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Interviewer: Have you ever started a diet and you have the best intentions, but then you just find yourself right back where you started? Or even worse, you're feeling frustrated and stuck. If you have these feelings, you're not alone. Diets fail often and for a lot of different reasons. They might be overly restrictive. They might not fit into your daily lives. There are a lot of reasons. But understanding why they fail is the first step to making those lasting changes that you want to make.

Registered dietitian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology at the University of Utah. Theresa is going to break down some of the common reasons diets fall apart and share some practical tips that you can implement today that will help you create habits to succeed.

It's a complicated issue. There are a lot of reasons they could. But I asked Theresa to come up with three that she kind of notices, recurring themes. So let's say what those three are, and then let's dive into each one individually. What do you think?

Theresa: Cool. Perfect. So it's too drastic of a change, they're not sustainable, or they're not something that you love or enjoy.

Reason #1: Too Drastic of a Change

Interviewer: First one, too drastic of a change. Explain that a little bit.

Theresa: We're going a 180, that all of a sudden, I'm cutting out foods that either I really enjoy or that my body is kind of used to. And so that's often what I mean by too drastic, is that a lot of things that are important to us all of a sudden are cut out and we're struggling not just with the foods that we're eating, but maybe my socializing or my engagement with my community or things of that sort.

Interviewer: I feel like too drastic of a change also is the things that I ate yesterday and that are in my fridge all of a sudden are not anything I eat. And for me, it's been more beneficial to go, "All right. How am I eating and what's something I can add in that maybe is a little bit of a healthier choice?"

I'm not going to change anything else, I'm not going to restrict anything else, but I'm going to say, "You know what? This morning when I get up with my eggs and toast, I'm going to have a piece of fruit." Just one small change. What do you think of that?

“Food Chaining” for Sustainable Transitions

Theresa: Sometimes in nutrition, we talk about food chaining. And often we think about it in pediatrics or when we work with kids, but it very much crosses over into adding new foods into our diet. So if we can pair something new or something that's maybe just not a part of our usual diet alongside something that's familiar to us, we're more likely to engage with it, versus looking at a plate that's totally new and can be really overwhelming. We just put that new thing next to some familiar items, and it eases that process.

Interviewer: Right. It doesn't seem so crazy. If you make these small changes over time, you will look at yourself six months later and you'll be like, "Wow. I'm eating completely differently." And you hardly even notice. It's like this head fake.

Theresa: And that's sometimes really great to have those mindful check-ins of, "Where am I at right now? Where do I want to be in six months to a year? And how can I start slowly?"

And so if I'm writing that down or I take some pictures, what does my plate look like right now? I want to add more color to my plate. And then six months from now, snap a couple of pictures throughout the week and say, "What's that comparison?" That sometimes, too, can feel really gratifying. Again, showing that success that, "Yeah, I can be successful, I can make changes, and I can be more healthy."

Interviewer: Because change is hard. We get in our habits and breaking those habits is hard. It's no shortcoming of oneself. That's just the way it is.

Theresa: Exactly.

Reason #2: Lack of Sustainability

Interviewer: All right. The number two reason why most diets fail, it's not sustainable. I think we've heard about this a little bit more. Do you have something to expand on?

Theresa: We've talked about this. It kind of goes along with that drastic change, right? Thinking about things that we can add for a lifetime versus, again, what we can do for the next one week or six months. But what is that really going to look like for a lifetime? That's where our overall health and wellness is going to be approachable.

Also, is this going to be sustainable in my day-to-day? So I have little kids at home, and personally, I refuse to make five different meals for the family. With that, I'm not going to make five meals, so is my eating going to be favorable to everybody in the house, or can I make a slight adjustment that I can pile on more vegetables or more of this or that onto my plate, but essentially we're all eating the same meal?

So sometimes thinking about that sustainability piece might sound good and sound reasonable, but when the rubber hits the road, is it really sustainable for you in your life?

Interviewer: That sustainability is so critical. And if you're doing things in your diet that are counterproductive to making it sustainable, then you're going to fall back into the same kind of pattern again, I feel like. At least that's been my experience.

Theresa: Yeah. And it's, again, that sense of failure or that "I can't do this," when it really just wasn't achievable to begin with.

Adapting to Life’s Challenges with Flexible Habits

Interviewer: Yeah, given your unique circumstances and situations. So there's a little bit of problem-solving then to overcome the sustainability issue. And you've kind of talked about that, being mindful and just kind of taking a look, "Well, why isn't this working? Why isn't this sustainable to me? Is there a small change I can make to make it sustainable?"

Do you have other thoughts as far as things people could implement right now today to tackle the sustainability issue, or have we kind of covered what you . . .

Theresa: Recognizing that some of these changes will work and some of them won't. So sometimes thinking about change as an experiment. "I'm going to try this for a little bit. I'm going to try this for the next month or a couple of weeks or just the next week and see what works and where I need to adjust." That's perfectly okay.

And we also have to give ourselves a bit of grace because that will change with different annual seasons. It will change with different seasons of life. And so we have to be able to build some of that flexibility and adjustment into those and think about diet less in a rigid way that "I have to do X, Y, and Z in order to be healthy," and see it as more of a moving space as to "What's on my plate?"

