Why don’t diets work?

Start with vegetables

For example, from a plate of salad or any of your favorite baked vegetables. But let it be exclusively a vegetable plate, without other gastronomic delights. Remember, if there is also a breadbasket with ruddy buns nearby, you have lost. “Be alone with the vegetables,” says Tracey Mann.

• How You Eat: What Your Diet Says About You

Make healthy food visible

Let it be located on the most convenient shelf in the refrigerator, so that in a difficult moment your hand reaches out to it. It is also worth remembering that when we are hungry, we involuntarily choose not only the most affordable, but also the most “convenient” foods to eat, so make sure that the healthy alternatives you choose do not need to be additionally cooked or even chopped. Prepare, for example, green beans or broccoli in advance, peel and cut fresh carrots into cubes and prepare a yogurt-based sauce for them. And if you have an unbearable craving for sweets, then grapes can be a useful alternative to a chocolate bar.

Make junk food invisible

If you can’t get rid of it completely, store it in opaque plastic containers. An experiment conducted at Google showed that after freely available sweets were offered to employees not in transparent, as before, packages, but in dense and hiding contents, the number of sweets eaten decreased by 3 million calories over the seven weeks of the experiment. . In other words, meet your «tempters» less often.

• To lose weight, it is enough to turn your back to food

Try to find food

Remove a small portion of food from the container, put it on a plate, then close it and put it back in the refrigerator. If you want supplements, you will have to repeat this procedure. This will give you time to ask yourself the question: “Am I that hungry?” “Sometimes even a small obstacle that separates us from eating at a time when we are no longer hungry helps to avoid temptation,” writes Tracey Mann. “If your table is far enough away from the salad bar in a restaurant, then you are less likely to be tempted to refill than if you were sitting next to each other.” Helps to avoid temptation and a small plate. In this case, we have the illusion that we ate more. This is followed by the feeling that we are full. This trick works even if we ourselves are well aware of our cunning.

Give healthy food another name

This will save you from the feeling of «healthy eating punishment». Unconsciously, we resist any violence, even if we subject ourselves to it voluntarily. Start thinking about every meal as a real pleasure: how a bowl of fruit salad from the refrigerator will refresh you on a hot day, what juicy apples you come across in the fall, how the basil salad that you have grown with your own hands sets off the taste of salad.

• «I never dreamed of losing weight»

Be realistic about temptations

If you know that you will find yourself in a place where there will be a lot of tasty and perhaps not the most healthy food, consider the tactics of your behavior. But only let this plan not be built on the suppression of natural desires. You should not say to yourself: “No matter what they offer, I will steadfastly refuse everything.” “Appeal to willpower will not help,” says Tracey Mann. On the contrary, you will immediately begin to resist the ban. Instead, make a promise to yourself that you will try a little of everything.”

Recognize your weaknesses

And come up with a plan to get around them. Do not walk past the buffet, where it is so easy to buy your favorite cakes. Especially on those days when you are not in the mood and easily agree to comfort yourself with goodies. Do you always put your favorite candy bars in the basket at the checkout counter? Think about something else at this moment or check your messages on your phone.

Treat food with care

Step away from your computer, put down your magazine or smartphone. Concentrate on food: shades of taste, aroma, color. This will not only bring more joy, but will also allow you to be satisfied with a much smaller portion.