I have a Cheez-It problem. You”re not listening, I really
have a Cheez-It problem! I have never met a Cheez-It I
didn”t like.* Some people can”t resist chocolate or ice
cream, some people it”s pizza or some other food or sweet.
While I enjoy all of those foods on occasion, Cheez-It”s are
the food equivalent of crack cocaine for me.
It takes all my willpower to pass up the isle where the
Cheez-It”s reside on the shelves at my local grocery store.
My ever-loving girl friend Kimberly rolls her eyes at me in
shear disgust when she sees how weak I am to the power of
these little crackers, which draw me in like a cheese
flavored black hole. “But you have given advice on nutrition
to millions of people Will, how could you of all people be
so weak willed about some little cheese flavored cracker?!”
she says. I hang my head in shame and avoid eye contact with
her for the rest of the day….
The point of this introduction is to point out we all have
our weaknesses and we are all human… even me. I find
Cheez-It”s to be cheese flavored morphine!
This small problem got me to thinking. If there is one thing
I have learned after all these years of doing nutritional
research, writing countless articles on the topic of
nutrition, and working directly with people on their diets,
it”s this: it”s rarely one single thing a person does that
is sabotaging their efforts to lose fat and or gain muscle,
but a bunch of little things that have an accumulated
effect.
There are some amazingly simple behaviors and strategies we
can all add to our nutritional goals and workout plans that
will have a positive effect. Using my own addiction to
Cheez-It”s as the primary example, I am going to cover a few
of these surprisingly simple yet effective strategies. A few
issues to keep in mind:
(1) Taken alone, these simple tactics will have very little
effect. Used alone without any other dietary changes and an
exercise plan, these strategies wont amount to much.
However, as I mentioned, it”s often many minor mistakes
adding up to a lack of results for people, and taken in that
context, these are some simple mistakes that can be avoided,
hopefully resulting in an accumulated effect in a positive
direction.
(2) I didn”t invent any of these tips. They are some of the
oldest and simplest tips you will ever read. I don”t even
know who first came up with them, and I bet most people have
seen these strategies in other places, such as various diet
books, articles, or web sites. I do however think that they
may be so old and so simple that most people with the best
of intentions about their nutrition and exercise plan, don”t
follow these simple concepts.
These tips are more about behavior changes and psychology
then nutritional science, study results, or research. I have
written many articles based on the later topics, but this is
not one of those. If you are looking for more in-depth
science oriented information about nutrition, supplements,
and fat loss or gaining muscle, I suggest reading my ebooks
on the topic and the many free article on my web site.
Tip #1: Never Ever Go Food Shopping Hungry
This is one of the most effective strategies I know of to
avoid unwanted junk and various snacks from finding their
way into your shopping cart, which ends up in your home,
which ends up on your butt!
Make sure to eat something before you go food shopping and
you will be able to resist the junk that often finds its way
into your cart. If I go food shopping without a good meal in
my stomach, I often come home with a family sized box of
Cheez-It”s and feel like sh*& for days after eating the
entire box!
Human hunger and appetite are regulated by a phenomenally
complicated set of overlapping feedback networks, involving
a long list of hormones, psychological factors, and others
way beyond the scope of this article. Suffice to say, we
often make snap decisions and impulse purchases with certain
foods due to one or more of these feedback loops being
activated due to an empty stomach while we shop.
Translated, your “willpower” to resist junk foods will be
much greater if you eat something healthy at least 20-30
minutes before you go food shopping. You can either plan
your meal schedule so that one meal is eaten before you go
shopping, or have a snack (at least 20-30 minutes before
shopping) which will have the desired effects.
A yogurt with some flax oil mixed in is a good choice, as is
a half cup of cottage cheese and a handful of walnuts or
some other nut. A protein shake or MRP will suffice, but
solid food tends to be more satiating.
Tip # 2: Never Keep Snack Foods In The House
This tip is a logical extension of tip number one. If it
does not make it into your cart at the food store, it”s not
in your house. However, many people use excuses like “I have
snack foods for the kids” or “my spouse keeps a box of Oreo
cookies in the kitchen cupboard” as reasons they can”t avoid
the snacks that sneak into their diets and sabotage their
efforts.
