What's your dietary low hanging fruit?
Posted by kathryn in Easier eating
I’ve been talking to clients this week about getting rid of their dietary low hanging fruit. These are the habits and foods which are easy to get rid of.
I find most people have some eating routines which they don’t really care about. Not when they actually think about it. It might be something they continue doing out of habit, or because it’s what they think they want. Sometimes it’s a food habits which people enjoy, but not that much. Not enough to feel deprived if they stop.
It could be the second cup of coffee, or the half teaspoon of sugar they’re having in the coffee. It might be the fruit juice at lunch, the extra teaspoon of honey on the morning porridge, or the thickness of the butter they spread on toast. The list is endless.
By it’s very nature low hanging fruit is highly individual. The habits I might find easy to drop are different from the ones you could get rid of.
If you’re trying to improve the way you eat it’s often easier to start with the low hanging fruit. While you might want and need to make larger scale changes to your food, by focussing on these smaller habits you get some early wins.
And don’t underestimate the power of small changes. Tweaking your habits, making better decisions are all part of edging your diet along the continuum of healthy eating.
What’s your dietary low hanging fruit?
29 February, 2012
Comments
Kathryn, I have to stop with the M&Ms at work… the lovely young lady who sits next to me keeps a running supply of them and is frequently encouraging me to dip in. My willpower is shocking, especially when we are crazy busy like lately. I really need to make myself eat a pear or apple instead!
Nice article! I certainly agree with this.
I am doing a program called 12wbt. It’s a nice, neat program that focuses on healthy eating + training. One of the “pre-season tasks” I had to complete is to write down everything I ate during the day – time, portions etc. And I realised my diet was okay in terms of food choices, the portion and snacks were off by miles.
My biggest problem is certainly caffeine intake. So far I have reduced it by half, only a cup/day now. I also switch from Coffee latte to long black with a dash of milk – an effort to keep my calories intake under control.
Snacks. Now this was a killer for me. I sometimes would not eat anything at all throughout the day, and then ate a really big, high calorie lunch/dinner and snack while cooking dinner. Now I space out my meal times. Remind myself to eat snack at a regular time.
And did I say planning ahead helps? I now bring lunch and portioned snacks with me. :)
My point is I did not do those at once, but gradually over 4 weeks. I set my goals to get into new habits, and adapt accordingly.
An interesting idea… My low hanging fruit is one you’ve already mentioned but it’s not the second cup of coffee but the third!
I think this is great advice Katherine. I’ve lost 15kg very slowly over two years, by tiny changes in my diet- the low hanging fruit. All I did at first was stop having sugar in my milky tea. That was all I did for a few months, but it led to one more seemingly inconsequential change, eating dinner earlier, and then after time another, coffee only as a once a week treat, and then another small change and then another… It seemed to have a snowball effect and after about a year I almost didn’t notice some of the bigger changes I was making- smaller portions, more vegies. The weight loss was very gradual but definite and I have completely different eating habits now compared to the me of two years ago, and in someways, because it was always such little steps, it seemed relatively easy.
Such good advice. It is, as Nicola says, all about the small steps adding up, but identifying your low hanging fruit is such a useful way of starting to think about what those small changes might be.
Excellent message, Kathryn, and stated so well.
I love the analogy — picking low-hanging fruit is easy & rewarding, just like giving up habits that, when one pauses to be mindful, won’t be missed & over time, will yield the benefits mentioned by Nicola.
In our complex, demanding, fast-paced days, it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed because the goals seem so far away and we think we don’t have the time or energy to work on them. As you say, small steps carry us forward along the continuum of healthy eating.
I’ll be sharing your post’s message when I’m providing education on healthy eating to my stroke patients. Thank you!
Thank you all for your really interesting comments and personal insights.
The small steps approach is not as fashionable or even as alluring as the rapid weight loss messages we’re surrounded by. However I think it’s the best way to get sustainable and long term weight loss. To lose weight and then keep that weight off, without every day being a struggle.
And I think you’re right Nicola, the changes do gather momentum and the small wins motivate you to do more.
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