Nov05Can’t Stick to Strict Dieting? Use The 80/20 Rule for Eating
We see it all the time; people try to eat extremely “clean” or healthy 100% of the time, and soon after they end up crashing and binging on junk food. They might eat well for a week, or a month, but end up crashing.
This usually happens because they try too hard to stick to what they perceive as a super healthy diet without building any long-term sustainable eating habits. And what many people perceive as healthy is the plainest food ever, all the time (which sounds terrible).
Use The 80/20 Rule for Long Term Adherence and Success
For the best results, most people would probably find the best success with following this method. It’s actually pretty simple; it’s just that it can be hard for some people to wrap their head around. The secret?
80% of the time eat good, nutritious whole foods, and 20% of the time you can eat other foods with a little less guilt. You could modify this number and do 85/15, 90/10, whatever works for you. Just try to eat more nutritious, good food 80% of the time.
The hard part for most is that 20%. It’s easy to feel guilty eating food that you otherwise wouldn’t consider “healthy”. But it’s not that you gorge yourself on junk food when you do let yourself indulge; you just allow yourself to enjoy a simple treat.
Instead of eating super healthy all week and then gorging yourself at a buffet once a week, eat relatively clean for most of the days, maybe enjoying a burger out with friends, or a slice of pizza on a weekend. It doesn’t have to be a large amount, just enough to satiate a craving – and usually a craving is just wanting a taste of that one thing, not completely filling up on it.
The biggest factor for success with eating is being consistent. It may sound like beating a dead horse, but eating veggies, lean proteins, and fruits most of the time and having an occasional indulgence works, especially if you do it for the long term. So be patient, be consistent, and results will follow.