Abandon the mindset of consistency: Eat plenty of healthy foods

You know, people often say "Oh, I'm really bad at doing this" before eating a whole slice of chocolate cake. This creates a hierarchy of food, as if eating cake is a bad thing. Guess what emotions this evokes? Guilt and shame.

There's no inherent good or bad in food choices; some foods are beneficial for health and weight loss, while others are harmful. When you eat a donut, you don't need to feel like you've betrayed your best friend or that you're a bad person. What you need to realize is that you're eating it for enjoyment, not for survival, and that you might gain a little belly fat. There's nothing wrong with eating it, just that there will be consequences.

Abandon the mindset of consistency and eat plenty of healthy foods.

Have you ever wondered why you're more likely to binge on potato chips than broccoli? You might think it's because chips taste better and are easier to stuff into your mouth, which is true to some extent, but there's an even more dangerous reason.

We're unlikely to eat large amounts of healthy food because of a preconceived notion. Everyone knows potato chips cause weight gain because they're high in carbohydrates, fat, and calories, and don't provide much satiety. So, when someone starts eating potato chips, they perceive it as a "bad choice." We tend to strive for consistency, and eating too many potato chips is equivalent to making two mistakes in weight loss (the food itself causes weight gain, and the quantity consumed is excessive). Maintaining consistency with these mistakes makes us feel psychologically comfortable, even if we later regret it. We might all think: since I've already made this mistake, I might as well continue down this path.

When we eat broccoli, we're aware that what we're doing is good for our health, and overeating something seems to be the "opposite" to good things. Because we're "behaving well," we don't want to overeat and compromise our good performance. However, overeating healthy foods is nearly impossible, and artificially restricting your intake of healthy foods is unwise. If you restrict your broccoli intake now, you'll end up eating more of other things later. I'm not saying you have to eat a lot of broccoli, but rather that you don't need to worry about overeating healthy foods.

One reason why real food is more satiating than ultra-processed food is sensory satiety. This concept refers to the feeling of not wanting to eat a certain amount of a food after eating it. For me, eggnog and chocolate fudge quickly give me sensory satiety; they taste good, but the flavors are too strong, "too noticeable," so I can't eat too much of them.

Food scientists know this and have found ways to circumvent it. We tend to eat and drink more when food or beverages have a variety of different flavors. Did you know that manufacturers design soft drinks to taste good, with slightly different and less intense flavors, precisely to avoid giving you a feeling of sensory satiety, thus encouraging you to drink more? That's true.

If you have healthy food around, eat as much as you want. The words "healthy food" and "large portion" together might seem a little odd, because our common sense tells us not to overeat. However, with fruits and vegetables, eating more rarely causes problems. The 24-year study mentioned earlier, involving over 100,000 people, found a correlation between weight loss and fruit intake, meaning that eating more fruit will help you lose more weight.

I often eat large amounts of chilled fruit (usually mangoes and blueberries), sprinkling cinnamon powder on the fruit as a dessert, but I usually only eat 200 to 300 calories before I feel completely full.

The goal is not to lose weight, but to avoid gaining weight.

A study of African American women found that aiming to avoid gaining weight led to greater weight loss than aiming to lose weight. Wanting to "lose weight" makes you think you need to do more than usual, implying you're "falling behind" and need to work extra hard, but that's not true. This thinking leads to a "scarcity mindset," making you believe you need to eat less (both of which contribute to weight gain). Aiming to avoid gaining weight, on the other hand, focuses on the food you're currently eating and preventing overeating (rather than constantly trying to create an energy deficit).

"Heavy" thoughts that need to be eliminated

Some thoughts can actually make you gain weight because they significantly influence your behavior. If you want to lose weight, you must eliminate these thoughts.

1. “I can trust this food.” People tend to place too much trust in the food industry. You need to remember that food sellers are in business; your health is not their primary concern. This includes “diet foods” that you think are effective, but are not.

If a food product is labeled "slimming," it generally means it contains artificial sweeteners. A nine-year study in San Antonio found that people who drank 21 bottles of artificially sweetened beverages per week were almost twice as likely to be overweight or obese compared to those who didn't drink them, with a 47% greater rate of weight gain: "There was a clear positive vector effect between basal ASB intake and all outcome measures." Another study found that beverages with added artificial sweeteners may be more likely to cause weight gain than beverages with added sugar.

2. "I should reward myself." Puppies need food as a reward; humans need something more meaningful. We need a broader term than "reward" because there are many other ways to reward ourselves besides food. Finding alternative ways to reward ourselves is an important way to change habits like overeating and stress eating.

3. “This meal is just a small exception.” Special circumstances and exceptions are the enemy of persistence, and therefore the enemy of successful weight loss. Remember how we discussed how small changes can have a huge impact through the process of reintroduction? The same applies to small “exceptions.” The phrase “just this once” may sound harmless, but it can lead to addiction or an inability to break the habit, thus ruining many people’s efforts. We need to understand that small changes in life, once reintroduced, can make your life better or worse. Never underestimate the benefits of eating a carrot, and never ignore the potential downsides of “just this once.” (Note: Micro-habits minimize your need and craving for exceptions.)