Staying motivated on any diet is not the easiest of things, and keto is no different. Here are five excellent tips you can use to help keep your eye on the prize.
- Goals
After starting with the keto diet, make sure that you set only short term goals. A few days or a week is a good target, and definitely avoid anything longer than a month.
Most of the time, these goals will be based on how often you eat, what you want to eat, or the time frame for the amount of weight that you want to lose.
Your short term goals will need to be something that can be adjusted if required. This means that you will want to set them based on something that you can actually accomplish.
Remember that missing a goal is no big deal and an excellent opportunity to create a new goal instead.
- Meals
Make sure you plan all of your meals ahead of time. This makes it a lot easier to stay on track with the keto lifestyle.
The best way to do this is with a 30-day calendar. You can use the calendar to write in what you are going to eat each day.
That said, a month could be too long for some of us, especially in the beginning. If you like it’s too much for you, start with planning a week of meals first.
It’s also a good idea to make extra food when preparing your dinners. This way, you can have leftovers for lunch the next day, making it one less daily meal you need to worry about.
- Weight
Weigh yourself regularly and record all the measurements. Seeing the numbers go down can be a great motivator.
But, it’s also important to remember that you shouldn’t be discouraged if you’ve had a bad day or two, or your weight went up by a couple of pounds. Those things happen to everyone.
To make sure that you are always getting an accurate weight, you should weigh yourself around the same time of day, preferably wearing the same clothing – you’d be surprised how heavy a pair of jeans can be.
- Patience
Have patience. Your body needs to adapt to keto before it starts kicking in. And, once it does, it may still take some time before the weight starts coming off.
Some of us will see results almost immediately. Others may, however, have to weight a few weeks.
Remember that not seeing results right away does not mean the keto diet is not working for you. Have some patience. It will be rewarded.
- Fun
Make sure you have a bit of fun on keto. It’s okay if, once in a blue moon, you don’t follow the diet to a tee. Just don’t overdo it.
Briefly falling off the wagon will not ruin everything you’ve worked so hard for until this point, and you shouldn’t punish yourself for doing so.
An idea to have a bit of fun is to throw a keto party. Invite all your non-keto friends and show them just how tasty the diet can be. Who knows, you may even convince a few of them to join you.