Studies you need to know so you can handle the festive season with ease
Good morning. I think it's important this voice note to cover an essential things I've spoken over the years that have really helped people and I think that are important to reinforce because they're easy to forget and if we forget them when we don't learn the lessons from them. What we need to do is, and how we I think we should live wisely is I think we should have these kind of like, systems or principles or like models in our head. And then when we come into social situations or whatever, we're able to pull this model out of our head and go, okay, let's apply this to this situation and see what happens and see what the answer is. So if we can have these, it can work well in our favor.
Speaker 1:Like one classic one of the stoics is, is this in my control or is it is it or is it not in my sphere of control? And you put that right. Is this in my control? No. The only thing in my control is my attitude towards things.
Speaker 1:My actions, my voluntary actions is the only thing in my control. Other stuff isn't. So someone saying, you're a nasty person isn't in your control. Someone says they don't like you, not in your control. Someone puts a massive chocolate cake on your table and goes, do you want some of this?
Speaker 1:It's not in your control. It's in your control of your actions. So that's a simple easy one that we should always be using anyway. But here's a few ones, study based ones that should help you through the festive season. Okay?
Speaker 1:I think it's important. So let's have a look at some of the really important studies over the years. First study is Batman study. Study, showed the kids who were asked themselves, before they had a choice of apples or fries and they were told before picking, one group was told to think of a superhero. So like Batman, what would Batman do in a scenario, Little Scott?
Speaker 1:Little Scott, what would Batman do? Well, he'll be eating the apples with knees. So I'll have the apples please. I actually in my own life Bruce Lee was that person for me. And the other ones weren't all that and then they picked fries more.
Speaker 1:So by just saying what would X person I look up to do, the chances of you going for the better decision increases. And this works in adults as well. Should I eat this dessert? Should I binge drink? Should I go and order delivery when I've got food in the fridge?
Speaker 1:You might think one of them is like, is this moderate? Am I being am I am I being am I in moderation right now? Another one could be what would Louise do? What would Ryan do? What would whoever do?
Speaker 1:And as long as we can break the circuit, we can break that automatic decision of just going straight away for it. And even if we can do it one third of the time, half the time, think of how much that adds up. So that's a study that shows that break, have a take a moment, ask yourself, would someone you admire do in this position? And then that that quite your question is answered. Another study showed that just moving your food, so moving sweets at least six feet away from a desk drastically reduced, how many sweets someone ate.
Speaker 1:So that's how lazy we are. Think about it. When you're on a couch, yeah, and it's something on TV you hate, but the the remote control is out of reach. Sometimes you go, oh, I can't be arsed. We can leave this dreadful program on for an hour.
Speaker 1:We're so lazy, but if we can hack this, we can think, well, if that's so lazy we are, well, might as well move things out of reach. Reach. And you know you're not going win all those battles again but you're building an environment that works for you. You're building the battle plan that's more in your favor. The battle might not go to plan fully but at least you're putting yourself in the best position.
Speaker 1:Said this study before, it's the six month hospital study. So what they did was they were like we need people to drink more water. So they put more water in the where they sell soda drinks Coke Zero all that stuff and they put some more water bottles on sale by the tills. They didn't say a word to anyone. Soda sales dropped 11% and water sales increased 25.8%.
Speaker 1:So environment's very important for behavior. Even if you don't know something's happened, I think that's quite scary in a sense. Are we just Sims? There's a program on Netflix, what's it called? Something Studios.
Speaker 1:It's got an episode about God who just got his board in front of him. He's just like, yeah, give him some rain and all this stuff. It's funny because you think well that, you know, he just influenced the environment then has changed their behavior. They haven't got a clue. So if we know that in what environment can play this much of a role, let's make it work for us.
Speaker 1:Next one, the way we speak to ourselves. So one group has said to say I can't eat that mazbah and another group was told to I don't eat the mazbah. So they offer the choice I don't eat that and I can't eat that. So one group was told that each time they were faced with a temptation they would tell themselves I can't eat that. For example, I'm tempted with ice cream I can't eat ice cream.
Speaker 1:The second group was faced with temptation. They were told to say, I don't eat ice cream. So they're tempted with ice cream. They go, I don't eat ice cream. After repeating these phrases, each student answered a set of questions unrelated to the study.
