- A MEALENDERS PUBLICATION -

A DIETITIAN’S GUIDE TO

ACHIEVING YOUR HEALTHY LIVING

GOALSPRACTICAL EXPERT TIPS & TRICKS FOR LASTING SUCCESS

By Tami J. Lyon, MPH, RD

CONTENTS

3Introduction

4Plan for Success

8Less is More

10Take Baby Steps

14Let Your Goals Be Known

16Don’t Aim Too High

18Do It for the Future You

21Conclusion

Every year, millions of Americans resolve to improve themselves. Healthier living consistently ranks among the top

self-improvement goals. At any given time, about 64% of people are making changes to improve the health of their diet with the

primary driver being weight loss. But how many of those changes stick? If you’re looking to make sustainable change

rather than just achieve short term weight loss, here are some techniques that will make your healthier habits a permanent part

of your lifestyle.

INTRODUCTION

PLAN FOR SUCCESS

A Little Preparation Goes a Long Way

Often, when resolving to make big changes—like lose weight, exercise more, or just eat more healthfully—people are eager to jump right in. But without proper preparation, it can be hard to make changes stick. It’s best to step back and think about how to prepare yourself and your environment for success.

⃝ Mess Breeds Stress: A recent study at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab demonstrated that when we feel out of control, a chaotic environment can influence us to eat more. Female participants who were given a stress-inducing task, and then told to wait for someone in a messy, noisy kitchen ate twice as many cookies as equally-stressed participants who waited in the same kitchen when it was calm and organized. While surprising on first glance, this makes a lot of sense when you think about how stressors of all kinds—work, relationships, financial—can influence eating behavior. It just shows that even the smallest stressors, like a disorderly or noisy environment, can derail your healthy eating efforts.

When it comes to healthy living, you're faced with decisions every day, many times a day, that can support or sabotage your efforts. It’s surprising when you realize the kinds of factors that can influence those decisions and, ultimately, your eating and fitness habits. Take a moment to think about your lifestyle as you review some examples below.

⃝ Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Studies have indicated that you can actually reduce caloric intake by keeping food off your kitchen counters. A study conducted in Syracuse, New York revealed that women who had boxes of cereal on their kitchen counters weighed 20 lbs. more than their neighbors whose counters were clear of food. With soda on the counter, the weight differential was 24-26 lbs. And on the flip side? The women who had a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter weighed 13 lbs. less than other women in the neighborhood.

⃝ You can with the CAN Method (Convenient, Attractive and Normal): Focus on making healthier foods Convenient and easily available. Increase their appeal by presenting them in an Attractive manner. Finally, crowd out unhealthy foods by purchasing and preparing more nutritious items, making them the new Normal in your household. Just making healthier foods easily accessible and pleasing to the eye will go a long way in helping you become a healthier eater. Purchase healthier, minimally-processed foods in abundance and prepare them in advance (e.g., wash the grapes, peel the carrots), so they are convenient to grab and become part of your normal eating routine. Try to arrange them to have appetite appeal (e.g., compile a colorful crudité platter for your home or office refrigerator; have a beautiful fruit bowl as a centerpiece on the table, etc.)

⃝ The Dinner Party Effect: Be especially mindful of your portion sizes when you dine with other people. Research by John de Castro, PhD revealed that the number of people present at a meal was positively correlated with meal size.

⃝ Exercise to the Beat: Want to know a secret ergogenic aid? Music. Researcher Costas Karageorghis, PhD, of Brunel University in London has studied the positive effect of music on exercise and training for years. Listening to your favorite tunes while working out has been shown to reduce perceived effort, enhance mood, increase work output, and provide distraction from pain and fatigue. Music makes exercise more enjoyable, and we tend to stay with activities we like.

STUDY SPOTLIGHT

John de Castro, PhD investigated social influences on eating by having people keep diaries of their eating-related activities. Subjects ate 33% more food when they ate with one other person. Furthermore, food intake continued to climb with additional dining partners, increasing 47% with two additional diners, 58% with three, 69% with four, 70% with five, 72% with six, and almost twice as much (96%) with seven or more diners.

Gluttony Loves Company.

When you become aware of the factors that influence your eating and fitness choices, you can alter your surroundings and routines in a way that bolsters your healthy living efforts.

Think about what visual, social or environmental eating triggers you’re vulnerable to, and what tends to keep you from engaging in fitness activities. Then, devise a plan for overcoming those negative influences.

… prepare yourself and your environment for success.“

“

6. Sort through your take-out menus and toss those that don’t fit with a healthy diet. List the best choices from each of the remaining menus along with contact information. Keep this short-list handy, so when you want to order out, you’re working from a list that supports your efforts.

