The Three-Week Break in Planning Health

The Three-Week Break in Planning Health-Promoting Meals - How Foods Fight Cancer

The best and easiest way to try a new way of eating is to take what you
might call a “three-week break.” That is, select a three-week period and
during this time build your meals only from the best possible foods while
setting aside unhealthful foods completely. Your taste buds have a memory
of about three weeks, which means that, in that short time, you’ll be
adjusted to new tastes. So whether you are looking to cut the fat from your
diet, reduce salt, break a sugar habit, or get to know truly health-promoting
foods, using a three-week break—and really doing it all the way—will give
you the momentum you need.

At the end of three weeks, see how you feel. If you like how things are
going—if you’ve lost a few pounds and are feeling healthier and more
energetic—you can stick with it. If, however, this just doesn’t feel right to
you, you are free to go back to your old way of eating. Your diet experiment
lasts only three weeks, and remembering that will help you to give it your all.

Do not do it halfway. Now is the time to really see what healthful eating
feels like. If you were just to have an occasional nutritious vegetarian
meal while continuing to eat meaty, cheesy dishes at other times, you
would keep reminding your taste buds of the very foods that cause health
problems and would never lose your taste for these foods. Have a complete
break and really try to eat only health-supporting foods. In chapter 3, we
talked about the common experience of switching from whole milk to skim
or nonfat versions to illustrate how quickly we adjust to lighter tastes. Well,
now is your chance to lighten up your entire menu. At first, your taste buds
might miss fatty foods, but that will soon pass as they come to embrace
more wholesome choices.