The #1 way to keep up your diet motivation (science-proven!)
Photo by Womanizer WOW Tech on Unsplash
Trigger Warning + Disclaimer
We talk about food and body. We’re pretty unabashed in describing self-deprecating thoughts, binges, specific foods, and dieting.
Sugar Sober (it’s content and offerings) is absolutely not intended to substitute for psychological counseling, therapy, or professional health care advice.
If this is triggering for you and/or you need qualified, professional health care, we recommend you check out our Eating Disorders Resources page first.
Everything changes when you know how to increase your willpower and your motivation.
So let’s talk about how to do it the right way so that you maintain motivation over the long haul. Because ultimately you want to not just reach your goals, you want to stay there.
^ That seems so obvious, but that’s where the majority of people get tripped up.
Motivation and willpower are two of the most misunderstood elements in diet + fitness and successful lifestyle change.
And that’s why we’re so glad you’re here! Because when you have a brand new goal or you’re getting back up on that healthy lifestyle horse, you have a window of time we call the “honeymoon phase.” In the honeymoon phase, you’re really enthusiastic about what you’re doing. That is the time to implement these willpower boosting tricks so that you don’t fizzle three weeks from now.
Okay, so are you ready for the trick?
Are you ready for the most important willpower and motivation trick?!
It’s choices! Options! Variety!
The biggest motivation and willpower mistake we see people make over and over again is they give themselves zero choices.
For example, they’ll meal prep for the entire week, giving themselves the same breakfast option, same lunch, and same dinner dish every.single.day.
See exhibit A:
Or when they’re “on diet,” they have one meal they always stick to when they go out. Say it with me now: salad with grilled chicken breast, dressing on the side.
Come on, ladies.
Let us illustrate exactly why you need choices:
Let’s say you’re at a casino. You’re in Vegas, and there’s two different slot machines.
On one of the slot machines, when you deposit your money, you pick what you’re betting on. You bet on X’s, or you bet there’ll be three cherries or something. Whatever. (You can tell we go to the casino a lot...)
On the other slot machine, you put in your money, but the computer chooses for you what you’re betting on. It’s going to pick if you’re choosing X’s, or cherries, or whatever.
Which game do you think you’re going to play longer?
Obviously the first one!
You’ll stick with the game where YOU make the choice each time.
Well, it turns out there’s scientific reason for this. Scientists were conducting neurological research at the University of Pittsburgh. They were scanning subjects’ brains and wanted to identify what part of the brain is responsible for expectation and excitement. And it turns out it’s a part of the brain called the striatum. Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz on this.
The point is: when you play that slot machine where YOU pick, that part of your brain, the striatum, and lights up. Your brain feels expectation and excitement.
When you don’t have a choice, that part of your brain stays silent. It doesn’t engage at all. So, there’s no expectation, no excitement. NO MOTIVATION.
The biggest problem with the diets out there is they follow a single plan.
There’s no motivation in that. You’ve completely negated that biological need for a sense of control and anticipation.
You have to have a sense of control to have any motivation.
And you have to have motivation to have willpower.
And you have to have willpower to have long-term success.
So the lesson in this is: you’re more motivated to play when you get to choose!
So what does this actually look like? How do you actually do this?
We’re going to tell you, boo.
When you meal prep for Monday through Friday, DON’T - we repeat, Do.Not. - make five servings of the same breakfast dish, five of the same lunch, and five of the same dinner.
Don’t do that anymore!
What I want you to do is make six meals, three of them are one kind, three of them are another.
This way, every single day you get to choose which lunch you want that day.
Do the same thing with breakfast. Even if you tend to stick to the same breakfast every morning because it’s all about speed. You’ve got to get out the door, that’s fine, we get it! But you can still insert an opportunity for yourself to choose! An opportunity to let that striatum light off with excitement.
For example: Am I going to do avocado toast or am I going to do hummus toast today? Am I going to mix in vanilla or chocolate protein powder with my oats?
Everyday, give yourself a choice!
Because you deserve it! Because your brain craves it!
Otherwise you’ll eventually become absolutely bored with your food because that part of your brain that craves control and excitement is not being engaged at all.
This choices trick works with any diet.
Well…kind of.
Some diets are a little….crazy. Crazy limited, crazy repetitive.
If that’s your diet, it’s not gonna work, and I’m willing to bet you’re feeling that numb boredom with your meals already. So stop that diet right now.
But any diet type, such as if you’re a vegetarian, if you’re gluten free, paleo, high protein, high carb – it doesn’t matter. You can still give yourself choices every single day.
You’re the one in control and that’s your motivation.
That’s your willpower.
That’s how you leverage it and find a way to actually enjoy what you eat every day.
You ready for a bonus tip?
Do this same exercise with your workouts! Every time you’re going to go to a workout, give yourself a choice of what you’re going to do that day.
Are you going to do a quad dominant workout or are you going to do a hamstring dominant workout?
Are you going to do hiit cardio? Or are you going to do some long distance cardio?
When you give yourself that choice every time you walk in through the gym doors, head phones in so no one talk to you of course, you have anticipation and excitement about what you chose to go there to do. Not what somebody else assigned you to do.
Maybe your choice is to not even go to the gym at all, maybe your choice is to walk the local park trail instead.
That’s the difference.
Pin this blog to come back to later!
Tell us in the comments below:
What’s your biggest willpower challenge when it comes to food?
We want to make more blogs, lessons, and even videos to help you outsmart those specific challenges.
Also, it would really mean a lot to me if you would take 60 seconds to throw some kindness in the comments!
You’ve heard us talk plenty. It’s way more rewarding to interact with each other. We’re all on this journey – well, it feels like a mission, but we’ll call it a “journey” – to better ourselves and to regain control of our food and our lives.
Remember the Sugar Sober Manifesto - You heal and grow in direct proportion to how much you show up, participate, and serve others (it’s science, y’all).
So take just a couple seconds to leave a comment or respond to someone else!
