6 Week Mindless Eating Challenge: Week #5 Notes & Discussion Questions

Reading and implementing what I learned from the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink was a real turning point in my weight loss journey.

It was the tipping point that led to achieving the peace with food I’d been seeking while maintaining the Weight Watchers goal weight I’d set back in my late 20s.

6-Week Mindless Eating Challenge Background

Now seven years later, as I settle in at the scene of this healthy exploration (Land O’ Lakes, WI), I thought it would be fun to create a 6-week Mindless Eating Challenge to help others experience what I discovered.

While Weight Watchers friendly recipes are important, they are only one part of the equation.

Learning how to manage our environment and develop healthy habits are the critical elements of lasting weight loss success.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think helped me see this.

But it’s not enough to just read a book. You have to practice what you discover.

Which is what this challenge is all about.

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.“
~ Confucius

For this challenge, we will all read Mindless Eating and share our awarenesses and experiences.

Every week for six weeks, from July 10 – August 14, we’ll read two chapters a week and share what we learn.

I’ll kick things off every Monday with a post, which will give provide participants a place to comment with their discoveries, if they’d like.

It seems like a perfect summer project: A virtual book club, but with homework 🙂

To be most effective, this challenge is best undertaken in a low key “let’s just see what we discover” manner.

No pressure. No way to fail.

But it does provide a bit of accountability if you find it helpful in propelling you into action.

All you need to do to take part is buy the book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink (or borrow it from your library).

Here’s the basic schedule:

6-Week Mindless Eating Challenge Schedule

Why Do This 6-Week Mindless Eating Challenge?
Mindless Eating Challenge Kick-Off
Week #1: July 10 – Chapters 1 & 2
Week #2: July 17 – Chapters 3 & 4
Week #3: July 24 – Chapter 5 & 6
Week #4: July 31 – Chapters 7 & 8
Week #5: August 7 – Chapters 9 & 10
Week #6: August 14 – Appendix B & Wrap-Up

Week #5: My Notes & Thoughts on Mindless Eating Chapters 9 & 10

The Bottom Line:

Fast food provides us with the tastes we want, cheap prices and maximum convenience.
We order burgers, french fries and Mexican food 5 times more frequently than side salads
While eating more than they thought the folks at Subway still ate on average 400 calories less than people at McDonalds.
People underestimate the calories they drink by 30% regardless of the beverage.
Often low fat or reduced fat versions of foods are not much different in calories.
Food companies are not really out to make us fat. They want us to buy their products repeatedly and make a profit. They’ll do what they need to accomplish these ends.
Raising prices within a reasonable free market range doesn’t change behavior.
To be successful healthier choices need to be attractive and affordable.
Losing weight doesn’t have to hurt. It can be a slow-and-steady journey that begins with removing unwanted eating cues and rearranging your home, office, and eating habits so they work for you and your family, rather than against you. These comfortable steps will add up – one or two pounds a month.
The best diet is the one you don’t know you are on.

Weight Loss Strategies:

Beware the “health halo” – Don’t make the mistake of eating more of something that is labeled “low fat,” “low carb,” etc.
Think “small” or “super share” – Go for the small or share a value meal with an extra drink. ½ sandwich, ½ fries and skip the cookie.
Power of 3 – Make 3 small 100 calorie changes a day and you’ll be 30 pounds lighter at the end of the year. Even if you don’t stick to all of them 100%, by doing 1 or 2 of them most of the time you’ll end up 10 to 20 pounds lighter by year’s end without a lot of pain and suffering. Don’t try to make more than 3 changes at a time. You want to keep it manageable.

Notes from Chapter 9: Fast Food Fever

We have become a fast food nation in just a few decades.
Fast food is popular because it is designed to feed our cravings for fat, salt and sugar that are deeply ingrained into our beings for survival.
Fast food provides us with the tastes we want, cheap prices and maximum convenience.
We have a natural inclination for variety which historically helped assure we would get the wide array of nutrients our bodies need.
A natural inclination for convenience is a deeply imbedded mechanism for survival too.

Most Commonly Ordered Restaurant Foods

Burgers
French Fries
Mexican Food
Pizza
Fish/Seafood
Vegetables
Side Salads

We order burgers, french fries and Mexican food 5 times more frequently than side salads

Burger King offers a side salad that costs less than a medium french fries but the fries are ordered 30 times more often than the salad.

Nutritional Information Illusions

There is a common belief that having nutritional information available will result in making better food decisions. This is somewhat true.

McSubway Study involved detailed questioning of Subway and McDonald’s customers immediately following their meals to ascertain what if any the availability or lack of availability of nutritional information had on their ordering patterns or perception of calories consumed. Also compared what they thought they had eaten with what they actually had eaten:

People eating at Subway, which provides tons of nutritional information, recalled nutritional information more than folks at McDonalds, but tended to have the illusion that what they were eating was good for them even when not (ie. chips, cookies, soda, mayo, cheese, bacon). On average they ate 34% more calories than they thought (677 vs. 495).
People eating at McDonalds ate on average 25% more calories than they thought (1093 vs. 876).
While eating more than they thought the folks at Subway still ate on average 400 calories less than people at McDonalds.

