Diet Mystery? Not Really (Part 2 of 2)

Overview

In part 1, we established that the secret to weight loss is to eat less and that just about any approach to eating less can work. There is no one truth, both low-carb and low-fat can work, and we started to explore shifting our mindset about our weight loss journey.

But without on true path what approach should we take to go about losing the weight?

I recommend applying some of the principles and approaches of design thinking to finding the approach to eating less that will work best for you.

Design Thinking Briefly

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs

Design thinking is a methodology used to solve complex problems and find good solutions. It is about finding solutions that are action-oriented towards creating a preferred outcome using a variety of skills and disciplines.

There are several major principles of design thinking methodologies that can easily be adapted to your weight loss journey. The remainder of this post will consider each of those areas and discuss how to apply that approach to your weight loss journey.

Key Principles

Human Centered

Normally, in design thinking this principle puts an emphasis on empathy for the person you are designing for. This includes working with feedback from your users.

For our weight loss journey, this means whatever approach you pick has to work for you, for life.

You are the user and if you pick an approach that is not empathetic to your needs and situation, your approach will fail.

Curiosity

Curiosity in design not only refers to an interest in the problem but also an openness to explore opportunities and new approaches. Can you open your mind to trying something new even when it may seem impossible?

For weight loss, only a true food allergy would be what a designer might call a “gravity problem”: an unchangeable fact about the universe. Some strong food preferences and habits may be “anchor problems,”: those hard to fix, but ultimately changeable aspects of our nature.

It is important in design not to try to solve gravity problems, but curiosity should open our minds to exploring new approaches. Just because you’ve “never liked broccoli” or “always need to clean your plate” does not mean that it will always be true.

Curiosity should inspire you to try new approaches to handling food on your weight loss journey and perhaps ultimately help you change your habits. For example, maybe being vegetarian before 5pm can help you out? The only way to learn is to prototype it for a few days and see.

Bias Towards Action

Design thinking emphasizes a bias towards action and towards building and trying new things (prototyping). Because without action we stay stuck.

There is no perfect moment to start your weight loss journey. The next holiday or celebration will always be around the corner. It is pretty unlikely you will lose weight if you do nothing other than what you have already been doing. After all, where did that get you?

Similarly, since there is no perfect approach to losing weight, trying something is better than nothing.

So, adopt a bias toward action.

For your weight loss journey: do not push off to tomorrow making better choices. Each time you make your next food choice, there is a chance to prototype a new eating pattern to support your weight loss journey.

Reframe problems

In design thinking, reframing is a tool for looking at existing problems in a new light. For example, many of us are members of the “clean plate club”, people who feel we must eat everything on our plates.

What happens if you reframe, by adding new information and restating our views to incorporate new information? It can help you forward differently.

Reframe from “I’ve always been and will be a clean plate club member” to “I know not everyone cleans their plate. I’ve been a clean plate club member in the past, but maybe I don’t have to be.”

Know it is a process

Design thinking emphasizes viewing the exercise as a process rather than a single event. This makes room for the inevitable “mistakes” and “failures” — which become opportunities to reframe and prototype new solutions.

Your weight loss journey is similarly a process: sometimes your are 1-pound down and then 2-pounds up.

That “mistake” where you “slip” and binge a bag of cookies is an opportunity to reframe, learn, and prototype new approaches.

If your current approach to losing weight is not working, try using a different approach. If you can let go of the end goal and focus on the day-to-day process and be open to seeing what comes next, sometimes it’s easier.

Ask for help

Another foundation of design thinking is sometimes referred to as “radical collaboration”: the best designers do not work in isolation, but rather as a team.

Similarly, there is no reason to travel on your weight loss journey alone. Make a team in real life, virtually, or both, of folks who will help you on your journey.

Ask those people hard questions, “what worked for you?”, “did you ever struggle with X?” They can help you feel less alone and more supported on your journey and be a source of new approaches for you to prototype in your own life.

Conclusion

Once you embrace the fact that we all know what we need to do to lose weight starting a weight loss journey is made easier by adopting a supportive mindset (“no magic bullets”, “finding your ‘why’”, and “taking things one day at a time”). Pairing those mindsets with a process rooted in the design thinking approach that has delivered some of the most powerful solutions to the hardest problems will make it as easy as possible to in Michael Pollan’s words “Eat [real] food, not too much…” (and even move more too.)

Good luck because…

Luck favors the prepared — Edna Mode, “The Incredibles”