Each and every year, weight loss is listed as one of our most common and popular resolutions. While our intentions are great, we often fail to follow those intentions with actions.
Researchers at the Teagasc Food Research Centre, the Irish Agriculture & Food Development Authority, have been exploring what we need to do in order to realize our good intentions when it comes to developing healthier eating habits[1]. According to the Winter TResearch newsletter, 80 adults who took part in the National Adult Nutrition Survey were further interviewed regarding their food choice strategies and goals and their successful/failed attempts to make changes. Based on these interviews, the nutrition researchers identified three factors that affect our ability to turn intentions into actual behaviors. These factors are:
Planning - making actual, specific plans on how a person was going to begin and follow a healthier eating plan was considered to be extremely important in achieving the goal of eating healthier.
Monitoring - keeping track of one's progress helped individuals become more aware of positive progress, which reinforced motivation and resulted in additional progress.
Coping/Control - It was clear that obstacles get in the way of developing healthier eating habits and can result in failure. However, deciding how one was going to cope with those obstacles or correct those failures helped individuals realize they were able to maintain their commitment and achieve final success.
Overall, this research showed that individuals who planned ahead had greater success at turning their good intentions into improved behaviors. Planning ahead not only has to do with planning meals in advance, but also things like shopping for those planned meals and planning in advance how you intend to cope with obstacles. It is also important to plan how you intend to monitor your progress and make sure you continue the monitoring process. Good examples of this include keeping a food record, keeping a physical activity log, or monitoring your weight on a specific day each week. Previous research has also reported that individuals who monitor their dietary habits and track their overall progress have greater weight loss success. Therefore, it appears clear that forming a plan before diving into a new weight loss plan or healthier eating plan will go a long way towards ensuring long-term success. While planning your weight loss strategy is of great importance, don't forget to put your plan into action. Like the cartoonist Walt Kelly once said "It is not good enough for things to be planned - they still have to be done; for the intention to become a reality, energy has to be launched into operation".
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