Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if you are trying to eat better,
Speaker 1: just add fruit or a vegetable to whatever you are
Speaker 1: already planning to eat. Oftentimes it can be easier to
Speaker 1: add food that's good for you rather than forego food
Speaker 1: that is not good for you. Eating more healthy food
Speaker 1: will increase the overall healthiness of your diet and probably
Speaker 1: won't require as much willpower as trying to swear off
Speaker 1: the other stuff. So lots of people make resolutions to
Speaker 1: eat healthier, but a lot of times these resolutions focus
Speaker 1: on what not to eat. No junkie carbs, no ultra
Speaker 1: process snacks, no fry food. These may all be good ideas,
Speaker 1: but avoiding things we like takes a ton of willpower.
Speaker 1: Imagine going to a family dinner where everyone else is
Speaker 1: eating your grandmother's special recipe pie. A lot of times
Speaker 1: people either get in and then maybe even eat a
Speaker 1: lot more than they would have because they feel they
Speaker 1: are cheating somehow, or they say no and feel ill
Speaker 1: with self pity. Another option, eat what you like within reason,
Speaker 1: but just add an apple or something else like that
Speaker 1: to whatever you are going to eat. So if it
Speaker 1: is looking like a doughnut for breakfast, grab an apple too,
Speaker 1: fried chicken for lunch, add an apple pizza for dinner, yep,
Speaker 1: an apple, or maybe it's some other type of produce.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's easier to bring along a bag of baby carrots.
Speaker 1: Or you're having chips and dip, so you add in celery.
Speaker 1: People are having cheese and crackers as appetizers, so you
Speaker 1: eat a lot of grapes that are also there. You
Speaker 1: can make a big vat of vegetable soup and have
Speaker 1: a cup of that with whatever you are eating for
Speaker 1: dinner during the week. The point is that it should
Speaker 1: be something fairly bulky. You add this filling produce onto
Speaker 1: whatever you are planning to eat, even snacks. Adding something
Speaker 1: particularly tasty fruit tends not to take a ton of willpower. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'll have a slice of Grandma's pie and an apple.
Speaker 1: But there are some brilliant upsides to this strategy. First,
Speaker 1: produce is good for you, so if you are trying
Speaker 1: to eat healthfully by eating more produce, you are adding
Speaker 1: lots of vitamins and nutrients and fiber to your diet
Speaker 1: go you second, all the water and fiber and produce
Speaker 1: takes up a ton of space in your stomach. So
Speaker 1: my guess is that you will have a slightly smaller
Speaker 1: helping of pie if you are also eating an apple
Speaker 1: than you would if it was only pie on the menu.
Speaker 1: The net result is that you will wind up eating
Speaker 1: less of the less healthy stuff, even if you don't
Speaker 1: exercise any willpower whatsoever. Longtime listeners may recognize that this
Speaker 1: add more of the good stuff concept fits in with
Speaker 1: my general philosophy on time. When people want to spend
Speaker 1: time better, they often think about the things they want
Speaker 1: to spend less time doing, and there is something to that,
Speaker 1: but it is often a lot more fun to think
Speaker 1: about what you want to spend more time doing and
Speaker 1: find ways to do those things. When you spend more
Speaker 1: time with friends and on hobbies and on the kinds
Speaker 1: of work you love, you naturally spend less time on
Speaker 1: social media or in your inbox, even without any email hacks.
Speaker 1: As with so many aspects of self improvement, success is
Speaker 1: easier if we don't rely so much on willpower. It's
Speaker 1: hard to live life in the negative. Adding things feels
Speaker 1: active and ultimately tends to get at the exact same result.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.