The brain and body like seamless, easy changes, so let’s start there.
Make It Easy
The significant advantage that processed foods have always had over healthy foods is their convenience. A bag of chips can sit on your shelf for months, and it is ready to eat the instant you want it. That’s easy. Cutting a piece of fruit—one of the easier preparations of healthy food—is comparably difficult.
A healthy meal could mean two hours or more of cooking and cleaning, and if you don’t cook the ingredients in time, they may spoil! But there are many ways to make healthy eating as easy (or almost as easy) as eating processed food.
I’m both a bona-fide “health nut” and certified lazy person. This is tricky, because healthy living is generally difficult to do in the USA. This conundrum has forced me to be creative. With these two traits, I’ve had to learn how to make healthy living really easy, or else I’d self-destruct from frustration. Here are some practical ways to make the right choices competitive with the typically easier weight-gaining choices.
Make it Easy Meal Ideas
Buy a rotisserie chicken and use the meat in various dishes through the rest of the week. Rotisserie chickens will last at least 3-4 days in the refrigerator. If you have a family to feed, you’ll go through one in no time.
Buy frozen vegetables that you can microwave or cook on the stovetop quickly. Frozen food in general is fantastic, because it retains all of the nutritional value of fresh produce, it doesn’t go bad for a very, very long time, and it’s easy to prepare.
Master the stir-fry! I favor broccoli, so I’ll cook the (frozen) broccoli in a pan with coconut or olive oil, add multi-purpose seasoning (without salt), pepper, ginger, and turmeric, and when it’s nearing completion, I toss in some of the pre-cooked chicken to warm it up. It’s a healthy and satiating meal. It’s easy, it’s delicious, and it’s fast (maybe 10-20 minutes to prepare). Finding simple healthy routines like this is essential for weight loss, and it’s something you’ll want to think about a lot, because it makes a big difference. Here are a few more tips.
Learn some slow cooker recipes. Throw it all in the pot and come back when it’s ready.
My breakfast is often eggs, cheese, bread, and avocado. Eggs are very easy to prepare for breakfast. If you’re really in a hurry, you can microwave them in one minute. There are a number of microwave cookers specially designed for eggs. I have the Nordic Ware Microwave Egg Boiler; it boils four eggs in eight minutes and the shells come off easily. These days, I cook eggs in a pan (olive oil) because it’s fast, easy, and tastes better.
Dessert? Frozen fruit is one of the single greatest weight loss inventions in history. It may sound ridiculous, but having to cut fruit is enough resistance for many people (like me) to not eat it. Frozen fruit is already cut and ready to eat. Whenever I want a sweet snack, I’m happy, because my freezer is fully stocked with a variety of frozen fruits. These are good enough to eat right out of the bag, but you can also combine them with whole plain yogurt (which makes for an excellent breakfast, snack, or dessert).
My go-to dessert is a bowl of frozen fruit (usually mangoes, strawberries, and blueberries) with a generous amount of cinnamon on top. It tastes as good as any dessert I’ve had, and it’s extremely healthy and weight loss-friendly. When the fruit thaws about halfway, it tastes glorious, and don’t forget that fruit is one of the best foods for weight loss (according to both theoretical and observational science).
This is just what I do to make healthy eating easy. There are thousands of other ideas to make food healthier, easier to prepare, and more delicious than you thought possible. But you must look for them. When I wanted to have healthier breakfasts, I researched the easiest ways to prepare eggs. When I wanted to cook more meals at home, I researched and found that cooking meat and veggies in a pan is fast and easy. Whatever your needs, there is certainly an easy solution out there.
Before I cooked my own food, I always assumed it was difficult and took a long time. I’ve since discovered that it can be quick and easy. If you’re averse to cooking, start with the easiest dishes like the ones I’ve mentioned here, and see if it’s as bad as you thought. If you still think cooking is the worst thing in the world, then consider a healthy meal delivery service. You can get home-cooked, healthy meals delivered to you in more places than ever. Most of them cater to health-conscious individuals, so you won’t get a lot of the fattening additives that restaurants use.
Instant, Permanent, Easy Substitutions
There are a few easy substitutions that everyone can make immediately for long-lasting benefits. These substitutions can take you far all on their own and they don’t “cost” you anything. You make the decision once and live life as usual.
Switch to whole grain products. It’s astonishing how much better whole grains are for you than refined grains. It’s not “a little bit better.” Whole grains are a quality food, and refined grains are weight-gaining. Whole grains have more antioxidants, fiber, and nutrients, and are slower to digest. If you don’t think they taste as good as their refined counterparts (like white rice and white flour), you can learn to enjoy them as much or more. Tip: Think about the health benefits of the food as you eat it. I believe this is what changed my mind about sauerkraut and kale.
Exclusively use coconut oil and olive oil for cooking. You know that one oil you always cook with? Coconut oil and olive oil are better for your health and your waistline. They have great flavor, too!
