People often ask me how to get started with a weight loss program by developing healthy eating habits and keep at it so they continue to eat nutritious food. From my own experience, I can tell you that no matter how health-conscious one may be, it is always difficult to remain on an entirely nutritious diet all the time, without variation. Despite that, I still can give you some tips that actually work (and you can take my word on this!) if you have difficulty in getting motivated to begin eating healthy food. So, here it is..

Make a large and comprehensive goal and break it down to smaller and measurable ones.This will help you achieve your daily motivational levels. For instance, you may want to eat a salad and soup for lunch every day, and eat five bowls of fruit through the day. Space it out so that you want to reach out for it, and yes, don’t forget to drink plenty of water each day too.

Ensure that your goals are realistic and achievable: Set your goals right and you will reach your success milestone soon enough. Any unattainable goals will only make you fail at your plan miserably. So, don’t make weight loss your focus, for instance, but think in the long term by creating sensible eating patterns which you will continue with lifelong.

Success doesn’t happen overnight: Understand and accept that you can’t achieve your goals overnight. However, working at it honestly will get you there. By making some changes in your day-to-day routine, you can become fit in the weeks to come.

Maintain a food diary. By maintaining a food diary, you can track just what you eat and when you see that you’ve eaten some of the forbidden stuff, you can knock it out completely. Writing down your goals and assessing them regularly is motivational for you.

Don’t eat processed food. Whether you’re looking for a meal or a snack, choose a healthy option like fruit, hummus, cottage cheese or non-fat Greek yogurt. You can also try baked tofu or look up cook books for something new and nutritious.

Find a food buddy. Team up with a close friend and tell him or her whatever you’ve eaten through the day. Hold each other responsible for eating healthy food without straying into junk food. When you find someone with a similar goal, it can improve your chances of reaching success. Whenever you feel down and out or think it’s not working out, your buddy will provide that extra support you need to pick yourself up and continue.

Snack every three hours. This keeps your metabolism running and also makes sure you don’t get ravenous and end up eating whatever is in sight when you get home from work. Instead, eat nutritious food like nuts, brown rice, fresh fruits and vegetables and granola bars. These foods help you stay committed to your goals.

Throw out all foods that tempt you to overeat. Cakes, pastries, junk food and pre-packaged snacks should be kept miles away from you. So, if you have some of these in your home, give them to someone or put them away in a cupboard that’s difficult for you to access. If you can’t reach it, you can’t eat it.

Take a healthy snack with you. If you’re going to be out of your home for more than a couple of hours, take a healthy snack along. This could be an apple or a couple of bananas, tomatoes or carrots or nut bars. If you must eat tempting foods, go slow on them. If you completely knock out your favorite foods from your diet, you’re going to cheat on yourself and eat it anyway. Instead, if you do feel like eating some of these favorites, do so, but in small quantities.

If you’re dining out, check the menu. Before you go out to dine, check out the menu of the restaurant in question. Decide on a few healthy options so that you aren’t tempted to eat anything else.  Be persistent and patient. If you do eat a heavy meal, sure you need to feel guilty about it.

However, be practical and ensure that your next few meals are healthy. You also need to learn patience. You might be losing weight consistently for some time, and then you reach a plateau. Don’t give up when this happens, but persevere. Do something different, if you like. Perhaps a little walking might help with fitness if not weight loss.

Set up a maintenance strategy. You may be successful in eating healthy and actually losing weight. But the problem you encounter now is to keep the weight off. How do you do it? First of all, remember that eating nutritious food isn’t a short-term measure, it’s a lifelong habit.       However, if you cannot keep the weight off, speak to a dietician to create a diet chart for you. This will help you continue to eat healthy even after you knock off the desired weight.

Lastly, give yourself a reward: Only dieters know just how hard it is to achieve the smallest of weight loss. So, when you do lose some weight, you need to reward yourself. Such rewards give you the urge to keep at it. Gift yourself a pair of jeans, a new hair cut or a massage.

These few tips are sure to give you some tips on being motivated enough to develop healthy eating habits by eating healthy foods and keeping the habit. As I said at the outset, there may be days when you don’t want to eat nutritious food but something tasty, even if it isn’t healthy. Don’t worry about those odd moments. It’s what you do for the most of the time that matters because that’s what gives you results.