Many of the foods we eat that we know we should not be
eating are based on an impulse. Impulse control goes a long
way here but no one will deny it”s far harder to resist that
impulse if your favorite junk food is under your nose.
That”s human nature. When I have an impulse for some Cheez-
it”s, I wont resist it well if it”s only a few steps to the
kitchen vs. having to get in the car to go get a box.
The former I can”t resist, the latter I can. Remember an
impulse is defined as “a sudden desire, urge, inclination.”
That means it”s short lived and will go away given
sufficient time, so it”s a matter of not having foods in
your house that allow you to act on the impulse while it
lasts.
As for the excuse of the spouse, kids, etc. That is more an
issue between your kids and or your spouse. Should the kids
be eating that stuff anyway? No! I had a client tell me one
day “I keep eating hot dogs cause I keep them in the house
fort the kids.” I said “so you”re Ok with feeding your kids
foods you know to be unhealthy for you and them?” She
stopped feeding her family hot dogs shortly after….
…Bottom line here is, those foods should be occasional
treats for both kids and adults, not staple foods that can
be found in your kitchen. It”s more an issue of teaching the
kids good dietary habits young so they don”t end up
overweight unhealthy adults.
As for the spouse, I like to have some chips in the house,
which I can resist without a problem. That is, unlike the
Cheez-it”s, I can walk past the chips without having to eat
them all. I can regulate myself with them. However, Kimberly
can”t. Chips are to her what Cheez-it”s are to me, so I make
it a rule not to keep chips in the house.
Point being, your spouse needs to support your efforts by
making some small sacrifices. If you were an alcoholic
trying to avoid alcohol, you would (or at least should!)
expect your significant other to not keep booze in the
house. If they wont support your efforts here, then
relationship counseling is in order or a long talk, and I
can”t help you there; sorry!
Tip # 3: Eat Off Of Smaller Plates
The first two tips are common sense, this one is less so.
However, I find it helps, albeit not to a great extent.
Again, how much we eat is based on many variables. One of
them is the visual cues we get looking at the food we are
about to eat. We are extremely visually oriented creatures
and part of deciding how large an object is must be compared
to other objects, in this case, the food we put on the plate
in comparison to the size of the plate we put the food on.
Some of you may remember this little visual test from grade
school.
Looking at these two horizontal lines here:
http://www.brinkzone.com/images/plates.gif which one is
longer?
Answer: both lines are identical in length. As you can see,
the bottom “plate” looks longer then top “plate”, yet they
are the same length. It”s a visual illusion that shows how
our brains are set up to interpret certain visual cues. It
is my experience that people will put less food on their
plate if they eat from smaller plates as a smaller plate
full of food looks like much more to eat then a large plate
with the same amount of food on it.
I know for myself I tend to put 2 slices of pizza on a small
plate and three on a large plate! Now this is only one minor
cue we have to self regulating how much food we eat, and
other feedback loops (i.e., hormonal, psychological, etc.)
can kick in and easily offset this strategy.
For example, you could simply come back for a second helping
using the smaller plates. However, it”s my hunch (and it”s
only a hunch as research is lacking here) that over the
course of say a month, a person may end up taking in fewer
total calories using this strategy as has been my
(admittedly anecdotal) experience with both myself and the
many people I have given advice to over the years.
Again, as already mentioned, taken alone, this strategy will
probably have no effects on your efforts to lose fat if
there is not a specific diet and exercise plan involved in
the overall equation. It is however one simple small change
that may improve compliancy to your efforts. It would be
interesting to see a study on this, but whatever effects it
may have, would be subtle and fairly small I suspect. Even
so, over the course of a year say, it may help.
Tip #4: Know Thy Self
Lesson here is, we are all human and we all have our
weaknesses. Trick is to know your weakness and develop
strategies for coping with them. How well do you know
yourself? That is, do you know what cues/triggers tend to
set you off? Have you examined that issue for yourself? It”s
essential to recognized the cues that sabotage your efforts.
We all have them. Find yours and take steps to avoid them
where possible.
