Make Your New Healthy Diet Last Beyond January

You may have managed to go vegan for January, to stick with your juice diet or give up carbs for a month, but how much longer can you manage? Many of the extreme diets people choose to do at the start of the year or the big changes they make as part of their resolutions are far from sustainable, which can mean you end up falling back into bad habits.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just want to be healthier, crash diets aren’t usually the best way to go about it. After all, you can only live without chocolate for so long before you find yourself sitting on the kitchen floor surrounded by the remnants of the a Kit Kat multipack with no idea how you got there.

The best way to stick with your healthy eating resolutions throughout the rest of the year is to make them as sustainable as possible. Fitting food into your routine and lifestyle, rather than the other way around, will help you change your habits and avoid those late night snack sessions that give you one hell of a sugar hangover.

If you have a sweet tooth, giving up your chocolate bars and treats is probably absolute torture. However, you don’t need to give up everything sweet in order to be healthier and can still enjoy a pudding or snack during the day.

Rather than a daily chocolate bar, try sweet fruit instead, as something like a clementine can help beat those sweet cravings while being healthier. Fat-free fruit yoghurts, frozen yoghurt and even dark chocolate are good in moderation too and could leave you feeling more satisfied.

While finding substitutes works well, we all know there is nothing quite like the real thing. This is why it is okay to indulge every once in a while. Having a weekly or bi-weekly treat can help keep you on track and reward you for a job well done.

Not only does this help stop you from going a bit mad with the treats, it also means you don’t feel guilty when you do indulge in something a bit more unhealthy.

We actually need some carbohydrates in our diet for energy, so cutting them out completely can be a bad idea. Not only can it mean your diet becomes unbalanced, it can cause issues when you reintroduce them to your diet.

Rather than cutting them out completely, switch to complex carbs only and half the amount you put on your plate. If you’re trying to lose weight, this will help you do so but will also give you plenty of energy.

To ensure you’re still filling up at dinner time, simply top up your plate with more vegetables, which will make your meal even healthier.

While the idea of a juice or smoothie diet may seem like a good idea, they don’t tend to contain everything you need throughout your day. This means that surviving on juice and nothing else isn’t actually all that healthy and can leave you feeling tired, moody and very hungry – which isn’t fun for you or anyone around you!

Instead of sticking to a solidly liquid diet, have your juice or smoothie for just one meal a day and ensure your other two meals are well-balanced and healthy. This will keep you full throughout the day, give you plenty of energy and still help you meet your goal while being sustainable.

Whether you’re at a desk all day, running after kids or active at work, snacking tends to happen a bit more than it should. You can make your meals as healthy as possible, but if you’re reaching for the biscuits, crisps or fizzy drinks, it undoes all your hard work.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t snack, as we all need a bit of a boost and no one enjoys feeling hungry. However, you need to be careful when it comes to what you snack on.

Clear out the unhealthy treats and get in fruit, vegetables and nuts so you can reach for these instead. Things like carrot sticks and houmous, bananas and almonds are all great for filling you up without all the extra calories and can make your diet a lot more bearable. Just make sure you’re drinking plenty of water too!