The Power of Three challenge: To make three changes in the way you eat and keep it for 10 days.
The payoff: We agreed to donate $25,000 to East Africa famine relief if 2,500 people signed up for the challenge.
As you read in last Friday’s blog, we were successful in reaching this goal.
Throughout this challenge, I thought that two of concepts were key: the mindless margin and the power of three.
Brian Wansink, PhD, created these two concepts after conducting 700 experiments out of his Cornell Food and Brand Lab. The mindless margin says that you can eat 200-300 calories more or less each day and not really notice the difference.
You won’t feel overfull if you eat 200-300 more calories, nor will you miss eating 200-300 less.
And yet…these 200-300 calories add up to major weight loss or weight gain by the end of the year.
The reason I like the Power of Three is that it doesn’t overwhelm – you make only three small changes, changes that you choose.
Ideally, these changes lead to 200-300 less calories a day.
Why make small changes? Because we are more likely to stick to small changes than we are to huge ones.
I really liked Dr. Wansink’s book, Mindless Eating, and highly recommend it to you. Or, you can check out his experiments in research literature if you want more information.
Our goal in issuing this challenge was to get practitioners to try this so that they could test the theory for themselves and then maybe share it with their patients.
To that end, we offered more than 20 choices for changes. These changes were taken from Brian’s research findings.
What were the top three changes most frequently chosen?
- Come up for air – Try and slow down your pace at the table so you can rely on your body’s internal cues.
- Use a smaller plate.
- Drink a glass of water before eating – you may be thirsty rather than hungry.
The participants have now finished their 10 days, with some interesting feedback. In addition to asking for people’s overall comments, we inquired as to whether anyone had lost any weight. We didn’t expect much weight loss, because really, it was just a 10-day challenge. And yet 43% of respondents indicated that they had lost weight over the 10-day period, with some people losing up to 5 pounds.
Generally it takes 30 days to change a habit and so more time will be needed to see if the Power of Three practitioners make these eating changes permanent.
Click here for a PDF of the Power of Three choices list.
If you took the challenge, please share how it went. If you didn’t take the challenge, do you think that it’s something that would you be interested in trying at a later time? Please leave a comment below.
Wrote this suggestions you are discussing on this internet site. Something else I’d like to have to say is very often purchasing replications of one’s credit score to be able to look at precision from a detail is definitely the very first motion it is important to undertake throughout credit improvement. You are looking to freshen your credit score with dangerous details blunders that will go bad to your credit rating.
I know this plan – not bad but you need to have a lot of motivation 😉
You must try and not let your feelings of fear overtake you. You may have to be put on some medications to see how they work. If they help you, you wouldn’t have to go to a hospital. Why not ask the Lord to come into your heart? He loves you and wants to share your life with Him. God can help you lots !
This is a great challenge. I posted it on Facebook for all my readers to give it a try. We use this technique with our clients all the time and find it is the most effective way of creating change. The client leaves feeling very empowered that YES, I can do this!
This is a great challenge. I posted it on Facebook for all my readers to give it a try. We use this technique with our clients all the time and find it is the most effective way of creating change. The client leaves feeling very empowered that YES
I think this is a wonderful way to lose weight without even noticing! How can I get the Mindless Eating book in Spanish? Who published it? I really want to get it in Spanish to use it with my clients
Thank you
No, I didnt try it with the other practioners but I have copied the 10 day challenge and plan to follow it. My problem is the “eat everything on your plate” syndrome and feeling guilty about throwing food away that I don’t eat especially when “my eyes are bigger than my belly”. I’ll comment in 11 days. Thank you.
This was a great way to make a lifestyle change! Thanks for putting this together.
Thanks so much. This is so helpful and so gentle. It reminds both clinician and client to be compassionate with the self as well as others.
I didn’t take the challenge when you first brought it up, but thanks for the reminder. I’m going to print out the PDF list and share it with my husband. I think we can even make a game out of this and have some fun! Thanks again.