How to improve your diet?

My story 

Growing up as a child I had an appetite of a goat. I would eat anything and everything but without actually enjoying or thinking about it. I would reach into my drawer and take out, like the leftover crumbs of different snacks, and eat them not because I was hungry or anything but because I couldn’t control myself and I would eat whatever without even thinking about it. This is how low I have been. 

Like there have been times when I would be standing in a shopping center completely brain-dead trying to figure out which brand of snacks should I get. Like this has happened to me multiple times where I would spend a considerable amount of mental and physical energy just wondering what kind of junk food I should ingest. If you feel the same or if you have similar experiences I just might have the solution for you.
 

Perception 

There is a wrong perception among us that a poor diet is the result of binge eating and lack of self-control but actually, a poor diet is a result of a poor mental health.  

Let's go over the practical steps you can take to fix your diet.

The first actionable step 

The first actionable step that you can take and consider this a task for yourself is to eat clean for seven days. A full week if you will. Take a pen and a piece of paper and make a habit tracker for seven days, for one complete week. Take this habit tracker and paste it on your workspace or wall someplace you look at a lot during your day. First to remind you that you have to eat clean and second so that you can keep track of your progress.

Yes, you will fail, probably. But this isn't a zero-sum game. Every time you fail at some point the mission in your mind should be to beat that point. It is like leveling up in a game. So don't rip the habit tracker off your wall if you fail on day two. Just keep pushing your limits until the goal is completed.

 Long term solutions 

The second step in improving your diet is to replace your bad eating habits and junk food with healthy meals and a disciplined dietary plan.

 

You see the absence of bad habits itself does not constitute a healthy life. The presence of good habits does. 

Not only should we remove poor diets and junk food from our lives but also we should replace them entirely with better and healthier options. Don't overcomplicate the process and start counting calories and micromanaging everything when you start off. If you want something to drink replace that diet Coke with a protein shake or something like that. Obviously, I can't speak to individual tastes and cravings. You have to write down individual things that are part of your diet that you want to remove and then find the alternatives for them one by one. But one step at a time don't rush it.

The third step is to align your diet to the future version of yourself. If you are reading this blog chances are you trying to improve yourself and your current diet does not allow you to become that future. The single most effective way to fix your diet is to completely replace your current diet with the diet plan that is required for your future self. Obviously, it is easier said than done and will take time. Ideally, you should be able to follow a healthy diet for two days, because if you can there is a high chance that you will have the mental power to continue with it. 

But the most important thing is that you will have to completely replace your diet and remove everything that is hampering your progress. You can't pick and keep your favorite things and remove the things you don't like anyway. 

But it is a slow process and you will have to show some willpower to completely change your diet. 

Here are some other actionable steps that can help you achieve better results with your diet. 

If you want optimal physical and mental performance don't eat your breakfast right away when you wake up. Instead do some work and some exercise and then eat your food. 

Don't eat food with extreme levels of acidic content in them. 

Don't eat right before you sleep either. Ideally, there should be a gap of at least one hour between your dinner and when you go to sleep. 

Develop a consistent eating routine. Like two/ three meals per day and eating at similar times each day will help your body get into a flow state. 

Mental game & willpower

Here is an actionable step for you. I want you to take your favorite snack place it on your table right in front of you and stare at it. Don’t try to think about anything specific. Just let random thoughts pop out in your mind watch your thoughts and your cravings. And once you start to notice your own thoughts you will figure out that you have a poor diet because you have deep-rooted trauma and anxiety. Tracking your calories, and adding 140 grams of protein into your diet is a solution to the symptoms of the problem not actually the solution to the problem. And perhaps you are slightly disappointed by now reading this, you want to hear cool tips and tricks to improve your diet but there are none.

You have to improve your mental health overall to fix your diet permanently. Meditation might help. Meditation might be difficult to understand. The easy way is to focus on deep breathing. Just take a deep breath all the way in and then inhale just a little more. Hold your breath for a few seconds and exhale. Keep repeating the process as long as you want. 

A few minutes of meditation daily will go a long way in helping you become more mindful of your eating habits and help you improve your diet. 

Improving your diet isn’t just about eating healthy and be done with it. It is about when you eat what you eat and how you eat. Simplicity is the key. It is a long process if you overcomplicate it starting off, chances are you won't go very far. Keep it simple and stay on track even if you fail a few times and you should do just fine. 

I hope this helps you.