Day 13: Spend the day doing the opposite
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
Today’s task in the 31 Days to a Better Diet is about being more aware of what you’re eating. If you’re following this group of posts, they’re marked by the picture on the left.
There’s an episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza realises every choice, every decision he’s ever made has been wrong. He hasn’t had bad luck, he’s just made bad decisions. From that point on he decides to go against instinct and start saying and doing the exact opposite of what he’d normally do. And his life improves immeasurably.
I’m not suggesting quite such radical changes in your life, but today in 31 Days to a Better Diet we’re going to extend the George Costanza approach to food and flip what you eat.
What the?
Often in a busy life food becomes just another part of the daily rush. We follow a routine and eat without thinking. We build up habits. Have coffee at the same time of day, lunch at the same places and choose from only a handful of dinners.
Routine can be useful. Patterns and structures can help us eat well. However, routines and habits can also work against us.
When food becomes a routine it’s possible to lose sight of what you’re actually eating. One of the central goals of the 31 Days to a Better Diet series is to increase your awareness of what you’re doing. For you to find out what your patterns and routines are. So far I’ve encouraged you to keep a diet diary and spend more time on your meals
Another way of increasing your awareness is to spend the day doing the opposite of what you’d normally do.
Today’s task
Every time you eat something I want you to ask yourself what would I normally do – and then make a different choice. Do the opposite, or just do something different. I’m not encouraging you to eat KFC instead of your customary healthy salad, or go without eating, but get out of your routine and your comfort zone.
There are several ways of flipping what you eat:
- Change the food you’re eating: If breakfast is toast, then have cereal; if you usually have a sandwich for lunch then buy a salad or a Thai stir-fry. If you’re used to snacking on fruit, then try some nuts, and if dinner is always take-away then make something at home.
- Change the location: Have breakfast at home, instead of work; drink your coffee in the cafe, rather than getting a take-away; eat at the table, instead of on the couch.
- Change the time: Try eating smaller amounts more frequently; or have your breakfast as soon as you get up instead of on the way to work. Plan to have an afternoon snack and eat dinner early.
- Change the order: If you normally go light on breakfast and lunch, and then have an enormous dinner, flip the order around today. Have a decent sized breakfast / lunch, and then a lighter dinner. Or try having vegetables for breakfast, instead of dinner. Or eat 5 – 6 small snacks during the day, instead of 3 “meals”.
I’m hoping today’s task might be fun . . . or at the very least interesting.
So flip what you do and tell us how it feels
Surprised woman eating lettuce photograh by Vika Valter. George Costanza image from Wikipedia.
13 August, 2008
Comments
Kathryn, what a wonderful post! And kind of funny, too, as I actually thought about that episode of Seinfeld the other day – but I would have never thought of applying George’s flip the way you are suggesting. I LOVE this idea! As one who has worked to build routine and structure into my eating, I think it could be very useful and interesting to see what I can learn by doing something different!
Brilliant. Will do.
I heartily encourage all my clients to get more structure and routine into their eating. If you’re busy, this is the only way to make eating well possible. Buuuut just now and then I think it’s a good idea to shake things up a bit.
I’m doing this challenge today. Have just been up to my local cafe and ordered a chai, instead of coffee. Consternation was the reaction. Barista, the owner and Richard couldn’t believe it. Made me realise how much of a creature of habit I am.
I wanted to try to do all of these tasks, at least in the same week if not on the same day, but after a very busy week and weekend away I’m well behind!
The idea of this one’s actually got me stuck. Either I do those suggestions regularly (lunch is either a sandwich or leftovers, in which case it could be anything – stir fry today), I am just not interested (do NOT want to eat on the couch!), or I did them last weekend (Sunday involved toast for breakfast instead of my usual muesli and such a big lunch that I didn’t actually have dinner – dinner is usually my heaviest meal and I never skip meals). Monday I was working on site, which meant brekky at home instead of at work, plus a muesli bar as a quick portable snack instead of my usual yoghurt etc, and I planned takeaway for dinner for the first time in… um… must be six months (ended up eating at a pub instead when the chippy was closed, but that’s another story).
Guess I will call this one done in advance and conclude I’m not very attached to routine when life gets in the way! :)
Tick this one off your list then Gwyneth and why not go back to one of the other challenges you’ve missed? Interesting to read how varied your eating habits are.
I’m such a routine girl and recently have found that being organised has meant a much more varied diet BUT I love the idea of this challenge… I’m going to organise dinner early, eat at the table and instead of the trout I’d planned to cook I’m going make the somosa you featured a few weeks ago… I did have an a different breakfast this morning – weetbix with a drizzle of honey as I was out of banana.
i can almost tick this one off, except for the breakfast thing. i eat toast for breakfast pretty much every day. i try to mix it up, with vegemite + cucumber, or hummus, and usually eggs on the weekend. and i eat porridge every wednesday morning with my husband. but i do think that perhaps i eat too much bread. ometimes i have peanut butter on toast as a snack in the afternoon, but that then makes it three pieces of bread in one day which i’d prefer not to do.
does anyone have any ideas for wheat-free breakfasts that aren’t toast or boring cereal??
@lindsey clare
For breakfast I love fresh fruit, nuts and oats, sometimes with cinnamon. And, yes, I have quite a habit of eating just this! But, different fruits and nuts all the time :-) http://doesabodygood.blogspot.com/2008/05/unofficial-uncooked-breakfast-contest.html
As a variety addict, I often change up my meals but I do tend to get obssesed wtih certain things and eat them for a while in a row and then change it again. Hopefully that allows for enough variety in my life.
As for breakfast, throw out all the rules. I love that in Asian countries, you can get noodles and all sorts of savoury things for brekkie
Lindsey, for breakfast I love to take a tub of natural yoghurt – personally I use full-fat because all the low fat yoghurts down here in the wilds of SA contain artificial sweeteners and I’m not a fan – and mix it with 3 tablespoons of cereal. I alternate between oats and cooked quinoa or amaranth. I add a piece of fruit on the side – what I have depends on what arrives in my veggie box that week. If you use full-fat yoghurt you definitely don’t need any kind of sweetener. It’s filling and yummy. The other thing I love is to fry spinach, Swiss chard or other greens in half a tablespoon of olive oil until wilted, poach a couple of eggs and put them on top. Again, I have fruit afterwards. No need for bread.
Time for me to report back on how I went with this challenge.
I enjoyed thinking about my food in a different way. But the best part was my split breakfast. It just worked really well for me having that second installment mid-morning, which is my hungry time.
Lindsey – I don’t know if you’ve seen the cooked grain blend which Heidi posted this week on 101 Cookbooks. I think it looks really interesting and has potential. It’s a bit of cooking, but according to Heidi’s instructions you can make up a batch and keep it in the fridge. May even freeze.
Anyway it would be a good breakfast base. Add on some yoghurt, seeds, fruit, LSA – whatever takes your fancy.
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