7. Schedule a time to tidy the kitchen every day. Clear the counters, wash dirty dishes, and organize the foods in the refrigerator.

8. Keep a list of available healthy foods on the refrigerator or on a nearby dry-erase board. Rather than browsing the refrigerator or shelves, check the list for good meal or snack options.

9. Planning some dinners out with friends? Peruse the menu online and select your meal in advance so you have time to focus and choose the best option(s) for your health goals. If you’re racing through the menu because you are eager to return to an engaging conversation, you may order the first appealing food you see, not necessarily the healthiest.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Change your usual drinks and appetizers date with a friend to a weekly walk or yoga class together.

2. Go through your kitchen cabinets and pick out the less healthy foods that could cause temptation (cookies, cereal, chips, etc.) Then, review each item and either toss it, or put it in the back of the highest cupboard.

3. Make two columns on your grocery list. On the left, write down all of the healthier foods you want to purchase. On the right, list the less healthy foods you want to buy. The left column should be two to three times longer than the right.

4. Create playlists for your workouts. Select songs that get you fired up and make you want to move.

5. Use music as a reward. Put your favorite song at the end of your playlist so you know the best is yet to come. Buy a new song or download the latest playlist as a reward for a great workout.

LESS IS MORELimit How Much You Take On At Once

Think of your personal improvement goals as costly construction projects, and the mental energy required to achieve them as your limited budget. In order to complete construction, you’ll need to make sure that each of your projects is adequately funded. If you take on too many projects at one time and don’t

So it is with goals: Each goal you set requires mental energy and effort. If you take on too many, you may spread yourself too thin to be successful. When it comes to weight loss, this is a particularly important concept. The overarching goal of weight loss is comprised of multiple unique changes, each tapping into your collective willpower.

Stanford Professor Barbara Shiv conducted a study about willpower, and why it can be so easily toppled. The study showed that a heavier cognitive load can negatively affect our decisions, leading to poor food choices. (See sidebar on next page.)

have the money to cover them all, you’ll have a bunch of half-built buildings—which ultimately amounts to zero progress.

STUDY SPOTLIGHT

The overarching goal of weight loss is comprised of multiple unique changes, each tapping into your collective willpower.

“ “So what does Professor Shiv’s study mean to you? Take it easy, and focus on one or two goals at a time.

The bottom line is you need to clearly identify the specific changes you want to make in order to lose weight, which we’ll explore in more depth in the next section.

Stanford Professor Barbara Shiv’s study put willpower to the test by splitting several dozen undergraduates into two groups. One group was charged with remembering a two-digit number, while the other group was responsible for recalling seven digits. Then, subjects were led down the hall and offered their choice of snack: either a slice of chocolate cake or a bowl of fruit salad. As it turns out, subjects with seven digits to remember were more than twice as likely to choose the cake, showing how a heavier cognitive load can affect our decisions.

Use Your Head.(But Not Too Much.)

TAKE BABY STEPSUse Measurable (and Reasonable) Mile Markers

Whether your overall goal is to lose weight, improve your running times, or simply live healthier, you’ll want to break it down into small, measurable (and achievable) steps and use clear planning prompts, as shown by Wharton Professor Katherine Milkman in her recent study on achieving goals. (See sidebar page 13.) For example, in order to lose weight, you’ll need to improve your eating and exercise habits. For each of these categories, create a more specific goal, plus several behavioral steps that you can measure.

If you decide that you want to lose ten pounds in the next 6 months, consider what quantifiable aspects of your life must be changed to achieve this. Think through the dietary habits that have the greatest impact on your weight, and focus on improving those. Maybe it’s eating fewer meals at cafes and restaurants, or perhaps it’s stopping when comfortably full, or just eating more vegetables. No matter what it is, use numbers and time frames to assess your progress.

Here are a few good healthy eating goals to start you off:

1. Monday through Thursday I will have one cup of oatmeal with ½ cup of fruit and coffee at home instead of my usual sticky bun and Grande Mocha at Starbucks.

2. Monday through Friday I will pack my lunch from home instead of going out to eat. I’ll use low-calorie lunch ideas from my cookbooks at home and incorporate them as recipes in my meal plan.

3. I will pause when I feel 80 percent full or finish my plate of food and then wait 15 minutes before deciding to get more food. In the meantime, I’ll move on to other activities. If I still feel hungry, I will strive to make my second helping vegetables and not dessert.

4. When I find myself hovering in front of the fridge or the cupboard late at night, I will instead drink a cup of tea, brush my teeth, or take a MealEnder to keep my mouth and mind busy and get myself past that moment of temptation.

5. The first item on my dinner plate will be vegetables, and I’ll make sure they cover 50 percent of my plate.

6. I will plan out my meals for the week on Sunday after breakfast. Then using that menu, I’ll make a grocery list and go shopping on Sunday after lunch.

