Changing how you eat can be a monstrous task. The addictive qualities of certain foods, such as sugar, make it even more of a challenge. If you study how the mind works, you know that telling yourself no to something is one of the worst possible ways to stop yourself from overeating. Because telling yourself to stop means you start relying on pure willpower, and the moment your willpower wavers, whatever you’re forcing yourself to avoid will have the upper hand.

So, saying no doesn’t work, and saying yes to bad habits doesn’t work—what’s the answer? For some, the low-resistance technique of stacking, which weaves healthy foods into your daily routine, is the perfect strategy. Using this approach, you give yourself permission to eat whatever you want but apply one condition: you must eat and drink everything from a special list first.

Start Stacking

Start by preparing a list of ultra-healthy food and drinks. We call this list of ultra-healthy foods a “stack.” An example of a daily stack might look like this:

coffee with grass-fed butter and coconut oil
serving of unsalted nuts
powdered greens
vegetables with vinegar and oil dressing
green tea
water
plant-based protein powder
fresh juice and smoothies (low sugar)

Limit your stack to the dynamos of the health food world. You want low-carb, low-calorie, healthy-fat, high-fiber, nutrient-dense, easy-to-digest foods. If you’re not doing keto or another protein-restricted diet, then you may want to add protein to almost every meal so you avoid empty calories and instead add fuel for building muscle and burning fat. Foods like red meat and oatmeal, while healthy, are not the ultra-healthy foods you want in your stack.

After you’ve designed your stack, the process is simple: you have to get through your stack before you can permit yourself to eat anything else that day. Instead of haphazardly drifting from meal to meal, you will now have a simple daily routine that will fuel your body with super nutritious foods.

For more tips that allow you to gently flow out of bad eating habits into healthy habits, pick up my new book, Advanced Weight Loss!