10-20 Rule Ice Water Diet

People underestimate the calories they drink by 30% regardless of the beverage.
Thin drinks like soda, fruit juice, punch, milk have about 10 calories per ounce. A 32 ounce soda has about 320 calories (32 x 10 = 320).
Thick drinks like smoothies and shakes have about 20 calories per ounce. A 32 ounce smoothie has about 640 calories (32 x 20 = 640).
You burn about 1 calorie per ounce when drinking icy cold drinks. This can save you about 32 calories in a 32 ounce drink.

Do Low Fat Labels Make Us Fat?

Often low fat or reduced fat versions of foods are not much different in calories.
Healthy labels cause us to ascribe all kinds of positives to foods that aren’t there.
We tend to think in black/white, all/nothing terms believing that something is either 100% healthy or not.
People often end up eating more when given foods that are “low fat” including things like granola and chocolate.
When given low fat chocolate, normal weight folks at 16% more, overweight folks ate 46% more.

Do We Pay Attention to Serving Sizes?

For the most part, folks don’t read labels and are oblivious to serving sizes noted on them.
A 20-ounce bottle of Coke says 2.5 servings on it but most people think of it as a single serving.
Serving sizes only seem to make sense to us when individually packaged.

Marketing Food

Food companies are not really out to make us fat. They want us to buy their products repeatedly and make a profit. They’ll do what they need to accomplish these ends.
Raising prices within a reasonable free market range doesn’t change behavior.
To be successful healthier choices need to be attractive and affordable.

Notes from Chapter 10: Mindless Eating Better

The key to change lies in the middle, not in the extremes. We need to re-engineer our personal food environment to help us and our families eat better.

Eating “right” can be overwhelming but it is possible to move from mindlessly overeating to mindlessly eating better, which involves small doable changes.

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions.

Think in terms of trade-offs and food policies.

Trade-offs – I can do “x” if I do “y.”

Examples:

I can eat dessert if I worked out today.
I can have chips if I don’t have a morning snack.
I can have movie popcorn if I only have a salad for dinner.
I can have a second soda if I take the stairs all day.
I can have dessert only if I go back and buy it after I have finished my lunch.

Policies – personalized rules that don’t require big sacrifices and are based on habits we are willing to forego.

Examples:

No seconds of starch.
No eating in front of the television.
No eating at my desk.
No eating standing up.
Serve 20% less than I think I want.
Only eat snack without wrappers.
No bagels during the week.
Only 3 bites of dessert.

Power of 3 – Make 3 small 100 calorie changes a day and you’ll be 30 pounds lighter at the end of the year. Even if you don’t stick to all of them 100%, by doing 1 or 2 of them most of the time you’ll end up 10 to 20 pounds lighter by year’s end without a lot of pain and suffering. Don’t try to make more than 3 changes at a time. You want to keep it manageable.

Mindful Eating Plan

Your Mindless Margin.
By making 100-200 calorie changes in your daily intake you won’t feel deprived and are much less likely to backslide.

Mindless Better Eating.
Focus on re-engineering small behaviors that will move you from mindless overeating to mindless better eating. Five common diet danger zones to look at include: meals, snacks, parties, restaurants, your desk or your dashboard.

Mindful Reengineering.
To trim your mindless margin, you can use basic diet tips but more personal approach to use is 1) food trade-offs and 2) food policies. Both give you a change to eat what you want without making it a belabored decision.

The Power of Three.
Design three easy, do-able changes that you can mindlessly make without much sacrifice.

Mindless Margin Checklist.
Use this daily checklist to help you move from mindless overeating to mindless better eating.

Questions to Consider:

What were your biggest takeaways from Chapters 9 & 10 of Mindless Eating?
(Using food trade-offs and policies to slowly lose weight and eat better.)
What strategies have you implemented? What have you discovered?
(I have made it a habit to always order the “small” and share meals with my husband much more often.)
What three changes would you put on your power of three checklist?
(Mine: only 1 glass of wine with dinner during the week, only eat snacks that don’t have wrappers, only eat when seated.)

I’ll be back next week with a discussion of Appendix B and Wrap Up

Have a great week!

Warmly,
Martha

P.S. If you want some support eating better and losing weight this summer, my 28-Day Smart Start Weight Loss Challenge may be just what you’re looking for! Many of the tips and suggestions are based on what I learned by applying Dr. Wansink’s Mindless Eating concepts.

This has been a wonderful challenge. Thank you for all of the support and encouragement. I have definitely made some positive changes that I plan to continue! – Bronwyn

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