Interviewer: And then sustainability too, I think of meal prepping.

Theresa: Oh, yeah.

Interviewer: Having those things handy in the fridge, having those things handy that you can pack, that really helps for me and my sustainability in those moments of weakness.

Theresa: Yes. Making it the easy choice, right? Doing a little bit of pay-it-forward. Put in the time when you have the time. So if you've got a day of the week that you can prep for a little bit, you can chop some more vegetables so they're easy to grab for your lunch.

Can you think about, "What restaurants do I go to, and can I look at the menu ahead of time and say, 'Yep, I'm going to choose this item and this item and then stick to it'"? Then it's not that "I'm really hungry" decision-making process, but I'm putting in just a little bit of work ahead of time to make sure that that's an easy choice and option when I get to that eating moment.

Reason #3: You Don’t Enjoy It

Interviewer: Let's go to number three, which is that it's not something you enjoy or love. Now you don't hear a lot of . . . I don't know. Maybe you dietitians say this all the time, but that's not my perception. I think if I go to you, you're going to be like, "No, you need to eat this five-gallon salad and these chicken breasts and blah, blah, blah." But that's not going to be helpful.

Theresa: If you don't enjoy kale, don't eat it.

Interviewer: Yay. Theresa has given us all permission that if you don't enjoy kale, you don't have to eat it.

Theresa: Exactly. Now, that being said, are there other leafy greens or other greens that you do enjoy? Or is it thinking about the preparation method? I can think back to the broccoli in our school cafeteria and it was mushy and brown and just gross. You should enjoy the food that you want.

Now, that being said, I think when I prepare broccoli, it's delicious. Maybe you're my 4-year-old who doesn't really like hard crunchy carrots because they're really tough to chew, but she likes them steamed. Awesome.

Mindful Eating: Savoring What You Love in Moderation

Interviewer: Theresa, what if the thing I enjoy is maybe not the best choice? And I think this is a whole different topic of food myths, like things we've been forced to believe about food. But I love a hamburger. I love making it and I feel satisfied after I eat one. I feel full for a while. I love steak and potatoes.

And I know that we're supposed to kind of watch our meat intake, but what if something that you really enjoy is not something you really should be eating every day all the time?

Theresa: I look at food on a spectrum. There are going to be things that we enjoy that maybe for health reasons or based off of a medical diagnosis, or something of that sort, I need to cut back on and it needs to be on that lower side of the spectrum and something that I eat less frequently.

Some of it is a mind shift and thinking about, "What are my health priorities and being healthy?" Decreasing my risk of a heart attack, and decreasing my risk of diabetes is going to be really powerful in our change behavior.

And then when we are eating those foods that maybe I need to cut back on but I still really enjoy, be really mindful with those. Sit and pay attention to how it tastes, slow down that eating process, and really take time to enjoy those foods, not just eating that hamburger on the go in the car.

Think about still having all of those pieces, but really focus on mindfulness when we are enjoying those foods that we need to cut back on.

When to Seek Help: Guidance for Achieving Your Goals

Interviewer: All right. Some great information that our listeners and myself or anybody could implement today. But as we talked at the top, these things are a lot more complicated sometimes. So if somebody is finding themselves still stuck or still frustrated and is like, "This is harder than it should be," what should they do to help achieve their goals?

The Role of Registered Dietitians

Theresa: Seek help. There are dietitians across the country, and around the globe who are highly qualified and trained to help you navigate these things and looking at behavior change, looking at your unique experiences as well as circumstances currently, and how to move that needle forward.

And so seek out registered dietitians in your area. You can do a quick Google search for "dietitians in Utah," or "dietitians in Alabama," and you'll get a full list of available resources for you.

Finding Local Resources

Also, think about your employee wellness programs. So here at the University of Utah, we have a WellU program where employees can engage with cooking classes and mindfulness or intuitive eating or physical activity classes and gain some insight that way.

A lot of worksite wellness programs are employing a registered dietitian or a health coach or folks with physical activity or they've got a gym that can help you navigate these changes.

Talking to Your Doctor About Nutrition

At a minimum, maybe talk with your physician. Nutrition is starting to become much more of a conversation as we think about preventative health and preventative wellness. So looking at those resources in your local area is really helpful.

And there's no shame in this, right? Change is hard, and so we need to break down that barrier that it's a one-size-fits-all and this diet that claims it should work for everybody will work for you too. Maybe, but more likely, probably not. We need to look at what my body needs, and be an advocate for yourself.

Overcoming the Stigma of Seeking Help

Interviewer: I'm going to play devil's advocate here, but shouldn't I just be able to figure this out on my own? I mean, it's eating, right? I should have the willpower.

Theresa: It's hard. Change is hard. We have so many images and messages that are bombarding us constantly every day. And it's really challenging to know what to believe as things are changing and evolving.

Maybe you've tried a bunch of different things and nothing has worked. Maybe you try a couple of things, and that's great. See if it works. And if it doesn't, at that moment of any kind of struggle, rather than throwing the towel in, seek some help. That's what we're here for. I went into the field of nutrition, like most dietitians, to help my communities be healthier and to thrive.