Reflections on the Austerity Diet

I'm at Day 37 of my austerity diet and still going strong.

As you might expect, I'm finding it much easier now that I'm over the initial hump. Getting into the habit is the hard part—maintaining it is far less onerous. Momentum is my friend!

My sense is that a few key things have helped me make a success of what could quite easily have been a disastrous effort to upgrade my diet and downsize my cholesterol count:

1. Three simple rules. I haven't been counting calories or fixating on fat content. Instead, I decided to abide by three straightforward restrictions: no sugar, nothing fried, no junk/processed food. It's easy to tell if something is sanctioned or not, and I don't have to spend any time on should-I-or-shouldn't-I debates. If it's any (or all!) of the above, I don't even consider it.


2. Immediate positive feedback. Fluke or no, getting a normal result on my cholesterol test midway through the month gave me reason to think that my basic approach was sound. And once I had that feedback, I was all the more determined not to backslide.


3. Healthy snacks on hand. Whether I'm at work, on the subway, or out on the town (wishful thinking), I now make sure I've got something to keep hunger—and therefore temptation—at bay. Fruit, nuts, and plain old water have saved many a day.


4. Unhealthy ones out of sight. It turns out that candy and potato chips—which I like as much as the next person—don't really tempt me much these days, although they certainly were culprits in the past. The hardest things for me to resist are ice cream, cookies or cake, tortilla chips, and French fries, and I'm doing my best to keep my distance. Just being aware of what constitutes my personal Kryptonite means I can focus my resolve on these few items, instead of feeling deprivation at every turn.

Now that I've made it this far, I want to ratchet down the austerity just a little bit to make my diet truly sustainable. That means allowing myself to break the rules, within reason, at regular intervals. It would be easy to give myself an exemption every week, but to start I'm going to strive for just twice a month to underscore the point that these truly are treats, not entitlements, and therefore ought to be rare.

I'm not going to fixate on the treats, deciding days or weeks in advance exactly what they're going to be. And I'm not going to force them, either—if the opportunity doesn't present itself or the urge doesn't strike, so be it.

If this is going to work as a long-term plan, it can't be over-engineered. It has to be easy, flexible, and self-reinforcing.

So far, so good.