Speaker 1:Once they finished answering their questions, the students went to hand in the answer sheet thinking that the study was over or it wasn't. In reality it was just beginning. As each student walked out of the room and handed in the answer sheet they were offered a complimentary treat. The student could choose between a chocolate candy bar or a granola health bar. As the student walked away, the researcher would mark their snack choice on the answer sheet.
Speaker 1:The students who told themselves I can't eat x chose to eat the chocolate bar 61% of the time. Meanwhile, the students have told themselves I don't eat x choose to eat chocolate bars 36% of the time. So basically nearly half. So you're half as likely to pick the bad option if you say well I can't eat that. Well sorry.
Speaker 1:I don't. Sorry. I really messed that up. I don't eat that. So it's in your control.
Speaker 1:Do know what someone's saying? Oh, I can't smoke right now. Well, you're saying now, and you're you're basically saying you can't right now. We'll do it later on. So I don't is experienced experienced as a choice and it feels empowering.
Speaker 1:I can't isn't a choice. It's restriction. It's being imposed on you. This is vital. This is why macros works so much.
Speaker 1:Okay? With macros, you can eat whatever you want. Again, I've mentioned this study so many times before new listeners. The study, the Twinkie diet, sugary snacks every three hours, ten weeks in the calorie deficit they were like you're not gonna lose weight mate. He did lose weight, he lost 27 pounds, his health markers went up, he ate sugary snacks every three hours.
Speaker 1:He doesn't recommend doing it of course but what that shows us is being in the calorie deficit, eating sugar, lost in weight, he went from an unhealthy BMI you know too high to in the healthy range health markers went up. What I'm saying is we don't have to be 100% perfect with the foods we eat. We don't have to be that. That's what macros is all about, flexible have that ice cream. Have that granola bar.
Speaker 1:Have whatever you want. Okay? But realize ideally we do want to be eating whole foods. We do because they've got more volume, they're better for us. Milk and nutrients, of course we want eat those over time and improve our choices.
Speaker 1:But if we walk around I can't eat, damn it. I can't eat that chocolate bar. That's not true in macros because you can. This is it. You can though.
Speaker 1:Oh, Scott, I can't have that I can't have that pint. Yes. You can have that pint. I can have the wine glass. Yes.
Speaker 1:You can have the wine glass. It's up to you. You can have it. Have it. Pour in.
Speaker 1:We've got the alcohol conversion tool if you want to do it. Convert it into the carbs or fats or both. Like, there's no restriction. You can have whatever you want. This is what makes this now a choice and empowering because you've got all the available foods in the world at your disposal and it's up to you how you play Tetris with these foods and fit them into your macros.
Speaker 1:That's all I'm gonna say. Okay. Next one, a study on eating out. People who sat in booths or booths, as we say in Wales, booths, were about 80% more likely to order dessert than people sitting in a normal table, and you're about 80% less likely to order salad. Do you know why this is?
Speaker 1:So people sitting near the windows were much more likely to order salads. If you are seated at a table closest to the bar, on average, your table is gonna be ordering three more beers on the table furthest from the bar. The reason why people in booths are more likely to eat dessert than others because if you think about it, they don't they're they're private. No one's gonna see them eating a dessert. And a lot of our choices are done to what we think people are gonna think about us.
Speaker 1:So the social thing, oh, Sally's gonna see me eat a dessert. She's gonna think I'm really unhealthy and she's gonna tell all the village, know, that, you know, this silly thing that goes in the head. But then when you're by the window, you think every person you've ever met is gonna walk around that corner, didn't you? Is it the imaginary audience syndrome? You sit by the window in a in a restaurant in town and you think, yeah, yeah, everyone's gonna come and see me and watch me and go, oh, look who's there?
Speaker 1:Look who's there? Oh my gosh. She's eating salad. What a legend. No.
Speaker 1:But look, it's how the human mind works. It's how it works. So if you do wanna feel accountable, it's similar to like working when you're like, do know what? I like working in an office because I know people are watching me work so I do more work. It's kind of like that watcher effect and you do behave better when you know things someone's watching you.
