Do you know the feeling of super motivation at the beginning of a diet and boredom after a while? The hardest part about any diet is staying motivated until you reach your goal. And it only gets harder if you want to diet not to shed a few extra pounds but to make it your new lifestyle and get health benefits.
And although the keto diet is very satisfying and varied, sometimes you may experience sugar cravings and the desire to eat different carbs. In addition, it is very difficult to resist the temptation when fast carbs surround you everywhere. It’s also very difficult to stick to keto if your routine changes, such as when you’re under a lot of stress, on vacation, or on weekends with your parents who don’t support your new nutrition style.
It often starts with one extra glass of wine or a portion of carbs beyond your 20 daily grams. Then your snacks become less and less keto-friendly and give you uncontrollable sugar cravings. And sometimes, we dive headlong into the carbohydrate pool, finding ourselves between a huge pizza and a bucket of ice cream, unable to stop this sugar marathon [1].
If you lack willpower on keto and are afraid to break your diet, you need some extra motivation. I will tell you simple tips that have helped me follow a keto diet for several years. I hope they help you support your keto and enjoy every low-carb day. So let’s dive in!
Mix up Your Menu
Any food can become boring if it is monotonous. Of course, you can eat the same keto food every day, but soon you will no longer enjoy such meals.
Try new foods, discover delicious combinations, explore different cuisines, and change ingredients. For example, if you always have eggs and bacon for breakfast, you might want to try keto pancakes or keto french toast. Keto granola? Keto cereal? Or keto bread? No problem! There are many keto breakfast ideas and even more low-carb dinner ideas. Boil, stew, bake, fry, steam, or grill – don’t limit yourself to one option!
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I try to always choose seasonal food to avoid monotony on keto. Rotate the vegetables on your plate, as plenty of keto-friendly options give you tons of recipes. I also love farmer markets for their great selection of healthy meat and inspiration for new keto recipes. Don’t be afraid to experiment and change your menu, so it doesn’t get boring!
Don’t Cheat but Experiment
Sometimes we feel like adding carbs to our daily keto menu, and that’s okay. We all have old habits and preferences that are sometimes hard to let go of. If you’re on strict keto, then there’s a good chance that one day you’ll lose motivation and break your diet by eating fast carbs [2].
To prevent this from happening, you should sometimes experiment with your daily amount of carbs. Unlike the cyclical and targeted option, classic keto does not have cheat days because it goes against the essence of being in ketosis. For this reason, you may be considered to have broken your keto if you ate too many carbohydrates (especially fast ones) in one day or meal. However, you can switch to cyclical keto if you feel like you’re about to break your high-fat promises. It’s better to make a planned carbohydrate meal than to eat pounds of chocolate chip cookies with your eyes closed [3].
However, you should remember that taking additional carbohydrates does not mean junk food and sugar. You don’t want to ruin your ketosis for a whole week, do you? Instead, indulge in the fruits or grains you miss on keto and don’t forget to exercise the next day to get back into ketosis.
Simplify Your Diet
One reason you’re losing keto motivation could be that your cooking is too difficult. This point has nothing to do with the advice to diversify your diet. Diverse does not mean difficult. Life is busy, and you may be spending too much time cooking. Tired of it and want to quit keto? Try to simplify your menu if it was too complicated before. Maybe you’re spending too much time on keto baking or cooking meat following complex recipes with many steps. Of course, such recipes are wonderful and created to please you, but you should save them for a day off in a good mood and not make them a daily routine.
If you are a minimalist lover, you can find it in your keto lifestyle. For example, you can plan your menu for a week (or even a month), shop on a clear list, and cook simple meals. And keto benefits like intermittent fasting will save you from having to cook an extra meal every day. Let the keto diet adjust to your habits, not vice versa.
Plan and Research
One way to overcome your lack of motivation on keto is to learn how to control your diet. If you’ve tried other types of diets before, you know that they usually control your calories, meal times, and how much you eat. However, things can be different with keto. You can control what you eat to make it safe and healthy.
It is especially true for parties, vacations, and meetings with friends. Knowing the details of your keto-friendly food choices will prevent circumstances from taking you by surprise and leaving you without a low-carb option. First, if you’re going to a restaurant, check out the menu ahead of time and choose food that has the perfect keto ratio. Second, if you are going to rest in an exotic country, study in detail the information about the local cuisine and food traditions. Third, if you’re visiting your parents for the weekend, bring along some keto-friendly snacks that your whole family will love.
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Planning and research also apply to your home fridge. Explore different food options at the store nearby. Read labels and choose foods with no hidden carbs. If you have delicious and satisfying keto meals at home, then you will be more motivated to cook keto and stick to the plan.
