This is the exact date you're likely to give up on your January diet
January is typically the time that many of us start, or restart, a new routine: we pledge to pepper our days with nourishing food, exercise and some of us even ditch the wine in favour of something a little more wholesome.
And while a positive attitude toward the new year and the possibilities it presents, the 'new year, new me' mindset can lead us to take on ridiculous resolutions with extreme demands, ignoring all the reasons that these aims just haven’t worked previously, from a lack of time to our restrictions just not being doable.
And number one on the list of most frequently failed resolutions? The extreme January diet.
A survey of 2,000 adults by Second Nature did a deep dive into why a new year’s resolutions around diets so often come crashing down, and found out the top three reasons why our well-intentioned, all-in January diets often fail.
Losing motivation topped the list at 34%, while missing foods followed a close second with 33% of participants citing this as their reason for giving in. Having unrealistic goals (18%), as well as receiving pressure from a partner (7%) or friends (5%), while 5% said their diet was affecting their love life, were also all given as reasons for packing in the good intentions.
Eating due to feeling tired as we get going with work again (and especially as, if you're anything like us, you'll be struggling with your sleep routine at the moment) was also one of the reasons why those involved in the survey felt their diets failed.
And it doesn’t take long for these reasons to come into play – the survey found that January 12 is the day most people will give up their New Year diet.
When asked what had influenced them to go on a diet, health was the top response (33%), followed by ‘how I feel when I look in the mirror (31%), and not being able to fit into certain clothes (27%).
Asked what are the worst aspects of starting a new diet, the top answer at 55% was feeling hungry, followed by missing out on snacks at 35%, then feeling irritable at 34%.
The survey also found that having a new diet not work out leaves 40% of people feeling as though they have no willpower, 26% believing they will never feel good about their body, and 23% feeling like a failure. The reality, of course, is that it’s the diet that’s the problem, not the person. It’s really not a sign of personal failure that a diet hasn’t worked, but perhaps that the restrictions imposed simply aren’t reasonable.
So, if you do want to lose weight or prioritise your overall health and wellbeing, how can you create healthy habits in a more achievable way?
Add extra vegetables to every meal you eat.
Don't label foods as good and bad and if you do want to eat a certain food, for example chocolate, make sure to eat it slowly, mindfully and without other distractions.
If you know you have no control when eating a certain food, try to avoid it and replace with an alternative you don't feel as powerless over. For example, if Victoria sponge cake is your weakness, try and replace it with one slice of carrot cake, so you don't feel tempted to have more than your one portion.
Drink a glass of water in between every alcoholic drink.
Try and start each morning with a 10-minute walk.
Plan your meals ahead of time and go shopping with a set list.
Stand up from your desk once every hour to do just one minute of activity — whether that is pacing round the kitchen, doing yoga stretches or squatting for the full sixty seconds.
Instead of cutting foods out, try adding more nutritious components. For example, instead of taking away pasta, just add in a big helping of vegetables.
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