If you have ever struggled to diet consistently well or to have a healthy mindset while trying to lose weight, this article is for you. I’m going to provide some insight into how I approach the shift from a bulk to a cut, then provide some tangible practices that may help your relationship with food become healthier when dieting.

Struggling to Find a Healthy Relationship With Food

I felt inspired to write this article because it is really hard for me to transition from bulking to cutting, mainly from the mindset of my relationship with food. The same principles apply if you are coming from poor diet habits to beginning a fat loss diet.

When I am bulking, there are so many calories and foods to be consumed throughout the day that it sometimes feels like a chore to eat.

Anyone who has tried to bulk can probably relate.

Eating a ton of food always sounds awesome at first, but it gets tiring quite rapidly. I might take some flak from bro culture for saying that, but it is truly quite a challenge for me.

So when I initially shifted to my current fat loss diet, I carried over some bad habits from bulking that were really impeding my progress:

My meals were way too big.
I did a lot of late night binging (habit from bulking to try and get my calories!)
I ate a lot of fast food for quick and easy calories.

I needed to change these habits if I wanted to lose weight and live healthier.

Creating a Healthy Mindset

So now enter the fat loss diet. This is where it is important to really set the correct mindset for dieting and how you treat food.

During my bulk, when calories were in excess, my mindset for food was more like a chore. It was something that needed to get done to reach my goals, and so unfortunately my outlook on food sort of became soured.

So the first couple of days when I cut calories (arguably the harder days), I kept some of those bad habits. I tried to fast until a certain time of day, or drink lots of coffee to try and fill myself up just so I could save my calories for a couple of large meals later in the evening.

It was seriously almost like I was torturing myself to make it to a point of the day where I could torture my stomach with way more food than it could handle.

It is honestly a little bit hard to admit that, but it’s true.

So it finally hit me that what I was doing was not only unhealthy, but not working very well as far as the scale was concerned either. So I really sat down and examined how I was treating food and my diet and tried to be mindful about ways to combat a negative mindset.

Here are some things that helped me have a more positive mindset when it comes to dieting.

Ways to Build Healthy Eating Habits When Dieting

1. Put Your Fork Down Between Bites

If you really spent some time watching people eat, you might be a little grossed out. I can only imagine what my mom thought of me when I was in high school; I probably looked like Joey Chestnut at a hot dog eating contest.

So something I have been doing to try and monitor fullness and satisfaction is just to set my fork down between bites. If you aren’t using a fork, same idea! Set the slice of pizza down between bites, I promise it won’t sprout legs and run away.

If you really want to take this practice to the next level, just be thankful for every bite.

You don’t have to verbally acknowledge it, just in your head think about how you are thankful that you get to eat in a way that can help meet your goals and realize how blessed you are.

2. Don’t Stuff Yourself Full Every Meal

This one is hard because I don’t know how everyone really approaches food and their meals.

I think psychologically, somewhere in our brains, there is that primitive voice saying “eat until you are full because you don’t know when you will eat again.”

Well, guess what? You aren’t a primitive nomad, and you more than likely know when your next meal is and probably even have options for what to eat.

So since we know we have another meal coming, try to eat in such a way where you don’t stuff your belly until you can’t fit anything else.

Arguments can be made that you may be forced to do that when bulking, but when we are cutting, we don’t need to stuff ourselves.

Outliers exist, such as doing some crazy intermittent fasting diet where you have to eat all of your calories in 4 hours, but for the most part, this is a safe and helpful practice.

A tangible way to try and think about this is to eat until you feel satisfied, not painfully full. If we want to put a number to it, eat until your stomach is at about 80% capacity.

Eventually you start to figure out the amount of food it takes to get you to that ~80% level and then you can be more efficient with your cooking and preparation.

3. Drink a LOT of water

I need to listen to myself with this one, but I cannot stress how important water is for the health of our bodies.

I am no scientist, but there are way too many pieces of evidence out there pointing to why we should all be drinking more water.

Now how you do this is totally personal, and how much you drink depends on many factors.

You could be the gallon jug person.

You could be the one who slams two full glasses upon waking up in the morning.

It really doesn’t matter to me, but drinking more water will not only benefit your body, but also how you feel in general and how full you feel.

4. Find the Balance Between Food as Enjoyment and Fuel

After growing up in a house with a lot of diversity in the foods we would cook and eat, I have a great appreciation for the different flavors, combinations, and creations that people share.

I don’t know how that experience differs from others, but what I learned from my experience is that I may have learned to enjoy the food a little too much.

I rarely thought about how food was fueling my body and giving me the energy I needed for all of my sports, lifts, etc…

I mean we all know that food is fuel, but do we all actively think about that?

A simple way to rationalize your thoughts before you think about your next meal might be: “Will my body appreciate what I am about to give it, and will this help me reach my goals?”

Now don’t go all food nazi on me here. If you need to grab a McDouble on a road trip or settle for some Kraft Mac in a bind, it’s okay!

I think it’s just important to be aware that healthier and more nutritious foods are probably going to fuel your body more efficiently than highly processed and fast foods. This is mainly due to the usually lacking nutrient profile in fast and processed foods.

Finding fun and tasty recipes that are full of healthy and satisfying ingredients that can both fill you up and make you feel well may take a little work, but is totally worth it.

Takeaways

It can be hard to set the correct mindset when trying to begin a diet, especially if there are pre-existing bad habits.

Try these to practice healthy eating habits:

Put your fork down between bites
Don’t stuff yourself full every meal
Drink lots of water
Find the balance between food as enjoyment and fuel

These may not be anything groundbreaking, but practicing these habits personally has helped me on my current fat loss journey.

If you found this article helpful it would be amazing if you shared it with friends and family! Andrew and I both love creating content and helping others, and we have been really putting in the time recently to pump out quality content.

We post a lot of quick hitters and thoughts that require less explanation than a blog might on our Instagram page @ivry.fitness. Give us a follow if you like what you see because there will always be more to come!

Finally, we have coaching spots available for this summer if you are still thinking about taking your goals seriously and want a coach to help get you there! We are very confident in our past successes and can’t wait to work with you in the future.

-Josh