Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution has this to say about dieting:

I buy dark chocolate when I should not. But I buy for the immediate moment. I have no problem buying less than my impulsive self ideally might desire. I run out of the stuff quickly, even though when I run out part of me wishes I had bought more (this is similar to “gamma discounting.”)

I need only make fewer trips to the store. Each time I go, I should fill the cart with milk, grapefruit juice, and cereal, so I need not return for a long time. Fewer store trips mean fewer chances to be weak. Being myopic in my weakness of will, I won’t much adjust using larger chocolate inventories.

Chocolate below 70 percent is not worth my while.

The best solution to my self-constraint problem is to tell my wife where the chocolate is hidden.

Sadly, I know she does not like the 85 percent.

And haven’t we all been through the same thing. I am the snackmaster. I’ve been known to down entire boxes of cereal while standily greedily in front of our pantry. Chocolate, hard candy, cookies, small children, they are all no match for my ironclad stomach. I’ve even earned a reputation in my house at college for the way I snack. It’s half the reason I’ve named my blog “in search of free food.”

But I also lost 50 pounds and have kept them off for a year. An accomplishment that I probably underappreciate, though one that has certainly had an impact on my life. My secret is even simpler. I can crave chocolate all I want, but I’m also too lazy to actually go to the store just for something like that. All I need to do is muster the self-control for that 5 minutes in the grocery store. Even better, I just skip the candy aisle. Then I’m home free until next time I go shopping.

Does this mean I never eat chocolate? Of course not. I just wait till my housemates buy it for the house. Then I down it with the same reckless abandon as always. More even. I’m not sure how an economist like Mr. Cowen would model this economically, but it works. Good enough for me.

Also, he’s right. Milk chocolate is crap. Dark chocolate r0×0rz

Posted on January 23rd, 2006 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized