The behavioural change ideas of the Beach Diet are based on science. Behavioural change science has made big steps forward over the past 30+ years. I am not a scientist but I have taken the science and applied it to eating.
Eating is a behaviour. What we eat. When we eat. How much we eat. All behaviours.
So I’ve taken behavioural change theories and applied them to the behaviour of eating, to create the Beach Diet.
The Beach Diet is all about changing our behaviours in what we eat.
Let’s see how this works by taking an example:
I observed what I was eating and noticed that I ate a lot of crisps dipped in humous, whilst I was cooking the evening meal. I had thought it was just a few nibbles. But when I looked carefully I realised I was eating between 200 and 400 extra calories every time I had crisps.
Behavioural change science informs us that, we are much more likely to make a change which we see as a small step. So I simply replaced crisps with bread sticks. These bread sticks are about 20% of the calories of crisps.
So still nibbling. Still dipping into humous. But now the calorific impact was hugely reduced.
It was a relatively small step, that for me was easy to do. Now I hardly ever eat crisps, and never as a nibble when I’m making dinner. As a first step this meant to me that the science makes sense. All I needed to do next is apply it to other areas of eating.
So the principle of the Beach Diet is based on science. I’m not saying it is endorsed by anyone. I’ve not done any proper research. It’s just that the idea is based on. I’m just explaining how it started. And maybe why it works for me.