Use olive oil, herbs, spices, and vinegar for dressings and dips. We want things to taste good, but that doesn’t mean we have to gain weight with the standard “soybean oil and sugar” dressings sold in grocery stores. Olive oil and balsamic vinegar make for a great salad dressing. You can also add black pepper, herbs, cheese, and spices to flavor salads. If you’re having (whole grain) garlic bread, olive oil and fresh garlic will make you dance.
Need dip? Go for hummus and guacamole! Ranch dressing is soybean oil with make-up on. Instead, use hummus or guacamole for a veggie dip. Healthy hummus and guacamole can be prepared and even store-bought (read the ingredients!).
Use large forks and small plates. If you want to change your dinnerware to psychologically help with portion control, the right combination is small plates and large forks, which have both been shown in studies to lead to less food consumption. It’s worth mentioning because it’s a one-time change that could help, but mindful eating is more important. You can do well, even if you’re unfortunate enough to have small forks and large plates.
Since portion size is less important than eating quality food, it’s probably not worth throwing out all of your dishes in favor of a smaller set. Rather, simply be aware that plate and bowl size affects your portion choices, and adjust accordingly. But try to pick enough food. One study showed that people ate less when they “filled their plate” with enough food, instead of going back for seconds.
Whatever you do, try not to let plate size determine your satiety. Believe your body when it tells you it’s had enough, regardless of how much food remains on the plate. Buy some Tupperware and practice saving food for later when you’re satisfied. It’ll be there when you’re hungry again.
Eating Psychology
Never require yourself to finish or “clean” your plate. It would be interesting to know the statistics on how many people eat with the goal to finish all of the food. Logically, using the amount of food that’s on your plate to determine how much you eat doesn’t make any sense, especially at restaurants, since they determine your serving size.
Think about two opposing eating habits: When you’re served a plate of food, one possible habit is to attempt to eat everything on it. Another possible habit is to disregard the serving size and eat the precise amount your body tells you to eat, no more and no less. If you have the plate-finishing habit, that means you have been ignoring your body’s signals. Put another way, it means you’re probably way out of sync with your body’s satiety signaling. If you ignore what you
r body is telling you in favor of the almighty “finish the plate” goal, that’s exactly the behavior you’ll get good at. The good news is that your body still sends these signals; you just have to decide to pay closer attention.
Finishing the food on your plate is less important than your health and well-being. Wouldn’t you agree? To clarify, this isn’t about eating fewer calories. Healthy people aim for neither calorie restriction nor calorie surplus.
Successful weight loss requires no counting, monitoring, or micromanagement of portion sizes. All it requires is that you eat mindfully. Mindful eaters never aim to finish their plate, because their decision is internally based. They may or may not end up finishing, but it has nothing to do with the amount of food on their plate and everything to do with what their body is telling them.
As for when to stop eating, eat to satisfaction, not to explosion. Overeating is a cultural and habitual practice. In Japan, there’s a popular concept called “hara hachi bu,” which basically means “eat to 80% fullness.” This is a solid guideline, and it isn’t semi-starvation. When you stop at 80% fullness, you’ll enjoy the whole eating experience more. Inflammation and hormonal issues can disrupt the way your satiety signaling operates, but this is best treated by mindfully eating healthy foods as a staple.
Alcohol Strategy
A great strategy for alcohol consumption is to simultaneously drink water. If you have several drinks in a night for fun, I’m not going to stop you, and you might not stop yourself, so instead of counting the night as a loss, make an effort to drink water too. This will help keep you hydrated, prevent hangovers, and minimize the damage of drinking too much alcohol.
One of the biggest risks for alcohol is how it might impact your food eating habits. It lowers inhibition and may increase your appetite for weight-gaining foods. I recommend looking at your previous behavior to form your strategy.
If you find yourself overdoing alcohol whenever you begin drinking, try to drink less often, to minimize your alcohol-related weight gain. If you always stop at one or two drinks, then you’re probably fine, unless drinking causes poor eating habits, in which case you can either try to reroute your habits (with the temptation strategy we’ll cover later) or drink on fewer nights.
Food Mini Habit Ideas
The preceding information is something to keep in mind, but not a “mandatory” part of this strategy. The following mini habit ideas will be the foundation of your successful change into a healthier person.
When you’re down, sick, or have low energy, your mini habits are easy enough to accomplish. When you’re full of energy and motivation to change, you’ll have bonus activities to further your progress. You’ll act more consistently and intelligently than you ever have before, because your goal will finally be adaptable to you, allowing you to achieve precisely what you are able to each day. Unlike most strategies, which require a superhuman amount of willpower for consistent success, this strategy is built for success, no matter what state you’re currently (or will be) in.
The Ideal Mini Habit
The ideal mini habit is something extremely easy to do that also begins the process of engagement. For example, one push-up can begin the process of exercising. Eating one raw vegetable can begin the process of eating more vegetables. When you begin a process, you’re likely to continue doing it. Put another way, you’re most likely to do what you just did.
