Let's Nudge Your Nutrition

Look for the "nudge" or "upgrade" to improve your nutrition.

Nudge = a small step you can make in a positive direction, like focusing on vegetable snacks

Upgrade = a small change you can make in your food choices to improve the health quality of your meals and snacks

Why it matters:
One percent improvements made consistently over time yield incredible results. While it is tempting to try to do everything perfect right away, this can lead to frustration and failure if not sustainable.

An alternate approach is to look for small improvements you can make consistently to build habits:

• Change a snack from crackers and jelly to almonds and apple
• Find a bread with less added sugar and more fiber per slice
• Include lean protein with each meal
• You get the idea

By looking for places to upgrade your food quality and nudge yourself to making healthy choices more consistently, you will be able to better follow through on your good intention to improve your health.

What you can do:
Here's one framework to think about when upgrading your nutrition:

1. Eat sufficient protein
2. Eat sufficient fiber
3. Elevate food quality
4. Eat sufficient vegetables and fruits
5. Eat within your carbohydrate tolerance (this one might need explanation - video here)

Going Deeper:
Sarah and I used to do programs online to help folks with prediabetes put all these steps together. We've pulled back from this effort to focus on our clients in the clinic, but here are two resources you may find helpful:

• One Percent Wins to Reverse Prediabetes. YouTube video.
• Prediabetes Fast Start Program. A couple years ago I created this course on Udemy. Though it's not free, you can use the link here for a significant discount.

Have a wonderful week,

Dr. Topher Fox

P.S. If you missed any previous emails, the content is posted weekly here

P.P.S. Below are the pictures from my exam room wall which we are exploring for this email series.