Day 1 (May 8)

Food weight (not calories) determines how full you feel.

Most important property: Caloric Density.

When you eat foods w low CD, you feel full quicker with fewer calories.

Daily weigh-ins promote long-term weight loss.

Weigh yourself on same scale in same place at same time daily.

Day 2 (May 9)

Recommended breakdown among green/yellow/red

Green: 30%
Yellow: 45%
Red: 25%

Day 3 (May 10)

Behavior Chain:

Trigger > Thought > Action > Consequence

Triggers: Environmental, biological, mental, emotional, social.

Consequences: 4 types: physical, physiological, psychological, emotional.

Day 4 (May 11)

Thought Distortions:

All or Nothing Thinking

Mind Reading

Unhelpful Rules

Justification

Delusional Thinking

Exaggerated Thinking
4 Types of Eating Habits:

1 Fuel Eating
2 Fun Eating
3 Fog Eating
4 Storm Eating

Day 5 (May 12)

Cravings for sweet, salty, savory, etc foods is learned. But can also be unlearned.

How to unlearn? One way is by making healthy swaps. Another way is by satisfying cravings in
moderation.

Day 6 (May 13)

#PsychTrick: Plan your meals ahead of time. This is one of the best things you can do to help stay
within your calorie budget.

Forager: Recommended 350 cal per meal, 100-200 cal per snack.

SMART goals:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-based

Day 7 (May 14)

Portion Distortion: Estimating portion sizes and calories is hard. Most people have little idea how many
calories they're eating. 6/7 of women underestimate their daily caloric intake by an average of 621
calories. Over half of men underestimate their intake by 581 calories.

Recommended (rough) portion sizes:

Fruits & Veggies: Large bowls, small bowls, fistfuls, whole items

Starchy Veggies & Whole Grains: fistful, partial cup, seving spoon, ladle

Lean Proteins: bill, deck of cards, palmful

Healthy Fats, Sauces, Spreads & Oils: Tbsp, tsp, thumbs, thumb-tips

Dairy: fistful, partial cup, serving spoon, ladle

#PsychTricks for shopping:

1 Go in the morning.
2 Plan ahead.
3 Buddy up.
4 Avoid crowds. (They can make you more susceptible to marketing messages.)
5 Expose yourself to triggers to work out your 'no' muscle.

Day 8 (May 15)

Motivation is not constant.

Motivation Model:

Phase 1: The Hype

Peak 1: The Honeymoon
Phase 2: The Plummet
Trough 1: The Lapse
Phase 3: The Slips & Surges (motivational highs and lows)

Day 9 (May 16)

Positive reinforcement increases your behavior by giving you something.

Negative reinforcement increases your behavior by taking something away.

Positive punishment decreases your behavior by giving you something.

Negative punishment decreases your behavior by taking something away.

DEPRIVATION IS DEMOTIVATING:

When most people are changing their diet, they focus on

- restricting calories
- eliminating foods or entire food groups
- decreasing portion sizes
- eating less often

The focus on "decreasing" and "reduction" reinforces feelings of deprivation. This is demotivating.

Shift away from a 'removal' mindset to an 'addition' mindset. Don't say "Look at all the foods I can't
eat." Instead say: "Look at all the foods I can eat - my diet has never looked so limitless."
Add foods to your menu. This is a positive reinforcement.
#PsychTricks for combating feelings of deprivation:

1 Add a new food to your grocery list each week.

2 Add an old fave to your repertoire by scaling back high-CD ingredients and adding low-CD
substitutes, e.g. zucchini instead of lasagna noodles.
3 Add a new meal to the mix.
4 Add a new, healthy restaurant to your list.
5 Add a new recipe every week.
6 Add a treat - sparingly.

Day 30 (June 6)

Metabolic rate: rate at which you burn through energy. Two components:

1 Resting energy expenditure (basal metabolic rate): amount of calories your body burns from basic
processes - heartbeat, breathing, etc.
Determined mostly by weight, height, age, sex.
Losing weight makes BMR decrease, which means weight loss gets harder as you lose weight.
Changes in BMR can explain up to 67% of 'less-than-expected' weight loss.
Your body's smart: as you feed it less food, it becomes more efficient, learning to survive on
fewere calories.

2 Non-resting energy expenditure: 3 parts:

a EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)
b NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)
c TEF (Thermic Effect of Food)

#ScientificTips for dealing with changing BMR:

1 Get Strong
Pound for pound, metabolic rate of lean tissue, specifically muscle tissue, is greater than that of
fat tissue. So more lean tissue > higher metabolic rate.

2 Keep Moving
Focus more on moving than on exercise. Walking breaks, active commutes, etc.
Exercise doesn't do much to help you LOSE weight.