Collect Recipes You Want to Try
If you wake up every morning and think about meals you will cook today, it will be a quick loss of motivation on keto. So first, you should plan your food list, but more than that, you should plan your menu for a specific period. And things will be much easier, more fun, and more enjoyable if you collect recipes you want to try or that you already love.
You can collect them in any convenient way – a selection on YouTube, Pinterest, or Instagram or write them down in a beautiful notebook. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is that by leafing through these recipes, you will be waiting for a new keto meal dreaming about the delicious and fragrant combination that you have chosen. This kind of keto can’t be boring, can it? For the first few months on keto, I placed a list of foods I wanted to cook on my fridge. It gave me the strength to continue on the path I started with pleasure and discover new recipes, replenishing my list and making my low-carb journey more varied and tastier. This simple tip increased my motivation toward my weight loss goal.
Track Your Progress and Think about the Benefits
If you’re thinking about quitting the keto diet, you should look back and take a look at the path you’ve already gone through. Then, try to mark any changes. It could be your weight loss progress, improved sleep or skin condition, progress in the gym, or a reduction in the amount of medication you were previously taking.
Now ask yourself – are all these changes worth the effort you put in? I bet they are. Even without knowing your story, I’m sure the benefits that a keto diet can give you [4] are definitely worth the simple effort of limiting carbs. Keto changes your life, and for the better. Therefore, track even the slightest progress and think about what lies ahead for you if you do not lose willpower and continue a low-carb life.
If you’re just starting out on keto, you can imagine all the benefits that are coming your way [5] In fact, you don’t have to put in a lot of effort to get all the benefits of keto. All you need to do is avoid carbs and maintain a healthy balance of proteins and fats in your diet.
Get Keto Inspiration
Sometimes we lose motivation because we lack confidence in our results. In this case, you should remind yourself why you are doing all this. This tip works great with the previous one. Having imagined your goals and middle results, you should fix this impression by reviewing some inspiring keto before and after success stories. It could be stories of spectacular weight loss or struggles with insulin resistance or any stories in which people talk about the benefits of keto they have experienced.
You can connect with people who follow keto and find inspiration from each other. Either way, social media is an endless source of information and motivation, from new recipes to keto workouts. Explore the #keto hashtag on social media and find new motivation!
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However, I want to warn you that the results of losing weight in the photo are often not what they seem. Many people are accustomed to hiding flaws on social media, which can lead to undesirable consequences for your motivation. Remember that each person is individual, and your weight loss will not be similar to another person’s weight loss. Therefore, get inspiration from success stories, but do not focus on fake photos and comparing your figure with models.
Use Habits if Motivation Doesn’t Work
Sometimes there are monotonous days when you feel like nothing is working and you should give up. Even the most motivated people have such moments, and this is normal. In such cases, you just have to make sure to wait an hour (day, week) and rely on your healthy habits. Difficult moments pass, and motivation returns. You just have to go further along the chosen path and believe in your strength.
If you’re strongly craving sweets, try focusing on healthy, low-carb snacks. Most likely, the desire to eat sugar will pass after a while, and you will return to your usual keto rhythm. Use your keto routine and healthy habits if you feel a lack of motivation. Often discipline is the best assistant during any diet. Remember that it takes time to build healthy habits, so start a healthy routine right from the start of your keto diet. In this case, it will become your salvation when motivation leaves you.
Conclusion
Loss of motivation can happen to any of us, but this is not a reason to despair and turn off the path of a healthy keto lifestyle. Moments of lost willpower are usually short, and you should overcome them in order to move on with your head held high.
Sometimes you just need to find a new recipe or be inspired by the story of impressive weight loss on keto to remember why you are doing it. You can also tell someone your story and find support on social media.
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However, the main source of keto motivation is in you. Remember why you are doing keto and what results you already have. It will give you great encouragement to continue and not doubt your abilities. Any course has obstacles, but the way you overcome them on the path to your goal is important. I wish you a successful keto journey!
Sources:
- Meule A. (2020). The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation. Current nutrition reports, 9(3), 251–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-020-00326-0
- Fahrenkamp, A. J., Darling, K. E., Ruzicka, E. B., & Sato, A. F. (2019). Food Cravings and Eating: The Role of Experiential Avoidance. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(7), 1181. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071181
- Hill AJ. The psychology of food craving. Proc Nutr Soc. 2007 May;66(2):277-85. doi: 10.1017/S0029665107005502. PMID: 17466108.
- Dowis, K., & Banga, S. (2021). The Potential Health Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet: A Narrative Review. Nutrients, 13(5), 1654. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051654
- Iacovides, S., & Meiring, R. M. (2018). The effect of a ketogenic diet versus a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet on sleep, cognition, thyroid function, and cardiovascular health independent of weight loss: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 19(1), 62. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-018-2462-5
