January, and its promises to revamp your healthy eating goals, might feel like a long distant memory. From maintaining willpower, to feeling like you’re trapped on a diet, new research shows that we might actually be approaching our slimming approach all wrong. A new study published in Self & Identity and Women’s Health, has found that reinstating that you’re a healthy eater with yourself can actually help make you a more conscious eater. Need convincing? A research team gave 124 women information on food portions and sizes and asked them to keep a food diary for six weeks. The women were then split into three groups. One group of women was given standard educational nutritional information, another group of women was given no information and the third was asked to write a series of statements that link good nutrition with the women’s identity – with phrases such as “I am a healthy eater” and “I am a fruit eater.” The study authors discovered that the third group of women who made statements ate the healthiest food compared to the women in either of the other groups within a month of the study beginning. The women in the third group were also the most likely to stick to their healthy eating plans over the course of the study and even ate one extra portion of healthy food each day. So how does it work? Scientists suggest you write a list of your weak points and start practising statements that counteract the behaviour, e.g. chocolate lovers can attempt to write phrases such as “I’m not much of a chocolate fan”. We’re not sure if it’ll be as effective as somebody wrestling a Dairy Milk out of our hands, but we’re willing to give it a try.