Whether or not you do bonus reps is optional, so don’t feel bad if you don’t. If you never do extra for a full month, then ask yourself if your mini habit really starts the process, or if you need to add in one more step to get engaged with the behavior. Mini habits are sparks. Any spark has the potential to become an inferno.
If you can achieve more on any day, do it. It feels great to overachieve goals, even small ones. We’re used to setting high targets, falling short of them, and feeling inadequate when we do. This time, you’ll meet or exceed your goals every day. Think about the psychological difference: A modest “normal goal” is to run a mile every day. A typical mini habit is to run for 30 seconds. If you run for half a mile, according to the normal goal, you’ve failed. According to the mini habit, you’ve not only succeeded—you’ve done more than expected!
A mini habit encourages progress in any amount. A typical goal suggests that progress is only valuable in large chunks, which is so inaccurate and nonsensical that it makes me angry. Every single thing on planet Earth is comprised of infinitesimally small matter. Every single success can be traced back to small individual steps, so this is a way to align your intentions with the way progress and success naturally work. The only kind of big “chunk wins” possible in life are things like winning the lottery (good luck). All of life’s other wins—such as achieving goals and losing weight—are based on your small daily decisions and actions.
It feels good to win, and when you start to win every day, you will change into a winner. Yeah, it sounds cheesy to say that, but those who win frequently act more confidently and proactively because they learn to expect success, and their success will fuel further success. I call it success cycling.
Many people try to turn motivation into success, but they have it backwards. Success and motivation fuel each other, but the most reliable starting point is success, which leads to motivation, which then leads to more success. The mini habits on this page give you an opportunity for daily success, no matter how unmotivated you may feel. When you string together days, weeks, and months of this success, you’re going to become a better, stronger, more successful version of your current self. The experience is difficult to put into words, because at no point does it seem reasonable that such small behaviors could do so much for one’s life. But they do, and it’s thrilling.
Food Mini Habits
My only fear is that you’ll be disappointed by this list, as it’s quite short and the behaviors are simple. This is a good thing, but it might not feel that way if you’re accustomed to highly demanding, complex weight loss systems that dieting culture has created. This is different, because those don’t work! The strongest strategies are as simple as possible while still being effective.
Within each of these ideas is a massive amount of variation, so you won’t ever be short for options. But the basic ideas are simple because weight loss is accomplished by increased mindfulness, a healthier diet, and increased movement. The way you eat food, your emotional health, and your perspective can also impact your weight (mostly by indirectly affecting those core three factors), so there will be some mini habits related to those.
As you look through these and think about which ones you’d like to try, don’t think about doing them all. You want to have a maximum of four mini habits, such as two food mini habits and one or two fitness mini habits. In chapter eight, we’ll discuss exactly how to integrate these ideas (and the general and fitness mini habits) into your life with a mini habit plan.
Eat one extra serving of fruit: It’s important to know how much one serving is so you know what to aim for. One serving of fruit is one apple, one large cup of berries, one banana, or one orange. It’s also important to always have fruit on hand if this is your mini habit. If you like it as easy as possible like me, buy frozen fruit, as it’s ready to eat and doesn’t spoil. I strongly recommend buying organic berries and peaches, as the conventional ones contain a high amount of pesticides. Berries and peaches are part of the “dirty dozen” (a name for the most pesticide-laden foods). If you buy conventional, rinse well.
Fruit Bonus: Eat additional fruit or add full-fat plain yogurt to your fruit.
Eat one extra serving of fresh vegetables: For some people, aiming to consume one serving of vegetables doesn’t make sense, since they already consume that daily. In that case, you can get more specific, like one serving of raw vegetables or one more serving than is typical. Ideas include: one full carrot, three pieces of broccoli, two pieces of cauliflower, half a bell pepper (red, green, yellow), one celery stick, one fourth of a cucumber, one handful of spinach,
eight slices of raw radish, or whatever suits your tastes. If you want, you can count fruits that seem like vegetables as vegetables (e.g., four cherry tomatoes or half an avocado).
If you want dip for your raw vegetables, use hummus, which, in its simplest form, is pureed chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, tahini (ground sesame seeds), garlic, salt, and pepper. Another option is guacamole, which is avocado, onions, garlic, tomato, lime, salt, and pepper. Be cautious about buying prepackaged dips from the store, as you may end up getting three bathtubs of salt in every serving, added preservatives (inflammatory), and even sugar. “Vegetable dips” are almost always disguised soybean oil. Eating vegetables covered in soybean oil and other weight-gaining ingredients is not ideal. It may be a stepping stone to the ideal (if that’s the only way you’ll eat them, do it), but it’s not the ideal.
Mini Habits for Weight Loss: Stop Dieting. Form New Habits. Change Your Lifestyle Without Suffering. Page 16