Foodist Page 4

  Habits automate your actions for most (and therefore the most important) of your food choices. Automation is essential for any long-term goal that requires frequent decisions, because it takes willpower out of the equation and reduces your opportunity for failure. Do you rely on willpower and good intentions to have enough money left over at the end of each pay period to contribute to your savings? Some people try this, but most fail. It’s incredibly easy to rationalize what feel like minor indulgences when it comes to things like food and money, which require dozens of small decisions each day.

  Most of us learn the hard way that without establishing parameters for our behaviors it is virtually impossible to make any progress. So successful savers set up automatic deductions from their checking accounts at the beginning of every month, putting enough into savings to build a retirement fund and pay taxes at the end of the year. Similarly, building habits to automate your most frequent food decisions is more effective than restrictive dieting for achieving your long-term health and weight-loss goals—the healthstyle equivalent of your savings account. The more habits you develop that contribute to your health account automatically, the more freedom you’ll have to indulge yourself every now and then without guilt, and the less willpower you need overall.

  EATING FOR PLEASURE

  Building healthy habits reduces the need for willpower in another way as well. For a foodist occasional treats are harmless, even welcome additions to your healthstyle. This is because focusing on long-term health eliminates the need to restrict any single food (or nutrient) and gives you a huge psychological advantage over typical diets.

  Simply knowing that something is forbidden keeps it at the forefront of your mind, making it almost impossible to ignore. It’s like the famous experiment by Daniel Wegner in which you are instructed to not think of a white bear. Inevitably a polar bear pops into your mind, usually within seconds or minutes—and polar bears aren’t nearly as enticing as tasty food. When the forbidden action is something you know you enjoy, like eating chocolate or the amazing pizza at the place down the street, you don’t stand a chance.

  Most diet plans attempt to combat these breakdowns by offering phony indulgences that aren’t quite as “bad” as inhaling an entire cheesecake, sad concoctions that are chemically sweetened, artificially fattened, and culinarily criminal. Nothing made with Splenda is a real treat, because it can never come close to providing the satisfaction of a real brownie made from natural butter, high-quality chocolate, and real sugar. Because your subconscious knows this, eating those fake monstrosities still requires willpower. Products like fat-free cookies and low-carb pancake mix succeed because our desperate brains try to convince our bored palates that these impostors are better than nothing in our state of deprivation. But we can only endure this sort of delusion for so long before our senses rebel and our will breaks down. Building healthy habits breaks this cycle by freeing you from the illusion that you need to eat perfectly 100 percent of the time. For chronic dieters, this idea can be hard to swallow. Though you may assume that having a license to eat what you enjoy will encourage you to binge, in practice it produces the opposite effect by reducing your need for willpower and giving you the strength to make rational, moderate indulgences on a regular basis.

  With this attitude, food choices transform from a test of willpower into a question of value. Office birthdays, trips to your favorite sandwich shop, and date nights with your partner mean different things to different people. I once worked in a lab* where everyone’s birthday was celebrated with a cake from one of San Francisco’s premier pastry shops, Tartine Bakery. The cakes from Tartine are mind-blowing, and when I worked in the lab I actually considered birthdays excellent opportunities to bond with my fellow lab mates and indulge in some culinary bliss—it’s not every day you get to eat a cake from Tartine. But I’ve also worked in places where office birthdays were celebrated with stale grocery-store cakes garnished with gobs of unnaturally colored, sickeningly sweet frosting. The difference was night and day. I never felt as though I was missing anything by opting out of the nasty generic cake, knowing better things were waiting for me in the future. When you know you aren’t missing out and real treats are never off-limits, exercising this small amount of self-control hardly feels like a sacrifice. In fact, telling yourself that you can have any treat you like at a future time is a proven strategy to eat less and save willpower.

  In their book Willpower, Baumeister and Tierney recommend that people who want to lose weight should “never say never.” This recommendation is based on the research of Nicole Mead and Vanessa Patrick, who designed an experiment to test what would happen if they asked volunteers to resist a bowl of M&M candies that were available while they watched a short film. Some were asked to imagine they would never be able to eat them, while others were asked to skip them now, but imagine they could have as many as they wanted later. For comparison there was a control group who were allowed to eat as much as they wanted during the film. Later, the researchers asked the participants to fill out questionnaires and as a casual afterthought offered the remaining M&Ms, telling each of the unsuspecting volunteers, “You’re the last subject we have today, and everyone else has gone, so these are left over. Help yourself.”