Speaker 1:But really that's easy. The hard part is doing the right thing when nobody's watching, isn't it? Nobody's watching you, you're in the house alone Friday night, what are you doing? No one's gonna know. What are you gonna do though?
Speaker 1:Deliveroo, you're gonna go for the healthier option and that's when people fail. So it's important like you look at that what's happening psychologically there. And then again, with the beers, you know, if you close to a bar, it's easy to get done. Remember me me and Dean Leake, coach, went, he we had a few drinks for after his baby was born in Central London, and we were right by the bar. And we did go through loads of beers, like a lot.
Speaker 1:And I think it plays a role when you close to a bar. Another one, drink from tall skinny glasses. You will typically drink about 20% less from a tall slender glass than you would from a short fat glass. And this is just another psychological trick. You think you're having more than you are, and you drink less.
Speaker 1:Bit less, no loads, might work, who knows? Okay, and weekend binge eating list. Okay. This is what let's have a look at what we can do here. So let go of perfect eating.
Speaker 1:This goes for Christmas as well. Let go of perfect eating. You're not gonna be a perfect eater ever. Even if you've got a private chef, I'm telling you, you won't be a perfect eater. Remove good and bad food distinction.
Speaker 1:There is really no such thing okay than good and bad food. There's foods that are more nutrient dense, foods that are less nutrient dense. Foods that are generally, yes with more nutrients and more in volume others are really tiny in volume more sugar whatever. Have a mix of them because that's the reality of the world we live in. Give yourself permission to indulge but have limitations.
Speaker 1:Eat mindfully, eat slowly, Be present in the moment. Don't eat while watching TV. Eat sitting down. You think I'm telling you like this, I'll do this. You think no, I need to work in this.
Speaker 1:It's hard. Hard to eat slowly. I eat. I lick it. I'm fast.
Speaker 1:Ferrari. I'm gunning that food down and I need to slow down and I've been trying for a while and I have slowed down but it doesn't make a big difference. And you're not gonna stop binge eating fully. Right? So if you have one binge eating session wherever just let it go.
Speaker 1:The past is gone to the past. Let it go, move on after it happens. Don't make it two days, don't make it three days. Use different terminology moving forward. I don't eat the ice cream versus I can't.
Speaker 1:So I don't eat it. I don't wanna eat that. I don't eat that. My choice, I don't eat it. Oh, I can't.
Speaker 1:Oh, I want to, but I can't. You're gonna fail. What would Batman do? What would Bruce Lee do? What would Louise Thompson do?
Speaker 1:What would Ryan Libby do? Don't ask what I would do. I'd be eating a cake. But always ask the I'll question the decision. Watch your environment.
Speaker 1:Plays a massive role. You know, put read atomic habits to start with. Put water in positions now as you're gonna drink water. Okay? Put, you know the snacks out of sight you don't want see I'm only tempted.
Speaker 1:Alright do these little tweaks and it'll work in your favor. Drink alcohol from tall skinny glasses. Know champagne or like Prosecco low in calories like 80 calories a glass, slender glass usually not bad. You can have like eight of them. How many calories is that?
Speaker 1:You can have probably 10 of them. Well, you can have about eight glasses per sec or equals a bottle of wine probably. So eight is quite a lot in it if you drink it slow. And maybe take the window seat when you're eating out. Don't hide in the booths because, you might be ordering all sorts.
Speaker 1:So maybe just play that psychological trick in yourself. I'll go by their window, might see someone that fancies me walk past, I don't want them to see me there. Might work, I know it's stupid but it might work. Okay? And then obviously we need to start walking as well.
Speaker 1:The problem if we don't walk enough, like I said before, if you don't walk enough per day, if we don't move as much as our ancestors did, say 6,000, eight thousand steps minimum a day, our appetite regulation system doesn't work properly. We get hungrier than we need. That's why when you sit down all day, you feel hungry. Why? Your body doesn't need the energy.
Speaker 1:What's going on? It's because you're not doing what you were born to do as a human being basically. We weren't meant to sit down all day. We want to walk around hunting, walking, laughing, playing by the fire, throwing stones, don't know, moving basically. There was a study on this as well that you didn't they didn't technically walk so much more than you know eight ten thousand steps a day but what the hunter gatherer tribes do is they do a lot more kneeling down squatting picking things up off the floor up and down they've got more dynamic movement as opposed to us who like wake up sit down stand up, walk over, cup of tea, sit back down.
