Avoid Deprivation to Force Yourself to Change Your Diet
Changing your diet is already difficult. However, depriving yourself of the foods you like and forcing yourself to only eat what you hate will destroy your motivation. When planning a new diet, choose healthy foods that you enjoy, rather than just giving them up.
As psychology site PsyBlog explains, when you focus your diet on depriving yourself of what you love, you associate your changes with negative feelings. Even if you eat healthier foods, you can get upset about the positive changes. Instead of focusing on what you can’t eat, find what you like, what you can eat:
The reason is that most people think that their conscious thoughts and intentions will change their behavior, when in fact they are not. What really drives many real, real-world diets is emotion … Any potential diet must be based on a radical approach: enjoy what you eat.
Regardless of your tastes, chances are that you will find something that you like, but not unhealthy. Of course, changing your diet will still require a certain level of self-control. It’s easy to revert to old habits. However, new ones are easier to create when you have a positive option.
The Real Psychological Reason Diets Are Difficult | Psychoblog