Apply the 80/20 Rule to Your Diet

The 80/20 rule of economics can be applied to a lot of life’s dilemmas, but blogger Jodie Clements used the rule as one of her “10 Commandments” to help her drop 10 pounds and feel better overall. The 20 percent, in her case, applied to eating the foods she really wanted to enjoy:

Eat healthy 80 percent of the time – the other 20 percent – eat whatever the hell you like (but not after 9pm). The whole point of eating well for the long term (your whole life) is knowing that you can also have whatever you want sometimes and that yes, a little bit of what you fancy really does do you good. So – how about eating healthy Monday to Friday and saving the fun for the weekend? Works for me.

Eating “whatever” might be a little extreme (given how easy it is to start splurging on fast food these days), but dividing your food up into weekly percentages might be more rewarding than watching every calorie. Hit the link for nine other tips on losing weight and keeping fit.