The Nudge Diet

My Saturdays are disgusting.

On a typical Saturday in Amsterdam, my diet will look something like this:

A large slice of apple pie with cream
A large latte macchiato with sugar
A toasted cheese and ham sandwich with extra mayonnaise
A cappuccino with sugar
A half-dozen mini Toblerones
A quarter pounder with bacon
A bottle of soda
A couple of slices of pizza
A serving of french fries
Another cappuccino
Another half-dozen mini Toblerones
A bigger bar of milk chocolate
And maybe some muesli with full-fat yogurt

I’ve been consuming such junk every Saturday for about eighteen months now, and I still have a six pack.

Granted, I exercise regularly, but rarely do I spend more than 2.5 hours a week intentionally raising my heart rate.

Mostly it’s my eating habits that I have to thank for my enduring washboard abs, and in this article I’m going to tell you exactly what those habits are.

I like to refer to my setup as “the nudge diet”, but it’s not really a diet. It’s more a framework anyone can use to nudge themselves towards healthier food choices most of the time. Whether you’re vegan, paleo, something more extreme or in between, this article should help you stick more to your ideal (assuming you know what your ideal is).

Let’s start with some general principles, and then I’ll tell you exactly how I put them into practice.

4 Principles For Better Eating

These are the four principles, discussed in detail further down.

Set Food Rules
Plan Your Indulgences
Use Trade-Offs
Slow Down

1. Set Food Rules

Some people really balk at this concept. I can hear them now: “Why have rules at all? Why not just eat whatever you feel like eating?”

Here are three reasons for setting some food rules for yourself:

a) If you eat what you want, when you want, most likely you’ll soon become fat and unhealthy. Our bodies are hardwired to want salt, sugar and fat. Food companies know this and so overload their products with salt, sugar and fat.

b) As Brain Wansink brilliantly illustrates in Mindless Eating, we are largely unconscious of what influences our eating. The size of your plate, the music in the supermarket, the words on the label… all of that and more has a huge impact on what you eat and how much (seriously, read the book; the examples are fascinating). Setting rules in advance helps us overcome these influences and eat more mindfully.

c) Quoting Wansink:

“My lab’s research has shown that the average person makes well over 200 decisions about food every day.”

Setting yourself a few food rules drastically reduces that number and thus delays decision fatigue. So instead of playing “will I or won’t I?” every time you pass the cookie jar, you have the decision made in advance (e.g. “I only eat cookies on weekends”) and can save yourself the torment, and the mental energy.

Here are a few examples of food rules you could set for yourself:

I will only eat chocolate on weekends.
I will only eat fast food once per week.
I will only have one cup of coffee per day.
I will only eat meat at one meal per day.
When ordering a drink, I will always ask for the smallest size.
I have to put everything I want to eat in front of me before I start eating. No going back for seconds.

Those are just examples. You can use some of them or create your own. Keep it simple to start by setting just 1-3 rules for yourself.

But be sure to sit down and decide on your rules in advance. Again, you want to avoid having to decide whether you should say yes or no every time you’re offered a cookie or a coffee.

2. Plan Your Indulgences

Most diets fail because they’re too strict. They try to cut out certain foods forever. Most people end up sticking to them for a while but then they cave and binge on the forbidden fruit.

Given this tendency, a smarter approach is to accept that you will probably fall off the wagon eventually, and to consciously plan for that fall.

I do this in the form of a treat day (others call it “cheat day” or “binge day”).

I try to eat super healthy six days a week, staying away from a bunch of foods I’ve identified as troublesome for me, and then on Saturdays I go nuts and eat whatever the hell I want.

Allowing myself off the leash once a week keeps me sane, and seems to work out well health-wise on the whole. It also makes my Saturdays a lot more fun