Article updated 3-02-25
You’ve probably heard of affirmations. But have you ever considered applying these simple yet surprisingly powerful tools to support your plant-based dietary habits?
Affirmations don’t cost anything. You don’t need any special certifications, training, or equipment, and you can do them anywhere and anytime you are awake! (Actually, you can even record affirmations to play during sleep, so there’s truly no time of day or night you can’t use them!)
You have nothing to lose in trying plant-based affirmations except your negative thinking and old, outworn habits. Let’s take a closer look at what affirmations are and how to best create and apply them to maximize their effectiveness on your plant-based journey to health and well-being.
How Do Affirmations Help?
Affirmations can be a powerful tool for staying committed and motivated on a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet. Here’s how they can help:
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Affirmations Can Strengthen Your Identity
Affirmations help you solidify your identity as someone who thrives on a WFPB diet. Saying, “I nourish my body with whole, plant-based foods,” reinforces this mindset and makes your dietary choices feel natural and non-negotiable.
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Affirmations Help Overcome Cravings and Temptations
When faced with cravings or social pressure, affirmations like “I choose foods that support my health and energy” or “I love the way whole plant foods make me feel” can shift your focus away from temptation and toward your long-term goals.
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Affirmations Build a Positive Relationship with Food
Some people struggle with the idea of “giving up” certain foods. Affirmations like “I am excited to explore new plant-based flavors and meals” reframe the change as an exciting journey rather than a sacrifice.
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Affirmations Help You Stay Motivated for Health and Well-Being
On challenging days, affirmations such as “Every meal I eat is a step toward my best health” can remind you why you made the switch and keep you motivated.
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Affirmations Support Emotional and Social Resilience
When dealing with social situations, affirmations like “I stand confidently in my choice to eat plant-based” or “I inspire others by prioritizing my health” can help you stay true to your lifestyle even when others question it.
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Affirmations Encourage Consistency and Progress
Progress isn’t about perfection, and affirmations such as “I am learning and growing on this journey” help you stay committed even if you make mistakes along the way.
Why Plant-Based Affirmations Work
What makes words so potentially powerful? Affirmations work because our minds most likely can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality.
When you affirm the reality you want to see, it’ll keep you on track to a more positive future. Again and again, you’ll return your focus and attention to what you want and away from what you don’t.
You can practice affirmations like you would practice yoga, meditation, journaling, deep breathing, or any other type of self-care approach. In this case, retraining our minds into a new, more uplifted set of beliefs that align with our highest plant-based vision for ourselves.
What you believe affects every aspect of your life, from how you perceive yourself, other people, and events to your reactions and daily habits – including, of course, how, when, and what you eat.
If you practice affirmations regularly, they help you form new habits of positive thinking and feeling and, ultimately, new behaviors – keeping our minds, bodies, and spirits on the plant-based track to health and happiness.
Don’t expect instant results. Just like exercise, affirmations have a gradual, cumulative effect as we build our positive outlook “muscles.” Be sure to give affirmations enough time so that they have a chance to work in your life.
Creating and Using Plant-Based Affirmations
The word “affirmation” comes from the Latin word “affirmare,” which means to strengthen or to hold steady –exactly what plant-based eaters, especially beginners transitioning to a plant-based diet or those particularly vulnerable to food temptations and cravings, need for themselves and their lives.
Affirmations are simple, clear, and deliberately-worded positive statements that are regularly repeated with confidence and strong intention.
To practice affirmations, choose meaningful phrases that resonate with you and repeat them regularly throughout the day, ideally in the morning and before bed. Focus on the positive feelings they evoke, believing them to be true as you say them. Make sure to maintain consistency in your practice; consider incorporating them into a meditation routine for a deeper impact.
Some people like to set regular times each day to say their affirmations all at once, such as upon waking to create a positive template for the day and before going to bed to set the tone for a restful and positive sleep.
You can also post your affirmations around your home, car, and workspace, where you can easily see them. Put them on your phone notes app or your computer (they make great screen savers) so you’re reminded of them randomly throughout the day. If you’re alone, it’s good to say affirmations aloud or even sing and dance them to bring them into your body.
If you’re around other people, you can say them internally to yourself regularly and especially during stressful moments – such as at holiday parties when you’re tempted by unhealthy foods. You can draw on your familiar affirmations at those times when you might otherwise waver or falter on your plant-based diet.
Tips for Plant-Based Success
It can be challenging at first. Your mind may balk at positive statements that initially seem outlandish, unrealistic, and at odds with the reality you are currently experiencing. One way to deal with this is to calibrate your affirmations as you progress.
Just like setting small, realistic, achievable goals, we want to create affirmations that are just a little bit ahead of where we are – we want to stretch, not strain.
Choose affirmations that are at least somewhat believable to you, rather than statements that seem too out of reach.
So, in other words, if you’re currently eating a lot of junk foods, you could create an affirmation like “I eat healthfully,” but it’d be better to be more specific with something like “I eat green salads twice a week.”
Affirmations are always positive, stated in terms of what we want rather than what we don’t want.
Effective plant-based affirmations describe the situation that we want as already happening at present. “I am a happy whole food plant-based eater” or “I am in great health,” for instance, are powerful affirmations stated in the now.
Stating things in terms of your desires, such as “I want to be in shape,” on the other hand, restates your goal but doesn’t move you forward as effectively as the earlier examples.
Basic Plant-Based Affirmation to Get Started
Of course, you’ll want to tailor your affirmation to your specific needs and goals. Also, you’ll want to adjust them to keep up with your progress, setting new goals and new affirmations to support them. But to help you get the feel of it, here’s a list of basic plant-based affirmations that could apply to just about anyone.
As you’ll see, there’s different ways of saying the same thing, and you want to choose language that feels comfortable and natural for you. Feel free to modify these affirmations so they work for you!
- I am thriving on a plant-based diet.
- I have everything I need to succeed on a plant-based diet.
- I love my whole food, plant-based diet.
- Plant-based eating is easy and fun.
- I eat more and more healthfully each week.
- I give my body the food it needs for health.
- I easily eat a plant-based diet!
- I am strong and steady in my resolve to be healthy.
- I achieve my plant-based health goals.
Plant-Based Affirmation Checklist
- Create affirmations that are positive and in the now.
- Practice affirmations regularly.
- Post affirmations where you can easily see them.
- Use language that is natural to you.
- Make them believable.
- Modify affirmations as you progress to keep on growing.
- Keep it simple.
- Be kind to yourself!
Happy Affirming!
I hope you’ve found this exploration of plant-based affirmations useful. For more information about helpful attitudes, tools and techniques to support your ongoing plant-based success please check out these articles: “Go for Plant-Based Progress, Not Perfection,” “The Secret to Success on a Plant-Based Diet,” “Seven Tips for Sticking with a Plant-Based Diet,” and “Staying Motivated on a Plant-Based Diet.”
I love to hear from my readers! You can email me at diane@plantbasedcooking.com or post a comment or question about plant-based affirmations on the Plant-Based Cooking website or Facebook page.
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