How To Use Nudges For A Healthier Diet
How Small Changes Can Improve Your Diet and Health
Have you heard of "nudges" - small changes or reminders that encourage a behaviour? These small nudges or reminders can work well for your diet, to encourage healthier eating through smaller everyday changes. Often, larger plans such as New Year's resolutions can fail simply due to their scope, but we offer practical tips on how smaller, consistent dietary changes can lead to big health and weight loss results.
The start of a new year is often a time for resolutions, but for many, these resolutions are not successful. Dietitian Mei shares why 'nutrition nudges' or health nudges may be more helpful improving your health in the long term.
Take home messages
- Never underestimate the power of the small change as this may lead to big health wins in the long term.
- Ditch the lofty resolution (which can feel overwhelming) and set yourself just 3 small changes you can really stick to this year - not just for January.
- Check in every week to reflect on how it's going and what you want to stick with or do differently next week.
Why do new year’s resolutions fail?
The start of a new year is often a time for resolutions, but for many, these resolutions are not successful.
Did you know that only 20% of us keep these resolutions when we hit February [1] - why is this the case?
Could it be that we’re going from a month of celebratory feelings, togetherness and lots of yummy food (and having triple helpings) to ‘quick - let’s lose weight ASAP!’ feeling tired and overindulged but still needing to go back to work?
Does this feel and sound all too familiar to how many of us start our new year?
This is why at Field Doctor, we want to turn it upside down and challenge you to make small, realistic changes instead that you can stick to (and help you to smile along the way).
What is a NUTRITION NUDGE?
A nutrition nudge is when you make a small change to your diet that leads to big health benefits in the long run.
As a society, we are conditioned to ‘think big’ but how about taking baby steps instead? (A baby can’t run a marathon before she can take her first step, right?!) For example, if your resolution last year was to get fit and active, for 2024, perhaps it could be: how can I get more steps in each day? When you turn it into a question first, it might help to create your simple, nutrition nudge.
Here are some examples of nudges you might want to try
- Try to aim for a 5% weight loss goal
- Try to nutritionally balance your plate
- Think about how and when you eat
- Keep an eye on portion sizes
- Try some healthy snack swaps
- Adding in some budget-friendly, healthy foods
- Try going meat-free one night per week
- Are there any non-diet goals you want to set e.g. improved sleep, better stress management?
Practical tips
- Take time to reflect on what you'd like to work on and write this down (maybe play some inspiring music in the background to increase your creativity)
- Perhaps think about what worked well last year and what you would like to improve on this year
- Why not ask your good friends and trusted family members to be your cheerleaders! They can help you on the days when you don’t feel so motivated (plus, it may inspire them to join you on a health journey!)
Final thoughts
Making nutrition nudges are all about making small changes consistently that may lead to big wins in the long term.
So why not embrace the new year opportunity by ditching the resolutions – it's never been the solution. Nudge your way to better health instead.
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