Your surroundings have a massive influence on your success. Consider this: over 32 years, scientists from the Harvard Medical School observed changes in the body weight of 12,067 people. They found that someone’s risk of becoming obese increases by 57% when a friend becomes obese, regardless of whether this friend lives next door or hundreds of miles away. Moreover, this risk increases to a whopping 171% when a mutual friend becomes obese!

Dr Christakis, a co-author of the study, explains the reason for this as follows: “You change your idea of what is an acceptable body type by looking at the people around you.”

So, make sure you stay on track by surrounding yourself with people who have the same goals. Ideally, you become one another’s accountability partner, offering and receiving support along the way. If you do not have a partner, friend, or family member to rely on in this journey, online support groups have also proven to be beneficial.

This lifestyle tip proved very useful for me. I joined a number of groups on social media, containing people who were on the same keto journey as me. I found much support and encouragement being a member of these groups.

To succeed at the keto diet, prepare what you will eat in advance. This is especially important if you are new to the eating style. The reason is that most foods around us score high on carbs. If you go outside without keto-friendly snacks, your food choices may be limited because most conventional foods do not mesh with the keto diet. So, always prepare in advance what you will eat and know when. Creating a daily or weekly food plan greatly helps with this.

Another important thing is making sure you have the right food products in your house. Beware: once junk food worms its way into your home, the temptation to take a bite or even binge may prove too strong! But if you pack your cupboard, fridge, and freezer with LEAN Keto approved foods, it will be much easier to stay on track with your diet.

One tip for keeping inappropriate foods out of your house is to do the grocery shopping only after you have had a meal. Alternatively, you can ask family members to do it. The reason for taking such precautions is that grocery shopping on an empty stomach causes us to buy more junk food.^[3]

Preparation was key to me succeeding with my LEAN Keto journey. Especially when it came to the days I was away from home. I became disciplined in preparing my meals before I left the house, or at least knowing where I was going to eat during the daytime. This avoided me eating foods that were not LEAN Keto friendly.  What I would also do is, cook extra meal portions for dinner so that I would have some left over for lunch the next day.

These days, we eat most meals amid distractions. There is TV, computers, mobile phones – take your pick. This is problematic because eating while distracted increases food consumption, as shown by a review of 24 studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study found that our food intake increases, on average, by 10% if we eat distracted, and this number jumps to 25% when it is an evening meal!

The solution is simple: eat without distractions. Doing so can boost your fat loss results by reducing total food intake. Also, start focusing on eating mindfully. This means you concentrate on every bite and enjoy it, listening to your body for signals that it has had enough. With these additions, your fat loss results will improve even further.

There are two types of hunger: physical and emotional. The first one is a biological urge to replenish nutrients, building up gradually and asserting itself through symptoms such as a growling stomach, fatigue, and irritability. Eating makes it go away. The second type is driven by emotions, triggered by stress, anxiety, frustration, fear, sadness, boredom, depression, or fatigue.

The problem is that emotional eating can push us to consume far more food than we need. After all, its function is not to restock nutrients but help you cope with an unpleasant situation. Coupled with the fact that emotional eating tends to involve junk food, it becomes clear why it is linked to weight gain.

It is crucial to avoid emotional eating if you are to lose weight, keep the pounds off, and maintain your health and well-being.  To do this, there are a few things you must know:

First, physical hunger builds up gradually, while emotional hunger appears all of a sudden, typically in response to a specific event.  Second, almost any food can eliminate physical hunger, but the emotional type is tied to specific comfort foods, for example, pizza, chocolate, or doughnuts. Third, physical hunger resides in your stomach whereas emotional hunger is in your head. And fourth, physical hunger tends to go with mindful eating, while emotional hunger couples with mindless eating.

Now that you know the difference, determine what kind of hunger it is every time cravings appear. If it is physical hunger, go ahead and eat, but stay away from food if it is the emotional type. Of course, you will have to be honest with yourself here.

If you are assailed by emotional hunger, one of the best things you can do is to shift your thoughts to something else. You can go for a brisk walk or focus on your breath for a couple of minutes. You will notice that the cravings subside or you may even forget them altogether.