How YOU CAN LOSE WEIGHT “Mindlessly.”
So last week we talked about the Mindless margin.
To give you a quick summary, the Mindless margin is what allows us to eat and gain weight mindlessly. But here’s the good news, we can use the Mindless margin in reverse and actually allow it to help us lose weight.
So instead of mindlessly overeating, we need to learn how to mindlessly under eat to lose weight.
What Dr. Wansinnk claims is that there is a Zone in which you do not notice if you eat more calories or fewer calories.
Take this for example, if you eat 600 to 1000 calories a day, most of you will feel weak, cranky, agitated, maybe even light headed. This feeling of hunger you would notice. And so will your co-workers and Friends :-). Also if you ate over 3000 calories each day, you would notice this as well, you would likely feel tired, lethargic, and sleepy.
Now, instead of eating 2000 calories a day, you instead choose to eat 1900 calories a day your body really wouldn’t notice that small of a change or difference. Which is why it is called the Mindless margin, because it is completely undetectable. In short, you wouldn’t feel better if you ate it, and you don’t feel deprived because you didn’t eat it.
The main idea is you can easily trim 100 – 200 calories from your diet and never miss it! This will allow most of you to lose weight in the process, which is the main goal right?
So here are some ideas to help you implement this stealth Fitness/Weight loss strategy. The main objective is to try to eliminate / trim just a few calories every little place you can without really noticing it. Try the following.
- Replace one glass of a caloric beverage with water. Basically, instead of having a soda, have a glass of water. If you normally have three sodas a day, eliminate one of the sodas with water. That right there is going to save you about a 100 – 300 calories. The same strategy works for alcoholic beverages as well :-).
- You can also choose to fill your glass with only two thirds of a calorie-rich beverage rather than a full glass.
- Serve yourself 20% less food than normal.
- It you normally give yourself a heaping spoon of sugar with your coffee instead of making it a heaping spoonful make it a level one.
- Ask your waiter to bring you just one roll instead of a whole basket.
- Never eat a whole dessert by yourself, share it with a friend 🙂
- Get rid of the junk food in your office and replace it with raw fruits, veggies and lean sources of protein.
- Do not go back for seconds.
Those are just some ways that you can take advantage of the mindless margin.
Now, if you feel like you’re depriving yourself, it’s no longer mindless. So the trick is to use the strategies that don’t really feel like you’re sacrificing a ton. That being said, this is a great strategy to lose a few pounds and not even realize it. But if you’re trying to lose a lot of weight this will help in the initial stages, but not in the long run.
If you’d like more information on the Mindless margin check out the book below.
Brian Wansink. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. 2010. Bantam Books.
Go be awesome!
KELLEN LAKE – Eat less to weight less, simple not easy.
PS – Have a great WEEKEND : ), REMINDER, Just You Fitness will be closed for its quarterly break from April 1st – April 7th.