1. I will walk 10,000 steps, five days a week and 5,000 steps one day a week.

2. I’ll buy a second pair of walking shoes to keep at work and walk for 30 minutes during my lunch hour four days a week.

3. I’ll sign up for the Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9:00 am yoga class on Tuesday and will start class the following Wednesday.

4. Either Saturday or Sunday, our family will do an activity together, such as hiking, biking or kayaking. On Wednesday evening, we will select the activity for the following weekend.

5. Beginning next weekend, I’ll take a weekly Saturday afternoon salsa class with my friend Susan.

You may want to come up with some exercise goals as well:

…create a more specific goal plus several behavioral steps that you can measure.“

“

Notice that each of these goals requires planning and yields outcomes that can be measured. You cannot control exactly how and when your body loses weight, but you can control the behavioral steps that you take to achieve that end. If you are not succeeding with your larger goal, it’s time to re-evaluate your effectiveness in defining and sticking to the smaller steps.

STUDY SPOTLIGHT

Wharton Professor Katherine Milkman conducted a series of studies that found that there are relatively small and simple steps we can take to abide by our personal aspirations and achieve a healthy lifestyle. Her first study looks at the outcomes of planning prompts, and shows that when we write down the date and time of our intended action (be it getting a flu shot, going to the gym, or eating a healthy meal), we’re much more likely to follow through.

Write it Down.

It can be tempting to subconsciously relax our goals, or make excuses for falling short, when we start experiencing how challenging they can be to reach. It helps to commit to your goals in verbal and written form to constantly remind yourself of what you’d like to accomplish. In fact, research by Professor Gail Matthews of Dominican University in California shows that we’re twice as likely to achieve our goals if we’re accountable to other people. (See sidebar on next page.)

1. Write down your goals and post them in the kitchen and on your desk at work. Be thorough—make the list your new screen saver on your phone and/or laptop.

Shout it from the Rooftops

LET YOUR GOALS BE KNOWN

One way to avoid this is to describe the hard work that needs to be done to reach your goal, thus deriving as little satisfaction from the announcement itself as possible. For example, rather than saying, “I’m going to lose 10 pounds in the next 3 months,” say, “In order to lose these extra 10 pounds, I’m going to need to have veggies with dinner every night instead of starches, skip the chips and drink water instead of soda during lunch, and walk first thing in the morning three times a week. I need you to call me out on it if I cheat.”

2. Telling friends and family about your goals can increase your sense of accountability. On the other hand, it can backfire by providing a rush of satisfaction that gives your brain the perception of having already achieved the goal, so you feel less motivated to actually do so.

STUDY SPOTLIGHT

5. You can even talk about it to your dog, or your kid’s stuffed animal if sharing your goal with anyone else causes anxiety that could interfere with your efforts. It sounds silly, but seeing that person, pooch or mascot after that will serve as a reminder of your goals.

6. Old school as it may seem, a good old checklist is also very effective in keeping us on track. Hand write a goal sheet, ideally hang it on the door or someplace where you can’t help but see it several times a day, and check off the boxes as you meet your daily goals. Gold stars work too (and will get your kids involved if you have any).

Dr. Gail Matthews of Dominican University in California conducted a study of 267 participants, where she set out to determine the value of writing down our goals, committing to goal-related actions, and being held accountable for those actions. Her studies found 70 percent of participants who sent weekly updates to a friend reported reaching their goals, whereas 35 percent of subjects who were accountable to only themselves achieved success.

Tell a Friend.

3. Be specific about how people can help: educate them on how they can support you. You might tell co-workers that you will be bringing your lunch from home and even ask them if they care to join you in brown bagging it a couple of days a week (it’ll also help them save money!). Ask them not to offer you donuts or candy if they bring treats to the office.

4. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to friends and colleagues about your weight loss goals—maybe you feel a little embarrassed or are worried of being judged or critiqued for any missteps—consider picking someone that you see frequently but don’t know well, such as the barista where you buy your coffee, and casually mention what you are aspiring to accomplish.

DON’T AIM TOO HIGHBe Realistic

Developing new habits is about persistence, not perfection. If you miss a daily goal, it’s not the end of the world, and definitely should not spell the end of your weight loss efforts. Rather, it’s an opportunity to understand your old habits from a new perspective, and to recognize what fuels them and the function they serve.

If you find yourself at Starbucks on a Tuesday, munching on the same old sticky bun and slurping down a mocha, take a moment to think about it. You may realize that you were subconsciously motivated by something as simple as running out of the fruit that you like with your oatmeal.

