7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Diet

Starting a new diet can be hard. Not only will you need to learn how to eat on this new diet, but somewhere along the way you may find yourself hitting a few road blocks. Before embarking on a new diet journey, here are some questions to ask yourself to make sure your new diet is successful.

1. What are my current eating habits?

This may be the most important question to ask yourself. How drastically are you going to have to change your eating habits in order to follow this new diet? The more drastic the change, the less likely you are to be successful at this new way of eating. For example, if you are use to eating fast food every day, how likely do you think that you will be able to adhere to eating a clean diet?

2. Will I like the foods I will be eating on this new diet?

This question is another biggie. Each diet has its own foods that are acceptable to consume. Are you going to like these foods that you will have to eat? Do you have any food allergies that may prevent you from eating foods on this diet?

3. Can I sustain this diet for a lifetime?

I'm assuming you are starting a new diet because you want to lose weight. As you know, sustainable weight loss is highly dependent on a lifestyle change when it comes to food. If you only change your eating habits long enough to see results, and then revert back to your old eating habits, the weight is going to come right back. So, with that said, is this new diet something that you can sustain the rest of your life?

4. Can I adhere to the diet through social events?

It is inevitable that there will come a time when you are asked to go out to dinner, or maybe you have a wedding or company dinner to go to. Can you adhere to your new diet during these functions? Or, are you willing and able to stray away from your diet for one meal without it completely derailing your progress? If you do decide to splurge during these times, it is very important to not be in a mindset that your progress is ruined just because you had one unhealthy meal. Part of the journey is being able to get back on the wagon and pick up where you left off.

5. Do I have the necessary kitchen appliances/utensils to prepare this diet?

This may be an obvious question, but do you have what you need in the kitchen to be successful on this new diet? For example, if you are going to start meal prepping, do you have meal prep containers and multiple dishes to prepare your food in? This is definitely something to take into consideration.

6. Do I have health issues that may be affected by this diet?

Again, another biggie question. What you eat will most definitely affect any health issues that you may have. An example of this is heart disease. Individuals with heart disease should stay away from diets high in fat. So that means no Keto for you is you have heart problems. Another example is Diabetes. Diabetics need to watch their carb intake in order to keep the disease under control.

7. How will I keep myself accountable?

Now this question may seem odd, but I'm here to tell you from personal experience that it is one of the more important ones to ask. It is very hard to keep yourself accountable, because let's be real, we bend the rules for ourselves all the time. You need to find someone that is going to hold you accountable to this new way of eating. Someone who is going to keep you in check and call you out. This can be a spouse, children, friends, family, or hell....even a nutrition coach!