From This Month’s Mag: Weight Loss

Learning Curve

Weight loss sure would be easy if you gave someone complete control of your entire diet and they activated their inner drill sergeant to audit your every bite. It’s a nice thought, but you don’t have to be that militant to get results. After looking at 96 studies on healthy eating, research in the journal, Marketing Science discovered a light nudge in the right direction proved enough to make all the difference.

This is what they found helped to positively influence dieters’ behavior in the shops and how you can apply it to your own home so you’re nudging yourself leaner.

1. Descriptive food labelling – Learn by heart the calorie counts of all your foods
2. Food labels with graphics – Highlight the good parts of your food packaging
3. Health food made visible – Place healthiest foods in your pantry at eye level
4. Foods that sound delicious – Write a tasty description of a healthy dish after you made it and look at it
5. Healthy food stickers – Make your own color-coded stickers for your pantry
6. Precut veggies for convenience – Prep your foods for the week so you can cook faster

Embrace Consistency

At the heart of weight loss lies the principle of consistency. But if you get sick, you’re likely to fall off the wagon and may struggle to get back on, so the solution is to stay healthy. Fortunately, your local pharmacy can help with the common multi-vitamin. A paper at Oregon State University discovered adults who kicked off their mornings with a multivitamin and mineral supplement with plenty of zinc and vitamin C were sick for shorter periods compared to those who skipped the pills. They were in fact sick for half as long, so shore up your defenses each day because you never know when you’ll encounter a threat to your routine.