Drop that 30 Day Diet (and Create your Own)

Veguary, Whole30, which healthy eating plan are you going to tackle this January? Drop that 30-day diet and create your own unique healthy eating plan.

It’s that magical time of year. A time to buckle down, ignore the holiday indulgences and finally take control of healthy eating again!

Every year, eat healthier shows up in the top 3 of all resolutions, along with get more exercise and save more money.

Food, exercise and money to afford the best of both of those.

Sigh.

You can hardly talk to anyone without hearing about their new detox, cleanse, or clean eating challenge. Interestingly enough, while most of those challenges are NOT designed to help with weight loss, most people still hope to lose weight as a result.

Yet, when February rolls around, how many of those same people are actually still doing any of those super popular fads?

Probably none.

I am no stranger to 30 day diets, as I have explored many over the course of the past two decades.

(It might be important to note that I explored these AFTER I had already lost 100 pounds, and for reasons that had nothing to do with weight.)

You may have read about my exploration of going vegetarian, or why I finally took the plunge into dairy-free living. Heck, I have even created specific meal plans with my favorite recipes from those particular efforts.

So, what is wrong with a 30 day diet?

The way I see it, there are 3 things wrong with most 30 day diets (in no particular order).

1. Extreme Measures

Call me crazy, but why would we embrace the most extreme change in our eating we possibly can and think we will escape with our sanity intact?

Most 30 day diets encourage all “free”. By this, I mean they say “sugar-free“, “alcohol-free“, “gluten-free“, “dairy-free”, “processed food-free”, “carb-free (aka keto)”.

With all of this freedom, you would think it would make you feel carefree.

Instead, it feels like a 30 day prison sentence, complete with torturous detox-like symptoms, headaches, cravings, and feelings of weakness.

Sure, there are reviewers out there that say they have to get past the first two or three weeks before the healthy eating “glow” encompasses them like Jesus. And these folks might do multiple rounds of the 30 day diet plan.

In the meanwhile, you probably are not a very pleasant person to be around.

Even if you soldier on through the symptoms of fueling your body with ingredients it has never known, let’s talk about implementation.

Yes, I understand that there are plenty of support groups, recipe boards on Pinterest, and friends who have gone through such 30 day diet plans to figure out just how you completely overhaul everything you have ever eaten in your life.

Every day I see folks on Facebook asking for recipes that are compliant and there are a flood of responses. Any diet I have ever tried in my entire life has not been improved by brainstorming or crowdsourcing.

It has been improved by strategic planning and implementation.

• If you have 30 days to scroll through the millions of ideas on what to make for dinner, more power to you!
• If you have 30 minutes to feed a hungry family that has no interest in your healthy eating plan, and you are exhausted from a full work day, may the odds be ever in your favor.

The sheer amount of planning it takes to feed a whole family using ingredients you may have never encountered, don’t know how to cook, or have never enjoyed eating is substantial.

2. Not Progressive

If there is anything I learned from the past year of training for a half marathon, it is the benefit of progression. You don’t just decided to train for a marathon, and run 12 miles the next day.

Yet, that is exactly what these 30 day diets teach us to do.

I have worked with many coaching clients who are unaware of where sugar hides in our food, can’t identify ancient grains like amaranth or millet, and had no idea that there was gluten in gravy.

Considering how many people and places our food travels to before we cook it, it’s no surprise that we have little understanding of what is actually IN much of what we eat.

Even enlightened foodies could discover interesting facts about using pans that don’t leach toxins into their food or why using a microwave may be disrupting your endocrine system. (I am NO EXPERT in this, but check out Mamavation for more green living).

The first step in making any lifestyle change is to first create awareness of the situation. In my personal opinion, you can barely scratch the surface in 30 days of awareness when it comes to healthy eating.

With all due respect, the majority of women I work with already work full-time jobs, and have no interest in becoming health coaches. That’s what they hire me for!

The idea of progression is that you start with small steps, and gradually increase your tolerance to the new program until it feels effortless (or at least not as “effort-full”).

30 days of “free” living may not change your life, but 30 days of planning for a lifetime of healthy eating just may.

I often refer to these small steps as milestones.

Oh, and another benefit of progressive changes is you may end up in a different (and better) place than you anticipated. For example, while I have no designs to continue running marathons, I have maintained a weekly run since the marathon ended back in October. Which means, I am running 5-7 miles more than I did at this time last year.

Can you say the same about that 30 day diet you tried last year?

