You’ve likely heard “all foods are okay in moderation.” While true, most people fail to appropriately use moderation when trying to lose weight and improve their health. Moderation is the best advice no one can follow.
So how do you use moderation effectively?
It’s simple. Use moderation as a BUYING strategy, not an EATING strategy.
When you want pizza, go to your favorite pizzeria and order one or two pieces by the slice, rather than ordering an entire pizza where you have leftovers for days.
When you want ice cream, go to your local ice cream parlor and buy a gourmet scoop of your favorite flavor, or a single serving size from the grocery store, don’t keep an entire gallon in your freezer.
Want Doritos? Buy the travel size, not the family size that enticingly sits on your counter.
Buying foods in single serving sizes removes the reliance of willpower from your daily life, and saves it for only a few moments each week when you make buying decisions.
When unhealthy food is out of sight, it’s out of mind. Eating healthy becomes easy when healthy food is plan A, and plan B.
It’s unlikely that you will go to the grocery store at 11PM to buy a bag of chips if you’re craving something salty. However, if each time you walk through your kitchen that family sized bag of Doritos is staring at you, you’re forced to use willpower to resist each time. Eventually, you cave.
Using moderation as an EATING strategy requires copious amounts of willpower, and usually leads to one of two outcomes.
The first is falling into the trap of eating moderately unhealthy, all day long. That looks like this.
A half a pop tart at breakfast.
Only one soda during your work break.
A couple handfuls of chips and a few handfuls of M&M’s with lunch.
Only half the plate of french-fries with dinner.
Just a tiny bowl of ice cream for dessert.
Sure, each “unhealthy food” was eaten in moderation, but it’s the accumulation of those food choices that matters. In the example above, all we managed to do was eat moderately unhealthy all day long.
Don’t let the idea of moderation lead you into the trap of eating moderately unhealthy all day long!
The second outcome is binge eating, which is equally damaging.
For a few days you manage to moderately eat foods like chips and crackers throughout the week. Then, one night you come home and eat twice as much ice cream as you told yourself you would.
You’re pissed you overate it, say fuck-it, have two more bowls, and your good intentions go down the drain. Depression and self-loathing take over as you can’t believe you ate all that. The next morning you skip the vegetable omelet and opt for a few bowls of sugary cereal. “Hey, what’s the point, I already blew it last night anyway.”
Surrounded by hyper-palatable food, it’s almost impossible NOT to overeat! These foods, found nowhere in nature, are manufactured to hi-jack your taste-buds and negatively influence your satiety hormones (the ones that tell your brain you’re full). You can’t win with these foods constantly around!
Stocked up on granola bars, sugary cereal, chips, ice cream, soda, and crackers, temptation hits you with every opening of a cupboard or the fridge. And against these odds, you use willpower (a limited resource), to execute moderation as an eating strategy. You’re destined to fail!
It’s not you, it’s your approach.
You’re the equivalent of a horny 19 year old teenager trying to be abstinent in Amsterdam, you won’t last long!
Don’t believe foods have this type of impact? Read the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food.” I recommend it to any client who has weight loss goals, as it discusses how foods are manufactured to be almost impossible to say no to.
Understanding how food impacts your physiology, and recognizing that it’s difficult to eat processed foods in moderation is incredible empowering. It’s the reason I NEVER carry guilt and fall off the wagon when I occasionally over indulge. It’s also the reason I know using moderation as an eating strategy doesn’t usually work.
Set yourself up for success by using moderation as a BUYING strategy, not an EATING strategy.