  Of course, the researchers were intensely interested in how each group would respond to the “Help yourself” invitation, fully expecting those who had imagined they could have the treats later to indulge to their heart’s content. To their surprise, those who postponed the indulgence ended up eating significantly less than those who imagined they could never have the candies. They even ate less than those who were allowed to eat the candy at will during the film. According to Mead, “Depriving yourself of something you crave starts an internal battle that your mind will not let go of. But telling yourself you can have it later is as good as allowing yourself to have it now, because you are liberated from the internal conflict (and don’t incur as many calories or feelings of psychological guilt). Postponement of a treat to some unspecified time is psychologically freeing.”1

  The tremendous implication of this research is that you can both eat less and end your cravings (i.e., feel happier about your decision) by simply telling yourself you can eat whatever you want, just not right now. When I spoke to Mead about her experiments, she said that the effect of postponing a treat reduces cravings for up to a week after the opportunity was presented. The experiment was also effective when repeated with cookies, ice cream, and potato chips, though postponing one kind of treat (e.g., chocolate) did not reduce cravings for a different kind (e.g., potato chips). The other major implication of this work is that the psychological act of depriving yourself is not effective at controlling your eating once you abandon your willpower. Indeed, those who told themselves they could never eat the M&Ms ate more when they were given the opportunity than those who allowed themselves to eat freely from the beginning. “This is consistent with previous work showing that deprivation is effortful and can backfire,” said Mead. Once again we see that dieting doesn’t work and that it is more effective to make value-based decisions on what and when to eat rather than outright depriving yourself.

  As you can imagine, this kind of self-regulating healthstyle is far easier to deal with socially than any rigid eating plan. Strict, joyless diet rules take the fun out of life, because they lack flexibility. You shouldn’t have to miss out on anything of value simply because you want to drop a few pounds or be healthy. Sure, you can spend the rest of your life eating burgers without buns if you like, but there is no need to be so extreme. Making room for these occasional indulgences not only makes socializing more fun and less awkward; it also conserves your willpower for when you really need it—that is, for establishing habits in the first place.

  MAKING CHANGES: THE ELEPHANT AND THE RIDER

  In their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Dan and Chip Heath discuss the two main forces that motivate humans to act: the executive brain and the emotional brain.2 T
hey illustrate this with an analogy of a person riding an elephant. The rider represents the executive brain, which attempts to steer the stronger and more stubborn elephant, the emotional brain, down the right path. The rider is rational and logical, has a clearer understanding of the situation, and is responsible for planning and giving direction. But although the rider is necessary for guiding the elephant in the right direction, the logical part of the brain is powerless to make meaningful progress without the tremendous force of the emotional brain.

  The elephant’s temperament is very different from the rider’s. It can be lazy, hedonistic, and skittish, but is also motivated by lofty ideals such as love and loyalty. The elephant is also much stronger than the rider, and if there is a conflict between the two, the elephant will usually win. When you try a diet and can’t stick with it, it is not your will that fails—it is the elephant fighting back. The secret to a successful healthstyle is getting your elephant and your rider working together again.

  To get the elephant working for you, it is essential to lead the elephant in a direction it wants to go. If you set goals that are too difficult or detract from (rather than add to) your quality of life, you cannot expect the elephant to play along for any meaningful amount of time. The most effective goals will satisfy the rider’s desire for good health and an attractive body as well as the elephant’s lust for good times and delicious food.

  BUILDING HABITS

  Like Rome, habits are not built in a day. Depending on the level of difficulty for the individual, a given habit can take anywhere from two weeks to eight months to develop, but on average takes about two months, or sixty-six days, to take root. Simply knowing how habits are formed makes it easier to accomplish your goals. But to fully grasp how this works, you must first have a clear understanding of what exactly a habit is.

  In a nutshell, a habit is an automatic reaction to a specific cue or stimulus. The difference between habits and other behaviors is that the actions following the cue occur automatically rather than consciously. Because habits occur at the subconscious level, very little information is required for the action to be initiated.

  Habitual behaviors can be cued by either external or internal triggers. If you have the habit of getting popcorn and a soda every time you go to the movies, the theater (more specifically the smell of buttered popcorn and the sight of the concession stand) is your cue that initiates a series of behaviors starting with getting in line and ending with munching on the buttery snack and sipping the sweet drink throughout the film. The most obvious kinds of cues are environmental, such as seeing a bowl of chips in the lunchroom or a diet-soda commercial that reminds you how nice it would be to have one right about now. But social events can also initiate automatic behavior, which is one reason smokers tend to reach for their pack when drinking coffee or alcohol. Internal cues such as emotions or moods can trigger habitual behavior as well.

  Habits are conditioned behaviors, meaning that they develop over time with repetition and are associated with a reward or pleasurable experience, at least in the beginning. Thus successful habit building requires choosing a salient cue, deciding upon a rewarding response, and then consciously repeating this behavior until it becomes automatic. The rider—and our elusive willpower—are necessary for the first two steps, but if they are effective, the elephant will eventually take control and a habit will be born.

