Managing Motivation When Sticking With a Diet Change

When it comes to making goals and achieving results, many people are usually keen to get going and can quickly dive into goals without thinking through the required behaviour change that is necessary in achieving these goals. It is estimated that 80% of new year goals fail due to not considering how to create, sustain and reinforce the required habits for long term success. 

In general, many people kick off the new year with very good intentions and with a lot of positive psychological energy and motivation towards these new changes. Kind of like a reset or new beginning mindset, and while this is very encouraging, often it can lead to some unrealistic expectations being set. Rushing to make multiple changes simultaneously often results in setting too many goals at once, making it difficult to achieve any of them effectively. 

When we set too many goals, we inadvertently create goal competition, as these goals compete, and because of this, the amount of wished for change is often not very realistic, as each goal needs focus, time and motivation to be executed and achieved. In addition, many of these goals are not clearly set out and are more of an aspiration than a clearly defined set of steps. This is where many people stumble at the first hurdle, as fairly quickly the motivation towards achieving these goals loses momentum, and demotivational and harsh critical thinking sets in.

James Clears best-selling book ‘Atomic Habits’ highlights the importance of how realistic long-term change is created through successful short-term orientated steps. Here a lot of emphasis is placed on small changes, which over time compounds and leads to long-lasting results. One atomic habit is the importance of incremental gains through the 1% improvements made each day and multiplied over each week and then months. 

A habit then is a routine that is done regularly that becomes automatic (unconscious) over time, like driving a car or learning a maths times table. Healthy habits compound and build on themselves through practise, our feeling and enjoying the results, and this is very much the case with changing our eating habits. It is the process that becomes important over time, not the results or outcomes, as through step-by-step incremental building block changes, they take care of themselves – eventually. 

This is what is known as a Kaizen process, a Japanese term meaning change for the better through continuous improvement. Small improvements over time lead to big results and outcomes. 

The Atomic Habits book is built on earlier research by Psychologist B.F. Skinner who looked at conditioning responses through stimulus-response-reward or reward/punishment outcomes, and Charles Duhigg’s ‘The Power of Habit’ research into cue, routine, reward outcomes. Clears four-step model of habits builds on this with his cue, craving, response, and reward, as he creates his Four Laws of Behaviour Change.  

We are faced with many cues every day and some of these relate to food. When a food cue gets triggered, it creates a craving. This craving then motivates a response in some way and often this response is to satisfy that craving through eating. This is seen as the reward, and over time this reward becomes associated with the cue – so the food cue quickly moves through cue, craving, response and reward (consumption). These four steps or stages form a neurological feedback loop which creates an automatic habit or habit loop - so we end up eating at times when we don’t really want or need to. 

To create a new automatic habit, we need to break this loop and do something new which we then repeat again and again over time to create a new and different automatic habit. Gradually the cue leads to a different reward through decision and step change, which is reinforced through a new neurological habit loop. Each time we make a new decision that leads to a new behaviour, we get a new reward. When these rewards are healthy ones, we feel even better, and this feeling also then enhances the reward – making it even more likely for us to do it again. Key here is self-recognition or positive self-talk for making the healthy decision and then for having executed it. 

One thing Clears makes sure we are aware of is what he calls the ‘valley of disappointment’. This comes about when we hold unrealistic expectations about quick results, based in self-imposed time limits. If we hold short time limits, we can lose motivation when we hit a plateau, where things don’t seem to be moving forward at all or fast enough for our liking, when in fact things are changing on a scale that we may not be aware of.

We can lose a sense of achievement or motivation when we keep applying our psychological and emotional expectations, as it creates unnecessary psychological and emotional pressure on ourselves. Instead, we need not focus on where we are at now, and each time what we will do next, and then next, which is a much more important focus, and leads to sustained achievement. Small decisions repeated again and again lead to life changes. 

If we learn to work with this system or process and learn to repeatedly follow it, we then focus more on the process as opposed to the results. For example, trained chefs create a habit of clearing up as part of their system/process, not as something to do after they have cooked – the cleaning up is part of the cooking process. The most successful results can come from loving the process, which then makes it easy to commit to the process. Outcomes are what you get, processes are what you do – so focus on the process and gradually reap the rewards. 

In researching my book ‘Win: Proven strategies for success in sports, life and mental health’ written with co-author Brent Pope, we were able to interview many successful athletes and coaches and one of the key areas that we heard about repeatedly was the need to have a system and to stick to a process. When things went awry for athletes and teams, it was usually when either the system was outdated, or they didn’t stick to the process. As a mental skills coach, when working with sportspeople, the first thing we work on is what their process is to stay calm, focused and how to follow through on what they know works for them, and of course what happens when they divert from their process.

It is easy to apply this mindset to any goal, but especially a food goal – as it is much easier nowadays to know what is good for us to consume and what is not. It is not the knowledge gap, but the habit or indeed the process we follow that leads us to the results we get. 

Firstly, recognise that when we are feeling excessive stress, one of our first reactions is to let go of the healthy habits that we usually adhere to around food, drinks, exercise, and breaks. This is an error on our part, as it is the healthy routines that need to be maintained or increased at these times. We often ease off our routines as a reaction to the external demands, by making less demands on ourselves when it comes to food, drink, or exercise routines. A kind of, ‘I don’t care so much’ type attitude can set in. 

Coupled with this, we start to crave the feel-good chemicals, as a counter to the stress chemicals we are experiencing and look for a quick hit of endorphins which can come from junk food, alcohol, and sweet treats. This makes sense, and in a way, it is our mind and body trying to create balance here, as it is feeling too much negative stress, so it is trying to generate positive relaxation or pleasure feelings. 

In the very short term, a certain level of this shift is ok, as it can cause a brief intervention where our mind and body does feel temporarily relieved. However, over time this strategy works against us if we are not for the most part maintaining a healthy diet and healthy exercise every day.