3. Review

Finally, most 30 day diet plans fail to award you the opportunity to review what worked! Here is what I mean.

On Day 31, you are so excited to stuff your face with the favorite foods you have been denying yourself that you don’t take a minute to look back at what you might actually have enjoyed about the diet.

Or, it is so buried in bad experiences that you prefer not to explore it.

The most important part of any change you make in your life is not how you start it, but how you end it.

Here is where most of those 30 day diets offer something for you to purchase- a book, a program, or a product. Maybe even all three.

If you are in the glow of feeling amazing with all this nutrition you have stuffed yourself with, and are no longer feeling the holiday spending wallet shock, you might even be ready to pony up some good cash to keep going.

Before you jump into that, take a full 1-2 days to reflect on the entire experience.

By reflect, I mean take a look at your moods over the past month, decide which recipes you will keep on your rotation, and check in with whether this plan is achievable for the long haul.

You can even write down the pros and cons of the experience, and note which column is longer for you.

Every single experience I have tried- from the 30 days of eating vegetables in every meal last month to going dairy-free has resulted in some wins and losses. Whether I continued with that eating plan (spoiler alert- I almost always continue some element of the eating plans I try), I still have some tips, techniques, products or short-cuts I really enjoyed.

Whether you drop a 30 day diet entirely or not, do you still find yourself using some tip, technique, product or short-cut anyway?

That could be an important insight into what really motivates you for lifestyle change. Beyond 30 days.

Now that we explored three things that are wrong with most 30 day diets, let’s figure out how to create your own unique 30 day plan.

Want me to just do it for you? Schedule a phone call, and let’s get to creating! https://bit.ly/healthchat

Create your own 30 Day Diet

First, decide what your overall big health goal is.

Second, decide what tasks most impact that goal.

Third, choose a weekly progression that makes sense for your schedule, energy level, and knowledge.

• Example 1

Big Goal: Eat Healthier.

Not good enough. What does “healthier” mean? And, instead of focusing on what it ISN’T (none of that “free” living), focus on what is IS.

For example, you could say “I want to eat more fruits and vegetables“.

Great start! How many do you currently eat per day (or week?).

• If it’s zero, then even one more serving a day could be your 30 day plan.
• If it’s two pieces of fruit, but no vegetables, then one piece of fruit and one vegetable per day could be your 30 day plan.
• If it’s one vegetable with dinner, then one vegetable with lunch AND dinner could be your 30 day plan.

Now, you’re on your way to the perfect 30 day diet (for you).

And, really, who wouldn’t benefit from eating more fruits and vegetables?

Let’s try another example.

• Example 2

Big Goal: Control Emotional Eating

Ooh, this one is really juicy! And, much harder to tackle. After all, there are mindful eating professionals that have dedicated decades of research and work on this one issue.

That’s ok. We can still create a 30 day diet for this.

Break it Down: I want to eat when hungry, not stressed.

Note: you may also eat when you’re angry, sad, bored, etc. However, it’s important to focus on one emotion at a time, until you can master this concept of physical hunger.

30 Day Plan:

Week 1: Write in a journal whenever you feel stressed. Identify if there are certain times of day that are most stressful for you.

Week 2: Recognize which foods you tend to reach for when you are stressed. Was it sugar, salt, fat or all of the above? Remove any of these foods from your house (you will need some support from your family).

Week 3: Find a stress-relieving activity that may ease your craving for those food. Ideally, it would involve keeping your hands busy or activities away from the kitchen. It may take several tries before you land upon what it is for you (keep at it!)

Week 4: Find acceptable substitutes for your trigger foods that satisfy BOTH hunger and stress. This might be easy to find- such as plantain chips instead of potato chips, or a small square of 90% dark chocolate instead of a full Hershey’s bar. This could also be hard, and need to be repeated multiple times over the next month.

The beauty of this type of plan is it is designed to be repeated month after month, with endless variations on the same topic. The following month you could want to eat out of sadness instead of stress. You follow the same process to tackle this.

That is how you can create a unique 30 Day Diet that not only works for you, but can also fit into an overall lifestyle change. Beyond 30 days.

This is hard work! And, I can help you with making this process much easier. In fact, I can do the work for you, by creating a strategic health plan in a full VIP health day. This is the best way to get the best of my experience and expertise to work for your big bold health goal in a full experience. Click the image for details.

What is the last 30 Day Diet you have tried, and how did it go for you? I would love to hear your thoughts!