40 heuristics for the most efficient diet
Thousands of dietary myths out there. Thousands of diet methods. Thousands of prominent coaches talking different stuff. Some of them are wrong, some of them are right. And yes, they can be right even if they talk different things. The most important is finding the one which is most fun, healthiest and most efficient. But, don’t even try to find the right one out of thousands. The key is knowledge, analytical thinking and experiment. If you have those three, you can try it. Or you just listen to what I tell you, because I spent 6 years analyzing and learning.
What you’ll get
You won’t get a detailed plan with example cases and other fancy stuff. You get explicit instruction in terms of single items. Heuristics if you want. In the following I’ll explain the principles I used to create the heuristics.
Via Negativa
We don’t add things to our nutrition. We subtract almost entirely. That’s it.
Pareto Principle
80/20. You probably know that. There are thousands of things to put attention on. But we won’t spend our time thinking about the 80% which produce 20% progress. Weight loss is not only about all or nothing. It’s about weighing up and the quality of life overall. You will indeed have a better outcome in weight loss by using the 80% which produce 20% outcome but you will have massive losses in flexibility, time and happiness.
Science and experience
We use both. Radical thinking for one of the parties is wrong. Both have their pros and cons. The background used is science, the tool to use the background as simple and most efficient as possible is experience.
Not all of which we’ll do with experience is scientifically proven. But it makes sense. It probably won’t make sense scientifically to subtract a specific type of food if you don’t have any allergies or intolerances. But maybe, just maybe, there’s a hidden byproduct happening which does make indeed sense scientifically.
Evolutionary thinking
That’s probably the most important principle to use. The most important regarding psychology. How you stick with your diet, how to make habits out of them with the least amount of torture.
Perversion/Aversion
Stop thinking you have preferences because you don’t. Preferences are a myth. Your personal taste is adaptable to a certain amount. A change in taste doesn’t only occur while growing up. The only reason this stops is because you are stubborn. Stop whining about „I just hate Broccoli. It tastes bad.“ That’s stupid and just generates confirmation you don’t need. Try different ways of preparation or combinations with other food and iterate.
Tools
If you have those tools, use them. If not, consider buying them. It will just be a way which makes sticking to your diet easier or dieting a bit more efficient. But you don’t need it at all cost.
Heuristics
- Eat vegetables every day.
- Eat fruit every day.
- Eat salad everyday.
- Think about skipping breakfast.
- Don’t eat sugar.
- Don’t use oil or butter in your pan.
- Don’t use more than a tablespoon oil for your salad.
- Supplement fish oil capsules.
- Don’t buy food with more than 10% fat.
- Learn to eat like a purist.
- Every two weeks: Eat everything you want. As much as you want.
- Think of sweets and stuff with less nutritional value as disgusting. Penetrate your head with that.
- Think of vegetables, fruit, salad and food with much nutritional value as the best you can buy. Because they just are. Penetrate your head with that.
- Eat minimum half an hour after you got hungry. Use a timer for that.
- Eat a maximum of 3 meals a day.
- Fill your stomach with small snacks when you get to hungry. Just an apple is sometimes enough to get rid of the bad feeling in the belly.
- Stop eating when you’re not hungry anymore. Even if there’s still something on the plate.
- Use the smallest plate you have to serve your meals.
- Eat in restaurants with lean food and less desserts. (Sushi, Steakhouse, ….)
- Put everything in the trash or give it to your neighbors you have at home which you aren’t allowed to eat or put mayonnaise on all sweets. Really.
- Use: Teppanyaki grill, Spiralizer, hot air fryer.
- Make your shopping list without thinking about what to cook with it. Do that afterwards.
- Go to the supermarket with a full stomach.
- Stick to your shopping list and don’t ever buy something different to eat.
- If possible, let somebody else do the grocery shopping for you.
- 90% of your grocery list: Any kind of vegetables. Any kind of salad. Any type of fruit. Lean meat and fish. (If you are vegetarian or vegan, replace the protein). Eggs. Nuts and grains. Lean and protein rich diary products (e.g. low fat curd). Many different spices. Natural oils.
- Drink water, tea and coffee (no sugar otherwise stevia) only.
- Drink half an liter of water before you eat.
- Drink much coffee.
- Drink a minimum of 1 liter / 20kg of body weight a day.
- Don’t look in the mirror.
- Weigh yourself everyday. Weight loss is volatile. Don’t worry if you gain weight one day or there is no difference on the scale for a few days.
- If you don’t lose weight for more than 4 days, eat less.
- For women: Don’t weigh during your period.
- Be active. Walk instead of standing, stand instead of sitting. And take the damn stairs!
- Lift weights.
- Post on every social media channel possible: „The amount of fat I’m gonna lose the next weeks will be enough to supply „your hometown here“ with energy for one year. I will post process pics on the way!“ Including a picture of yourself from today.
- Tell every close friend you will ask him for dinner if you won’t stick to it.
- Persuade your partner to do the same.
- Stick to it.
Now it’s your turn. These are heuristics for healthier living and weight loss. Try to make a habit out of it and don’t only use this periodically after you gained weight again. The only way for sustainable weight loss is habit. If you lost weight and start eating like you did before, you’ll find yourself in the same situation again. That can’t be the goal!
The good thing about perversion is, after you’ve done it, it’s as easy and common as your situation was before. After creating a habit out of the heuristics, the stuff you’ve done before will seem more difficult than what you do now. That’s the goal. And of course, once you reached your weight goal, these heuristics become less strict and it’s okay to eat sweets sometimes. But not as often as before ;)
Take care!
