I will consume no candy or fast food. Ever. (*Fast food defined as X, Y, Z restaurants...)
Daily, I must eat 2 raw vegetables and drink 1 liter of water. No matter what. Even If I have to stand over the sink at 2am eating a carrot & a green pepper and washing it down with my daily liter of water...
I used this strategy (with similar, expanded prohibitions/must-eats) for a year (2012).
I found it to be useful and effective because (1) the simplicity of the prohibitions makes it easily manageable and adds no complexity to making dietary decisions (no asking servers about ingredients, Googling nutrition facts, etc.), (2) requiring daily healthy “must-eats” contributed to less hunger for less-than-nutritious foods, in effect displacing “bad calories” from my diet & (3) once successfully adopted, this strategy can (rather easily) be expanded to more comprehensively optimize one’s diet (e.g. 3 vegetables per day plus 1 raw fruit, 2 liters of water; prohibition on candy, fast food & soda).
The results were very significant. I don’t know my exact weight at the time I implemented this strategy, but I would estimate I lost 15-18lbs (down from ~190lbs) and was leaner in terms of body fat % than I’ve been in many years (I also concurrently implemented a simple, consistent strength training program).
Based on my experience, I’d recommend no more than 4 prohibitions & 4 daily must-eats.
In my view, the keys to successfully implementing this strategy are (a) absolute clarity/simplicity of prohibitions/must-eats (b) absolute 100% compliance & (c) sufficient time commitment. You’ve gotta make it feel as easy and necessary as brushing your teeth… then it’ll stick.
This is interesting. I tried a very similar strategy and I was able to maintain it for two months, and then I found that I would collapse unless I made general exceptions (such as “I can do it once a week” or “it’s okay if I’m at a restaurant”).
In my experience, I think it is key to only be strict in regard to your prohibitions (& must-eats).
For instance, if my prohibition is specifically against fast food restaurants, a bacon cheeseburger at a fast food place is 100% forbidden, but a bacon cheeseburger at a casual dining (“sit down”) restaurant is okay.
In this way, while the caloric intake might be the same in either case for that particular meal, over time I cultivated a habit of not eating based on convenience and impulse and I was able to generally better plan my meals and gain dietary discipline.
Anyway, to your point, I agree that some exceptions are generally a good rule for dieting—my strategy was to make everything an exception, apart from 3 or 4, 100% compliance* rules.
(*Disclosure: I did drink one soda that year. It was a business meeting where my job success [sort of] literally depended on me accepting a rather insistent potential client’s beverage offer to keep the meeting headed in a positive direction...so I did. And I still didn’t get the deal. Dammit.)
Ever sounds like having a painful cognitive load. Forbidden Fruit Effect. I would roll a hypothetical 180-sided dice every evening to check if I can eat candy, yielding a yes result on the average twice a year. The dice would be an android app—I don’t know if there is one, but it would be easy to make.
Adopt simple diet prohibitions & daily minimum “must-eat” commitments.
Examples:
For 365 days...
I will consume no candy or fast food. Ever. (*Fast food defined as X, Y, Z restaurants...)
Daily, I must eat 2 raw vegetables and drink 1 liter of water. No matter what. Even If I have to stand over the sink at 2am eating a carrot & a green pepper and washing it down with my daily liter of water...
I used this strategy (with similar, expanded prohibitions/must-eats) for a year (2012).
I found it to be useful and effective because (1) the simplicity of the prohibitions makes it easily manageable and adds no complexity to making dietary decisions (no asking servers about ingredients, Googling nutrition facts, etc.), (2) requiring daily healthy “must-eats” contributed to less hunger for less-than-nutritious foods, in effect displacing “bad calories” from my diet & (3) once successfully adopted, this strategy can (rather easily) be expanded to more comprehensively optimize one’s diet (e.g. 3 vegetables per day plus 1 raw fruit, 2 liters of water; prohibition on candy, fast food & soda).
The results were very significant. I don’t know my exact weight at the time I implemented this strategy, but I would estimate I lost 15-18lbs (down from ~190lbs) and was leaner in terms of body fat % than I’ve been in many years (I also concurrently implemented a simple, consistent strength training program).
Based on my experience, I’d recommend no more than 4 prohibitions & 4 daily must-eats.
In my view, the keys to successfully implementing this strategy are (a) absolute clarity/simplicity of prohibitions/must-eats (b) absolute 100% compliance & (c) sufficient time commitment. You’ve gotta make it feel as easy and necessary as brushing your teeth… then it’ll stick.
This is interesting. I tried a very similar strategy and I was able to maintain it for two months, and then I found that I would collapse unless I made general exceptions (such as “I can do it once a week” or “it’s okay if I’m at a restaurant”).
A similar idea is The No S Diet.
In my experience, I think it is key to only be strict in regard to your prohibitions (& must-eats).
For instance, if my prohibition is specifically against fast food restaurants, a bacon cheeseburger at a fast food place is 100% forbidden, but a bacon cheeseburger at a casual dining (“sit down”) restaurant is okay.
In this way, while the caloric intake might be the same in either case for that particular meal, over time I cultivated a habit of not eating based on convenience and impulse and I was able to generally better plan my meals and gain dietary discipline.
Anyway, to your point, I agree that some exceptions are generally a good rule for dieting—my strategy was to make everything an exception, apart from 3 or 4, 100% compliance* rules.
(*Disclosure: I did drink one soda that year. It was a business meeting where my job success [sort of] literally depended on me accepting a rather insistent potential client’s beverage offer to keep the meeting headed in a positive direction...so I did. And I still didn’t get the deal. Dammit.)
Ever sounds like having a painful cognitive load. Forbidden Fruit Effect. I would roll a hypothetical 180-sided dice every evening to check if I can eat candy, yielding a yes result on the average twice a year. The dice would be an android app—I don’t know if there is one, but it would be easy to make.