By A B Stephens
You've been diagnosed with diabetes and were told by your doctor to lose weight. It's really difficult to lose weight and drastically change your eating habits you've developed over the years. How to break this habit? You'd need self-control, determination, motivation, moral support from your family, friends and co-workers. According to social experts these things can help in the short term. The best is to make that healthy diet into an everyday pattern and consequently develop it into a habit. We have often hard the phrase, "we're creatures of habit." A habit is something you do unconsciously, ingrained in your brain that you follow without will power or force. It's something that happens automatically. Once, you've created a habit, you fulfill your goals effortlessly.
How to Create a Habit of Portion Control
Eating too much, choosing the right kind of food or a sedentary habit was developed through repetitive action. If you reverse this it will become a habit too. So the best solution to eating right is to develop a healthy eating habit.
You'll need all the help you can get. Here are recommended steps to create a healthy eating habit:
- Associate portion control and eating a healthy diet with positive feelings. Think that everything you put in your mouth will affect your health. Visualize the end result of portion control and eating a healthy diet. It will result in a robust heart that will beat heartily for you to have many years of healthy life. So, consume those veggies and stick to the servings you're allowed to eat. A diabetic meal isn't really boring. It's a fun way to experience new food apart from eating sweet, salty, fatty food!
- Reward yourself. If you were able to stick to your prescribed portions for a week reward yourself with something that makes you happy. How about a massage, a pedi, a facial or anything that you love. However, don't reward yourself with eating a big chunk of chocolate fudge cake!
- Pat yourself and say you can do it! Put your goal in writing, post it where you can see it - in your kitchen and bedroom and keep reminders in places where you can see it. Why not in your placemat too?
- Keep in mind the end result of sticking to your portion controlled diet and diabetic diet. Sticking to your allowed portions and diabetic diet will regulate your blood sugar and prevent those diabetic complications such as blindness, diabetic foot or kidney damage. It will make you slimmer (and you would love to see yourself leaner!)
- Think of the consequences of uncontrolled blood glucose level. Would you like to be a regular visitor at a dialysis center 3 years or 5 years from now? Would you like to go blind or suffer a heart attack or stroke?
- Ask your friends and family to support you so they will understand why you have to eat certain foods and certain amounts.
- Monitor your progress. And make a check list of the food you eat every day.
- Don't look for excuses. It's easy to say just this once I'll eat two servings of that pasta. Or you'll say, boy, just this once I want to have a big bar of the milky creamy chocolate bar. Tomorrow will be different. If you do this you'll just defeat yourself. You may fail once or twice but failing constantly won't make a habit. If this happens now and again think about it seriously. Write down that you aren't supposed to eat more than your allotted servings. Think deeply of how you're doing your body harm instead of treating it gently. Also, write down your excuses why you should eat this and be prepared to double your self-determination. You'll need double reinforcement and motivation.
- The most difficult part of developing a habit of healthy eating is the developing stage. What to do? Keep all those temptations out of sight. Make a good grocery list and stick to it. Don't be tempted to buy those cheap chocolate cookies. You can buy only a small amount recommended for you. When you're home, keep them out of sight. Those tubs of ice cream shouldn't be bought in the first place. You can substitute them with sugar free ice cream. If you're at the supermarket head first to the veggie and fruit section, the low fat dairy, and sugar free section. It's best to shop online where you won't be tempted with all the goodies floating around!
Now, if you've stuck to your diet for about three weeks you're close to making it a habit.
Experts say 21 to 30 days is the number of days when you've formed a habit and likely to repeat that pattern effortlessly without forcing yourself.
Do you think some things can upset it such as holidays? If it is a habit chances are slim that holidays can upset it! You know what food to eat and how to prepare them, right? Where to shop for those treats, right? And what to use when baking or the best ingredients when you prepare holiday food, right? You know how many servings you should eat and what foods work best for you, right?
Now you can see those pounds drop off, you can see your blood sugar maintained and your friends have commented on how you look. Well, the effort of creating a habit was well worth it.
When you've finally reached this stage, bravo! You've formed a habit mindlessly and effortlessly eating the right food to fight your diabetes. Congratulations!
A B Stephens is a chemical engineer by profession. Her passion to help diabetics stems from the fact that members of her family and her husband's are diabetics. They launched http://www.typefreediabetes.com in 2007. An elegant portion control dinnerware is one of their top selling products. Portion control dinnerware greatly help diabetics manage their diet and their lives. To know more of this elegant dinnerware, what it looks and feel like and most of all how truly it can help visit http://www.typefreediabetes.com/Portion-Control-Plates-s/97.htm