I think I have discovered the secret to successful behavior modification, at least for people who are on a diet. Instead of showing people what to do and then expect them to do it, people seem to have to want to sacrifice or endure a tiny deprivation to help them to invest in the weight loss process. Diets that require a person to give up something can create a buzz and a feeling of excitement because there is a challenge to the person's self esteem. I don't mean give up chocolate or cookies either because that is just a given.If I were a religeous person I might roll the dice and create The Lent Diet (avoid whatever Catholics traditionally give up for lent). Racing fans might like The NASCAR Diet (eat only what you can grill and nothing else). The Cricket Diet could limit all of your calories to beer and potato chips which is what you would eat while watching a 12 hour cricket match (or you could simply live by eating a lot of little crickets). The Golfer's Diet would demand that people give up one food group for every bogey and if they missed a little old granny putt they would have to eat their scorecard. It's an incentive kind of a deal.
Maybe I could invent The Dr. Butler Diet. My diet would require the dieters to eliminate anything that they could not easily be transported on a bike, in a car or in the pockets of a lab coat. This would certainly cut down on preparation and portion size. If this got too boring, once or twice a week the dieters would be allowed to go into a local hospital and swipe something to eat from the nurses station and then run away. The running part would be part of the diet because of the exercise you would get and....that would cause you to lose weight.
On second thought lets just keep this our secret.
Nurses hate having their food swiped.
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