  ENGINEERING YOUR ENVIRONMENT

  Manipulating environmental cues is the easiest and often the most effective way to build better habits. The authors of Switch call this “tweaking your environment,” or arranging your life so that it is more conducive to accomplishing your goals. In the diet space, no one has better (or more amusing) illustrations of how this works than Cornell scientist Brian Wansink. In his brilliant book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Wansink offers dozens of examples of how tiny, imperceptible changes in our environment can mean hundreds of extra calories every day.3 He argues that adjustments of this kind contribute to what he calls the mindless margin, a 100- to 200-calorie buffer zone where our brains cannot detect the difference between more or less food. Over time calories in the mindless margin add up as weight gained or lost. Using the mindless margin to your advantage is yet another way to shrink your reliance on willpower and get control of your healthstyle.

  Since some of the same environmental cues that result in overeating can be flip-flopped to cause you to eat less or make better food choices, Wansink recommends using the mindless margin to “mindlessly eat better.” For example, there are dozens of ways to influence portion sizes or how much food you consume in one sitting that have nothing to do with hunger. Americans, and dieters in particular, are more inclined to use cues like an empty plate or the end of a television show to indicate that a meal is over. When smaller plates are used or 20 percent less food is served, diners will voluntarily eat less without reporting any difference in fullness or satisfaction. Most won’t even notice. Using smaller plates, taller glasses, and smaller serving utensils; eating at a table instead of in front of the TV; dimming the lights; and eating more slowly can all have a significant impact on how much food you eat, and I’ll explain how and when to use these strategies throughout the book.

  10 Simple Ways to Eat Less Without Noticing

  1. Use smaller plates

  Regardless of the actual quantity of food, a full plate sends the signal that you’re eating a full meal, and a partially empty plate looks like a skimpy meal.

  The same amount of food looks like more on a smaller plate.

  Using smaller plates and filling them up is a proven way to eat less without noticing.

  2. Serve yourself 20 percent less

  The mindless margin is about 20 percent of any given meal. In other words, you can eat 80 percent of the food you’d normally eat and probably not notice it as less, so long as no one points it out to you. You could also eat 20 percent more—not a bad idea if you’re scooping vegetables. If you have those smaller plates mentioned above, serving yourself a little less should be just as satisfying.

  3. Use taller glasses

  Just as less food looks like more food on a smaller plate, height makes things look larger than width does, even when the volumes are the same. You can cut down on your liquid calories by choosing taller glasses rather than shorter, fatter ones.

  4. Eat protein for breakfast

  People love to hype eating breakfast as a miracle weight-loss cure, but only breakfasts high in protein have been proven to suppress appetite and reduce subsequent eating throughout the day. Skip the waffles and head to the omelet station instead.

  5. Eat three meals a day

  People often say that eating many small meals is better than eating three bigger ones throughout the day, but the data tell us otherwise. Though skipping meals can make controlling your appetite more difficult, eating more than three meals a day has not been shown to have any benefit and may even be worse for appetite control. Eat when you’re supposed to and you shouldn’t need any extra food.

  6. Keep snacks out of sight or out of the building

  Study after study has shown that people eat a lot more when food is visible rather than put away where it can’t be seen, even if they know it is there. Research has also demonstrated that the harder food is to get to, even if the extra effort is just removing a lid or walking to the cabinet, the less likely you are to eat it. The extra work forces you to question the value of your action, and this gives you the opportunity to talk yourself out of a decision you may regret later.

  To avoid extra snacking, keep tempting foods out of sight or, better yet, out of the house. On the flip side, keep healthy foods prominently displayed and easy to reach.

  7. Chew thoroughly

  Once you start paying more attention to eating speed, you may be horrified to observe that most people don’t chew. If you’re one of those who chew the minimum number of times before swallowing or shoveling in another forkful, chances are you’re eating substantially mor
e at every meal than your thoroughly chewing peers. Slow down, chew each bite (counting your chews can help develop the habit), and watch as you fill up faster on fewer calories.

  8. Don’t eat from the package

  Your stomach can’t count. When you can’t see how much you’re eating, you’re more than a little likely to lose track and consume double or even triple the amount you’d eat if you took the time to serve yourself a proper portion. Use a plate, a bowl, or even a napkin. Just make sure you get a good visual of everything you’re going to eat before taking your first bite.

  9. Don’t eat in front of the TV

  For the vast majority of us, distracted eating is overeating. The end of a show or movie is another powerful cue signifying that a meal is over, so parking in front of the TV with your plate for a Battlestar Galactica marathon is probably not the best idea. With the invention of DVR, there’s no reason you can’t take thirty minutes to sit down and have a proper meal before enjoying your shows.

  10. Don’t pay attention to health claims

  But wait, isn’t healthy food supposed to be better for you? In theory, yes. But truly healthy food—vegetables, fruits, and other unprocessed foods—rarely have labels at all. Instead, foods with health claims tend to be processed junk repackaged as better-for-you alternatives.

  Even worse, research from Wansink’s lab has shown that people drastically underestimate the number of calories in foods with visible health claims on the packaging. People also tend to eat more food overall as a result of this miscalculation. He refers to this effect as the “health halo,” and it’s a recipe for packing on the pounds. For real health, stick to humble foods without labels.