying to improve your lifestyle and food choices doesn’t necessarily suck, but it does certainly have challenges associated with it. Like any new habit you try and form there are going to be hurdles but luckily, you have some options worth exploring to make this process easier.
Starting to moderate or completely eliminate certain foods, depending on how strict you are being with yourself, is a part of the process that can really be a huge pain. Maybe you want or need to cut out sugars, stop eating as many carbs, and replace unhealthy fats with healthy ones. That is all fine and dandy but you need a new plan of attack and food substitutes to help you reach the light at the end of the tunnel.
We know it’s really tough having to moderate certain food intakes but luckily we are here to provide some alternative options for you.
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Sugar
Water-based fruits are here to help, eat strawberries, melons, pineapples, and grapefruit. Unless you are going on a strict low sugar diet this will be perfect and leave you feeling satisfied without craving additional sugars.
Carbs
Pasta is pasta and there truly is very little to get around that but alas we are here to offer some advice. Try the various kinds of pasta that are now offered on the grocery shelves, zucchini, chickpea, squash, etc… some of these also offer high levels of protein. The taste is also not half bad, so next time you are at the grocery store, give these a go.
Healthy fats
Generally speaking, if you avoid eating premade or processed foods that can cut down on a lot of unhealthy fats. If you put together a similar version of your favorite pre-made foods you will do yourself a big favor and cut out a chunk of your unhealthy fat consumption. In addition, try and reduce or cut out some of the more typical saturated fats you encounter on the regular, this can be certain oils, meats, and butter. For the cheese lovers, that’s pretty much still good to go so have at it!
Meal prepping
Meal prepping isn’t even a required part of dieting so if you don’t want to do it then don’t. That being said, it will help ensure that you hit your goals and we here at Meta Nutrition are fans of it. So, if you want to meal prep but don’t know how to start or hate it here are some tips to get around that. You can go with the typical method of cooking everything on your day off and storing it in meal prep containers which work for many people but you can also go with a method that people believe to be less anxiety inducing. When you are cooking as you’d typically do for dinner just add additional veggies to your baking sheet and store them in separate containers and leave them in the fridge. You can do the same for whatever protein you are cooking. This is a pseudo meal prep/leftover method that lets you dive into the containers over the next few days where at least you know you’ll have healthier foods that’ll bring you closer to your goals. This also gives you some slight variety which can be crucial to making sure you stick to your rough plan.
What are some of your strategies for getting past ‘dieting’ hurdles?