Contrary to many commercial diet programs, weight loss is not an all-or-nothing effort. As human beings, our lives are one big gray zone. We cannot give 100 percent to everything we do, and we can’t do our best all of the time—that would be exhausting. Rather, it’s important that we come to understand how we react to success and failure, and learn how we can fine-tune any behaviors that sabotage our efforts to improve our health.

Plus, a healthy lifestyle isn’t all about weight loss, and you may not see immediate or fast results on the scale. For example, while exercise is tremendously health promoting, it may not result in significant weight loss without concurrent dietary changes, potentially setting you up for discouragement. According to an NIH study on obesity, “reward-seekers” (those who measure their success solely by the number of pounds lost) have a lower rate of success when it comes to dieting and weight loss.

…create space for failure so you can reap the wealth of knowledge that failure provides and continue on the road to success.

“ “Weight loss results from changing patterns, so first focus on your actions. Ask yourself these questions: How closely matched are your weight loss expectations with what you are actually doing? How consistent are you about incorporating these new behaviors into your routine? Focus less on your so-called reward (weight loss) and more on the new, healthier routines you’ve instilled along the way.

DO IT FOR THE FUTURE YOUWeight Loss Is an Akrasia Thing

You know that eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly is good for you, yet it can be so darn hard to do in the moment. This internal struggle of not wanting to do right now what we know is good for us in the long run is referred to as “akrasia” by psychologists.

As described by Jess Whittlestone in Quartz, goals that have a delayed benefit tend to be the most difficult to achieve. The fact that the benefit of skipping that second helping of dinner—weight loss—is long term and not right in front of us, makes it difficult to compete with the pleasure, and habit, of just one more serving of mashed potatoes and gravy.

But that doesn’t mean that you’re destined to submit to the lure of instant gratification. There are several ways to motivate yourself to do good by the future you.

smaller goals you need to achieve in order to meet your larger goals, and which of those holds the most challenge for you. Acknowledging your likely shortfalls beforehand and possessing a plan to manage these challenges can help you succeed in the long run.

3. Do some mental time travel: Julia Galef, president of the Center for Applied Rationality, recommends attempting to see your present self from the perspective of the future you, termed “pre-hindsight.” For example, imagine yourself six months from now, having failed to achieve your goals. Ask yourself why you weren’t able to achieve what you wanted to, and use those answers to anticipate your upcoming hardships and develop strategies to overcome these seemingly certain obstacles. Galef recommends that you repeat the process until you’re confident that you will achieve your goals by the six-month mark.

Whittlestone recommends anticipating your pitfalls when it comes to akrasia, and provides some techniques to help you sidestep them:

1. Learn from your mistakes: Whether we like it or not, mistakes will always be a part of life. But there is a silver lining—a slip up in our diet or exercise routine can help us avoid such blunders in the future. So, say you’re out at your local café for lunch, but you can’t resist buying a cookie after the meal. Rather than wallowing in the misery of your mealtime misstep, consider measures you can take to prevent it from happening again. For example, you might start paying in cash and bringing only enough to cover lunch foods.

2. Anticipate the roadblocks on the path to achieving your goals: With a little forethought, we can probably anticipate our pitfalls without waiting for a mistake. Dedicate some time to thinking about what

Another way to deal with akrasia is to set long term goals and create a binding contract with yourself or someone else. Take your goal day by day with apps like Beeminder, which creates a “Yellow Brick Road”—a graph over time whose values you should never rise above. Creator Daniel Reeves suggests committing to a money-bound contract with a friend, where you’re obligated to pay your friend for divergence from your yellow brick road.

Ultimately, there are two main points that we can draw out from this knowledge: (1) That akrasia is a universal component of the human experience: it affects us all—even those who seem to get so much done, (2) You have the power to overcome it.

…goals that have a delayed benefit tend to be the most difficult to achieve.“

“

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Whatever your goals may be, know that change is a process. You can’t do it all, and you can’t do it all at once. Take it slow,

be patient with yourself, and cut yourself some slack. You won’t change the day that you set your goals. But, hopefully, when you look back a few months from now, you’ll feel great

about your accomplishments.

CONCLUSION

MealEnders Signaling Lozenges are the common sense, sustainable way to help beat overeating, master portion control and curb snacking using behavioral psychology and sensory science, rather than drugs, fillers or herbal stimulants.

MealEnders work with the body’s natural hunger and fullness signaling processes to bridge Overeating Zones, helping you overcome snack cravings when you’re not really hungry, and avoid consuming excess calories during the 20 minutes it takes for your brain to register fullness after a meal.

We are working to build our social media communities with more great content from MealEnders Dietitian Tami Lyon, MPH, RD, and other

informative sources. We hope that people will use these forums to share their thoughts and experiences and find support among like-minded people. We invite you to join the conversation and help us make it a vibrant place to

exchange weight management ideas, information and encouragement.

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