How I’m Thinking About Nutrition Through the Holidays

I rarely talk or write about nutrition as I think others are imminently more qualified. 

However, in the thick of the holiday season, I wanted to share a valuable mental model that you may want to consider applying to your eating.  I’ve written about it a bit in the past, but in the words of 19th century poet and author Samual Johnson, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be taught.”  To be clear, if you are perfect, only eat perfect foods, and have never consumed a holiday cookie, this tip isn’t for you.

My nutrition focus over the next couple of weeks doesn’t center around macronutrients, micronutrients, or calories.  Instead, it involves a bit of human psychology and the trap of dichotomous thinking. 

Many of us, me included, consciously or subconsciously label our nutrition for a day as either “great” or “bad.”

A great day is a day in which we make healthful nutrition decisions; we are intentional about what we eat; we’re mindful of how much we eat.  If we were to grade our nutrition for the day, we would give it an A.

A “bad” nutrition day is a day in which we throw caution to the wind.  The doughnuts at the office looked so good that we decided to have two (no real harm in this).  At a lunch meeting that day, we review the menu and decide to order desert as well.  Why?  Well, because we already ate the doughnuts that morning, we might as well label it a “bad” day and indulge.  This continues throughout the day, and by the end of the day, we are in a true nutrition free fall.  It’s a “bad” day, so we might as well live it up (and of course, get back on track the next day).  If we were to grade this day, we would give our eating an “F.”

I operated like this for many years.  

But there is an alternative.  Instead of the dichotomy of good or bad, we could view each day’s nutrition assessment as a continuous variable.  Instead of “great” or “bad,” we could ascribe an A, B, C, D, or F.  Our focus now changes from:

“I either have great or bad days.”

To,

“Today might not be an A, but can I avoid the spiral to an F and achieve a C+.”

Before a big family holiday, a work party, a celebratory dinner out (or, let’s be honest, a late-night flight in which the Delta snack basket comes around for the third time), I remind myself that I don’t have to achieve an A for the day, but I don’t have to default to an F.  There is so much value in achieving a B (or even a D+).

Take home message:  Don’t let a day’s eating get away from you.  It surely doesn’t have to.  String together a high percentage of A’s and then strive to turn your would-be F’s into as many C’s as possible.  And yes, an F every once in a while is okay (Christmas Eve will be an F for me, but I’ll surround it with some A’s and B’s). 

Final point: You are the one assigning the grade.  Thus, this mental model works for whatever your approach to nutrition might be.