Why Should I Only Make Three Small Changes to My Diet?

A while back I was in Montreal to give a talk at a Childhood Obesity conference. At breakfast that day, someone approached me and shared that they had picked up Mindless Eating and had already instituted their 3 small changes —one involving breakfast.

The key to reversing Mindless Eating is to not get too ambitious. Small changescan be mindless, and that’s the way they should stay. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to think about them too much, you’re probably biting off too much.

Don’t expect to see the scale tip after a few days. Most of us gain weight at a rate of 25 extra calories a day. With your Three Changes, you’re trimming them down at the rate of about 300. That’s only 1/11 of a pound a day, but it’s 30 lbs over a course of a year.

To keep things varied, you might want to choose three other Mindless Margin changes at the end of November. It will break things up, and you can tailor them more for the holidays.

Here's the magic of trying to make three consistent daily changes.  If you only make one change, you might be losing weight too slow to stay motivated.  If you make five changes, you won't be able to keep track of them and people report its too easy to fall off the wagon.