Solve & Share
  • Home
  • Professional Projects
    • For You
    • For Families
    • For Free >
      • Free Books for Libraries
      • Free Magnets
      • Kitchen Scorecard
    • -------------
    • For School Lunches
    • For Workplace Wellness
    • For Grocery Shoppers
    • For Restaurant Lovers
  • About

                                   Solve & Share



The Christmas Diet: Leave it if You Don't Love it

12/21/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
You missed last night’s “Cookies and Carols,” which is the $6 cover-charge fundraiser for our local school band and chorus.  They pass 160 trays of cookies up and down the middle-school auditorium rows until the kids run out of songs to sing.  This is also timed to when parents feel like they're getting diabetes.  
 
Cookies and Carols is about kids -- and cookies.  Normal kids sing and play music.  But the cool kids get to take it to the next level. Because they’re too cool for music school, they get to dress like an elf and be a Cookie Monitor Elf. 
 
At Cookie and Carol night, the guy behind me was on a diet.  I had a certain sense about this.  My intuition was based on 30 years of careful investigation, detailed analyses, and because every time a Cookie Monitor Elf passed him a platter of cookies, he said, “I’m on a diet.”
 
Yes, this is the season of weight gain.  But this is a horrible month to be on a diet. You ruin the JOY for you and the joy to the world.  So, what’s a person to do when cookie trays are a passin’ and Christmas Carols are a pumpin’?  
 
We've been running a 4 year study (the Healthy Weight Registry) to discover what perpetually skinny people do to stay perpetually skinny.  One thing we've asked them is what they do during the holidays that the rest of us don't do.  They do a lot of crazy cool things they need testing, but one that's relevant to us cookie lovers is this:  When they were at a holiday party and they tried something they didn't absolutely LOVE, they simply didn’t eat the rest of it.  They either didn't take it or they didn't finish it.  They left it.   
 
• That no-bake brownie-mix brownie? They left it.
• That gluten-free Avocado Cupcake?  They left it.
• That Thumbprint cookie with the real thumbprint?  They left it.


When we first read this "Leave it if you don't love it" idea, my researchers and I were all trying to finish up our Avocado Cupcakes so we could be the first to say "That's nothing new.  That's totally obvious." 

There's never been a cookie in the world that isn't worth choking down, but there might only be 2 out of 10 that are really worth LOVING.  

"Leave it if you don't love it."  Sorry, Lefty.
--------------------
When I got back from Cookies and Carols, I had a message from Marcus Sidhu at N1Fitness telling me a podcast chat with me was just posted earlier that that day (links below).  It has some ideas about some other things you might want to consider this season to enjoy the cookies and carols while you forget about your diet.

Picture
Podcast URL - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/n1-fitness-podcast/id1303218443?mt=2

Direct Download Episode URL - http://traffic.libsyn.com/n1fitness/Episode_39_-_Mindless_Eating_w__Brian_Wansink.m4a

Permalink Episode URL - http://n1fitness.libsyn.com/39-mindless-eating-w-brian-wansink
2 Comments

    Welcome!

    Here are some tips, tricks, and secrets on how you and your family can eat to be healthier and happier.  They're based on ​over 30 years of our published research.

    Fun Interviews

    Picture
    Picture
    Russian "Slim by Design"
    Picture
    Music & Mindless Eating

    Most Visited Last Month


    Picture

    Top Downloads 

    • Kitchen Makeover
    • Smarter Lunchrooms
    • Smarter Lunchroom Scorecard
    • Grocery Shopping Hacks
    • Restaurant Secrets
    • Write a Useful Syllabus
    • Workplace Wellness Tips
    ​• Healthy Profitable Menus


    Categories

    All
    Be Happier
    Be Meaningfully Connected
    Be More Effective
    [Classic Eating Insights]


    RSS Feed


    ​• For You
    • Smarter Lunchrooms​​
    • 
    The X'Plozionz Band
    ​• Help your family
    ​• Kitchen Scorecard
    ​• Retracted papers
    • Grocery secrets ​
    ​​• Do kids inherit taste?
    ​
    • Be healthier at work
    ​• How not to retire
    • Estimating calories
    • Restaurant Secrets
    ​
    ​​• Syllabus template

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

Home

For You

For Families

For School Lunches


    Sign up for updates and for upcoming chapters of a new book and memoir

Keep me posted
Copyright © 2025
  • Home
  • Professional Projects
    • For You
    • For Families
    • For Free >
      • Free Books for Libraries
      • Free Magnets
      • Kitchen Scorecard
    • -------------
    • For School Lunches
    • For Workplace Wellness
    • For Grocery Shoppers
    • For Restaurant Lovers
  • About