To change habits, it’s not the knowing, it’s the doing.
In October the OECD released a report informing us that from 2010 to 2016 the obesity rate increased from 21% to 24%. In the countries covered an additional 50 million people are now obese. They also explained that nationwide campaigns and better information could save thousands of life years. Moreover “Economic savings would also be significant, with menu labeling alone saving up to USD$ 13 billion between 2020 and 2050.” More recently Nestlé announced an industry leading push to use Nutri-score in more markets. Nutri-Score is believed to be the most efficient nutrition label in conveying information on the nutritional quality of food.
“Knowing is not enough, we must apply”
While totally laudable these efforts made me think about the G.I. Joe Fallacy. Unlike what G.I. Joe says, knowing is often not half the battle. Used to describe situations in cognitive science, where knowing about bias still leaves us subject to those same cognitive bias, it seems to also apply to weight management. A simple google search for “Lose weight Geneva” gives you 10 million hits, with information aplenty. However, as Bruce Lee said, quoting Goethe, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do”. Or as Laurie R. Santos and Tamar Gendler, who coined the GI Joe fallacy, explain “the lesson in much contemporary research in judgment and decision-making is that knowledge is rarely the central factor controlling our behaviors”.
You know snacking too much is bad for you, yet still reach for the cookie instead of an apple. You know exercise is good for you, yet the last time you walked to work was weeks ago. To change habits, at habitlauncher.com we help you build a system to reach your weight related goals.
Now you know, and why not win the weight loss battle with our e-book here or available on Gumroad here.