Why I Start With What to Add, Never With What to Cut
Every diet I ever tried started the same way. A list of foods I was no longer allowed to eat, stuck to the fridge on a Sunday night. Bread, pasta, chocolate, wine. By Wednesday I was thinking about all four of them, constantly.
If you’ve been there, you know how it goes. The list gets longer and the cravings get louder, until something gives.
These days I start somewhere else entirely. I start with what to add.
What crowding out means
Crowding out is an easy idea to grasp. Instead of taking foods away, you add more of the ones that fill you up and nourish you: vegetables, protein, fibre from wholegrains and beans, and healthy fats like olive oil and nuts.
When your plate is fuller with those, there’s naturally less room for the rest. Biscuits stay allowed. You’re eating a breakfast that keeps you going until lunch, so the 11am biscuit loses a lot of its pull.
Why it works better than cutting out
First, there’s how your body responds. Protein and fibre take longer to digest, so they keep you fuller for longer. When you’re comfortably full, cravings are quieter and it’s easier to make choices you feel good about.
Then there’s how your brain responds. Telling yourself a food is off-limits tends to make you want it more. Anyone who has banned chocolate on a Monday knows where that ends up. When nothing is banned, the pressure drops. A biscuit becomes a biscuit again, and you can take it or leave it.
Start with your kitchen
Before you change anything, take stock of what you usually buy. Open the fridge and the cupboards and have an honest look. Which staples go in the shopping trolley every single week?
You’re looking for easy wins. Foods you already eat where a more filling version exists, and meals that would take one extra ingredient without anyone noticing.
White pasta can become wholewheat. Sugary cereal can become porridge or overnight oats with fruit on top. A handful of spinach disappears into almost any tomato sauce. Beans and lentils bulk out soups, stews and chilli, and they cost very little. Plain Greek yoghurt with berries and nuts gives you far more protein than most flavoured yoghurt pots.
One swap at a time
The most common trap is trying to change everything in one weekend. A full kitchen overhaul feels productive on Sunday and overwhelming by Thursday.
Pick one addition or swap this week and make it part of your regular shopping from now on. When it stops feeling like an effort, pick another. Small changes pile up quietly, and a few months from now your kitchen looks different without you ever having gone on a diet.
Keep the foods you love
This part matters. Crowding out is about adding nourishment, and your favourite foods stay. If you love a particular chocolate, keep buying it. If Friday is pizza night in your house, keep pizza night. Add a big salad to the table and carry on.
Food you enjoy is part of eating well for life. Take it away and you’re back on a diet, with all the cravings and guilt that come with it.
Where to begin this week
Choose one meal you eat most days. Breakfast is often the easiest. Ask yourself what you’d add to make it more filling. A spoonful of nut butter on your toast, or an egg alongside it. Then notice how you feel at 11am.
That’s the whole experiment.
I’ll be sharing several easy swaps on Instagram next week if you’d like a list to take shopping. And if you’re tired of starting every week with a list of things you can’t have, have a look at my FREE 5-part video series "Stop the Cycle: Learn The Real Secret to Weight Loss". Or if you’d rather just talk, send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. 🧡