Speaker 1:Know what mean? We're not bending down. They're kind of good you know just tie your shoelaces maybe 20 times a day I don't know but they were just more dynamic. So understand that over Christmas if you're not getting your steps in you're gonna feel hungrier. So a lot of people doing Christmas day, they go on Christmas walks, is awesome.
Speaker 1:But really do genuinely think about doing two walks a day. Walk, wake up in the morning, go on a walk, coffee, water, go back. Walk before you go for a big meal or after whatever you want to do. Just get your steps in, it will help with your appetite regulation system and the food becomes more satiating. So if you do get more steps in, your response to the food, your hunger goes is in more in tune with what you're eating.
Speaker 1:That's important because look you can eat a sundae that didn't touch the sides but it should have. Is it because you weren't moving at all? We need to start the habit now. Make sure you get your steps in now so our system is ready to go and it's not gonna be dysregulated going to the festive period. We wanna be more in tame with our body.
Speaker 1:You with me? 6,000 to 8,000 steps as a goal minimum per day. So I hope those studies helped. Those are quite like the big hitters really to think about behavior, how things happen, going into Christmas, what we can do. It's really simple really like if we really if we focus on being mindful, if we focus on questioning our decisions like the stoics do, every first impression they get they always question it.
Speaker 1:Is this bullshit? Am I really hungry? Am I craving? Like what is Let's put this impression to the test. Let's put a bit of breathing space before we just take the first impression we get and act upon it as if it's the truth.
Speaker 1:Okay? So we take it in. Take a few seconds. Okay. Listen, let me let me question this.
Speaker 1:And then you can either deploy the Batman study or you can think about moderation and all that stuff. And if we can just do that and walk and laugh and have a good time and understand what we want in life, This time if you think about it one day is one day. Christmas made up man. Made it up. It's more way more commercial now than whatever it was started off being.
Speaker 1:I mean Jesus wasn't even born in Christmas just tell you. He wasn't born in December. He was born in June or July. They actually trivia Christmas Day is on Christmas Day because before Christianity took over, the pagans would celebrate on the December because that's when the sun hangs in the sky the longest. And that's what the day they celebrated.
Speaker 1:It was easier to convert the pagans to Christianity if they kept their main celebration day there. So Jesus wasn't born in December. So guys it doesn't matter, what are we doing? Every day is the same, think about it. Every day is same, let's make the most of each day and how would you really want to live each day.
Speaker 1:It takes Christmas day, how would you live Christmas day? Of course eat the amazing food, drink, enjoy with the family, stuff like that. But I don't think we need to look around like a two weeks of hell of just abusing our bodies and just going nuts. So I don't think we need to do that. Let's just get our steps in, be mindful, read about stoicism, get prepared for 2022 because we got Octagon two point zero starting on the thirty first of Jan and it's going to be class.
Speaker 1:That's it. More studies are going to come your way. I'm doing a lot of research on them now trying to find the good ones about behavior, environmental stuff like that. Tomorrow is going to be more about stress and how that's going to impact us. If we can control stress as well as get our steps in, we are really putting ourselves in a really good position over the festive period.
Speaker 1:Because if we don't control our stress and we've got no steps, okay, I got some bad news. You're destroying Monster Munch, Cadbury's, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, gravy, potentially pasties, and pints, whiskey, the lot. You're not stopping. But if you can control you've got more control now. But guys, enjoy your day.
Speaker 1:Remember to live one day at a time. If you can do the best you can today, all you can do is your best each day. As Dean says, the best all you can do is your best each day. Doesn't mean that every day is any better, but it means trying your best each day. So start your day off by doing that one big thing.
Speaker 1:If you've again a bit of motivation from this voice note, don't go on your phone because you end up on the Instagram explore feed. You feel bad about yourself, and you're scrolling Instagram going in twenty min twenty, forty, twenty, forty, sixty minutes later, you're still on Instagram and now you hate yourself. How many times has that happened? So after this voice note, go and do that task you need to get done that needs to be done. It's gonna move your day forward.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be a good tick. Boom. And it's gonna get you building momentum today. So go and do that right now. See you tomorrow.
