Right now you are eating healthy and clean as part of your weight loss plan, but there are so many reasons why you should make these healthy changes permanent. You will experience many health benefits when you lose weight and eat healthy, such as arthritis relief and the prevention of diabetes and heart disease. Don’t think of healthy eating as a just a way to get that number on the scale to shrink. Think of your weight loss plan as a way to change your eating habits for good and make them part of a healthy lifestyle. 

One of the worst parts of any diet is being hungry. With clean eating, portions aren’t smaller – they’re healthier. When you take the time to eat at the right pace and let your body register when you are full, you will realize that a healthy amount of food at each meal will always keep you satisfied. This is why clean and healthy eating is so effective – it’s not about eating less, it’s about eating right. Healthy eating will keep you feeling full throughout the day and keep you away from unhealthy snacking. Other diets restrict you and even eliminate entire food groups just to help you shed weight, but they don’t offer any long term solutions. Healthy eating is a way to lose weight that is sustainable. It will make you lose weight without depriving your body of anything it needs.

It may feel like you have to work at it every day, but the small changes you make are actually making a big difference. Each time you resist an unhealthy food you are craving, you are overcoming that feeling of need little by little. The same way you can’t lose a large amount of weight overnight, you can’t change your eating habits overnight either. It takes as much mental work as physical work to make your healthy changes permanent. 

This may sound crazy, but the last thing you want to do is try to be perfect. You can’t put too much pressure on yourself and lose your focus every time you slip up or hit a bump in the road.  You just have to get right back on track when you make a mistake. One unhealthy snack or meal won’t undo all your healthy efforts and it doesn’t mean you have to give up or start over. The same way you go back to healthy eating after a cheat day, you just have to go back to the plan after a misstep. Don’t put too much thought into it. Life is always full of ups and down, you just have to bounce back. You don’t have to be perfect to be healthy. 

Making healthy eating a way of life is all about eating with purpose. Don’t eat something because you crave it or because it is in front of you. Eat when you are hungry and eat to fuel your body. You chose to lose weight for a good reason – stay on that path and make heathy eating your lifestyle.