For example, try making a list outlining the things you know
tend to set you off and how you react to the, then add a
column for how you could deal with it. For example you might
write “talking to my crazy mother makes me anxious and I eat
things I shouldn”t immediately after the phone conversation”
which would be followed by a suggestion of steps to change
it, such as “always eat a meal right before talking to mom”
and “only take calls from mom when I am ready and able to
deal with her” and “go for a walk immediately after talking
to mom to distress and give me time to get over impulse to
eat junk” and so on.
Develop coping strategies to your known triggers. I know for
example going food shopping on an empty stomach means I will
most probably end up with a large box of Cheez-it”s in my
house. I have also found if I go shopping irritated over
something I will buy more foods I don”t need as food is one
of many ways we self medicate looking for some comfort.
Hence the term “comfort foods” which is commonly chocolate,
ice cream, and so on.
Bottom line:
Learn what your hot buttons are that lead to a negative
behavior. Learn to identify when it”s happening. Develop
strategies for coping with it.
How do you go about doing that? As entire books have been
written on that topic, my advice will fall short here. That
journey is also highly individual. For some it”s working
with a therapist or behavioral specialist, you could simply come back for a second helping
using the smaller plates. However, it”s my hunch (and it”s
only a hunch as research is lacking here) that over the
course of say a month, a person may end up taking in fewer
total calories using this strategy as has been my
(admittedly anecdotal) experience with both myself and the
many people I have given advice to over the years.
Again, as already mentioned, taken alone, this strategy will
probably have no effects on your efforts to lose fat if
there is not a specific diet and exercise plan involved in
the overall equation. It is however one simple small change
that may improve compliancy to your efforts. It would be
interesting to see a study on this, but whatever effects it
may have, would be subtle and fairly small I suspect. Even
so, over the course of a year say, it may help.
Tip #4: Know Thy Self
Lesson here is, we are all human and we all have our
weaknesses. Trick is to know your weakness and develop
strategies for coping with them. How well do you know
yourself? That is, do you know what cues/triggers tend to
set you off? Have you examined that issue for yourself? It”s
essential to recognized the cues that sabotage your efforts.
We all have them. Find yours and take steps to avoid them
where possible.
For example, try making a list outlining the things you know
tend to set you off and how you react to the, then add a
column for how you could deal with it. For example you might
write “talking to my crazy mother makes me anxious and I eat
things I shouldn”t immediately after the phone conversation”
which would be followed by a suggestion of steps to change
it, such as “always eat a meal right before talking to mom”
and “only take calls from mom when I am ready and able to
deal with her” and “go for a walk immediately after talking
to mom to distress and give me time to get over impulse to
eat junk” and so on.
Develop coping strategies to your known triggers. I know for
example going food shopping on an empty stomach means I will
most probably end up with a large box of Cheez-it”s in my
house. I have also found if I go shopping irritated over
something I will buy more foods I don”t need as food is one
of many ways we self medicate looking for some comfort.
Hence the term “comfort foods” which is commonly chocolate,
ice cream, and so on.
Bottom line:
Learn what your hot buttons are that lead to a negative
behavior. Learn to identify when it”s happening. Develop
strategies for coping with it.
How do you go about doing that? As entire books have been
written on that topic, my advice will fall short here. That
journey is also highly individual. For some it”s working
with a therapist or behavioral specialist, for some it”s
reading a few good self-help type books, and for some it”s
activities such as meditation, joining support groups, and
others. It”s also a life long journey.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article is not as much to supply tips
for success in your fat loss endeavors but to actually
remind people of what is stated in the intro to this
article: most people fail in their fat loss/diet goals not
due to a single mistake they are making (with exceptions)
but many small events that have an accumulated effect that
sabotages their efforts. If the tips in this article help,
all the better.
Some people are amazed how many extra calories slip into
their diet from snack foods that they are not accounting
for, or the fact they tend to take the elevator when they
could take the stairs, and so on. 99 out of 100 times the
person that says “I have tried everything and nothing works”
actually translates into “I have not stayed on any one plan
long enough for it to have an effect and sabotaged it with
small unaccounted for negative habits and behaviors.” Now,
if I can just get the funding for that adult Cheez-it rehab
center I want to have built….
* Cheez-It”s are a cheese flavored cracker made by Sunshine
foods and can be found on the shelves of any major food
store in the US.
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