3 Be PRO(tein)ACTIVE
Eating more protein can work to counteract and potentially stop the metabolic slowdown.

#BustedMyth:
It's not true that eating 6 small meals a day will 'boost your metabolism'. Your metabolism is
determined mostly by age, sex, race, genetics, etc. - now how often you eat.

Day 31 (June 7)

Set Point: The set point hypothesis is that our brains regulate our metabolism to maintain a certain body
weight and level of body fat.
1 Everyone's set point is unique.
2 Your body's set point is determined by your genes.
3 Your body's set point is more like a 'set point range' – a range of body weights and body fat levels at
which it can sit comfortably and sustainably.
4 Your 'set point range' is the range in which your body functions most optimally.

Settling Point Theory: Another hypothesis is that your body weight can 'settle' at different body weights
and levels of body fat based on our behaviors as influenced by internal (psychological) and external
(physical) environments.

There's truth to both of these hypotheses:

Your weight is tightly regulated at a biological level so that your body can function at its best
(set point). However, your actions and habits work at an environmental level to maintain lower or
higher weights (settling points).

Your happy weight is the weight at which you feel happy and healthy – of body, mind, and spirit. We
can't predict what the number on the scale will be at this point. But we can know what it will look and
feel like.

Day 32 (June 8)

Real, sustainable weight loss is not a graph sloping linearly downward. It involves hills, speedbumps,
potholes, etc.

A weight-loss plateau is a period of 2 or more weeks without weight loss. Plateaus:

are normal
are frustrating
don't mean you're 'doing something wrong'
don't mean you're not making progress

Your weight fluctuates daily based on how hydrated you are, how much sodium you eat, ,the scale you
use, and more.

Here's what happens when you feed your body fewer calories:

1 You lose weight, lowering your total daily energy expenditure.

2 Your fat cells get smaller, so you produce less leptin, meaning you're less satiated. You also produce
less PYY, GLP-1, and CCK hormones when you eat, meaning your 'stop eating' signals are weaker and
more delayed.
3 Your body makes more ghrelin and ILP-5, stimulating hunger.
4 Your body realizes you're feeding it fewer calories than normal, so it becomes more efficient at using
those calories (metabolic adaptation).
5 As you body becomes more efficient, your TDEE decreases beyond what is expected from weight
loss alone (adaptive thermogenesis).
6 The amount of calories you burn from physical activity decreases.
7 Your perception of the amount of food you eat decreases, making you more likely to overeat.
8 The reward value of food increases, making large portion sizes, sugary treats, and calorie-dense eats
look more appetizing.
These factors combine to create a perfect storm for a plateau.

Tips for dealing with a plateau:

1 Ride the waves.

Lack of weight loss doesn't mean you're doing something wrong.
Lack of weight loss doesn't mean you're not making progress.
2 Meet your calorie budget.
Don't let your elephant loose, but also don't skimp on food. Eating too little will only cause your
body to fight to hold on to that weight tighter.
3 Move more.
Make a conscious effort to move more in your daily life. Finding time to walk is probably best.
4 Find new ways to measure progress.
5 Take a 'diet break'.
E.g. change your weight loss speed.

Part of staying motivated is finding new ways – other than the scale reading – to measure your
progress.

Physical progress:

weight loss
inches lost
more energy
better sleep
dropping a pants size
better fitting clothes
easier exercise
longer workouts
more intense workouts
fewer aches and pains

Psychological progress:

more confidence
less anxiety in uncomfortable situations
limiting yourself to one dessert
conquering a trigger
changing a thought distortion
eating mindfully
feeling empowered to make healthy choices'

Social progress:

being more social

getting compliments
resisting temptations at grocery store
turning down treats at work
saying no to a food pusher
getting family/friends on health train

Day 33 (June 9)

Save time with food prep:

1 Plan your meals.

2 Make a list and outline strategically.
3 Shop on a weekday or skip the line completely.
4 Consider convenience, cans, pre-cooked, or frozen.
5 Make it ahead of time.
6 Upgrade your cookware to prep larger quantities at once.
7 Broil instead of baking.
8 Go raw.
9 Clean as you go.

High-Intensity Interval Training

Day 34 (June 10)

Attitude-Behavior Consistency Theory: Our attitudes and beliefs predispose us to our behaviors. Our
attitude influences our personal triggers and how we interpret and think about different triggers
ultimately influencing our behaviors.

Thought Distortion: Overgeneralization: Taking one small pixel and using it to paint a big picture. E.g.
taking one small slip and blowing it up into a picture of total failure.

Replace 'I've failed' with 'I've learned.'

Every time you have a similar thought distortion 'I've failed',