This week, a lot of us will make the same post-Diwali promise. No more sweets. A proper diet from Monday. Back to the gym.I would skip all of it again if you’ve tried this in the past and not succeeded.Instead, before lunch tomorrow, eat two slices of cucumber. That is the whole plan for Day 1.I know how that sounds. But in October, about 110 people, many of them in their 50s and 60s, started exactly there with us. Two slices on Day 1, building up to a real bowl. Then one more small habit each week: a short walk after the meal, more protein, water through the day.On the last weekend, we ran a poll. 98% said salad first was now part of their day. And 82% said the same about the walk.(The next round starts Monday, November 16. Visit try28.com)
Why a cucumber?
Because the order of your meal matters. In a small study of 15 adults with prediabetes, the same meal gave a smaller rise in blood sugar when the carbohydrates came last. Starting with something green is the easiest way to do that without giving up anything you love.The walk works the same way. A review of seven studies found that even two to five minutes of light walking after eating lowered blood sugar compared with sitting. Your muscles use the sugar while you move.One member used to finish every meal with something sweet: “munch on a chocolate or a sweet right after I finished my meal.” Then we showed the group a graph of how blood sugar climbs after eating. “That one graph was enough to kick the sweet tooth out of me.”You may well eat the cucumber tomorrow. Probably on Wednesday too. Then comes a late meeting or a family dinner, and by next week it has quietly gone. You were never short of information. One member said it better than I can on our last call:“Broadly, one knows it’s right. But somehow it doesn’t happen and decades fly by, not days.”What changed things for our members was not better advice. It was company. One had tried a nutritionist before: “after a week my meal plan slowly started evaporating.” This time, a month on: “Now, if I don’t walk after a meal, it feels like something is missing.”Another described the gentlest accountability I have heard of. This member would think of the others in the group: “they are watching. Actually, they are not. But they are watching. I must eat the salads first and I must take a walk.”
If you want company
We call it the 28-Day Challenge. It runs entirely on WhatsApp. Each morning, one cute nudge tells you the day’s small step. If you feel like it, you post a photo of your plate. Nobody is called out for a missed day. Each week there is a live call on the science behind that week’s habit, and doctors and dietitians answer members’ questions in the group.The next round starts Monday, November 16, with a live kick-off call on Sunday, November 15. It costs Rs 999 in India, about Rs 36 a day. A retired banker in the October group did that sum for everyone on the last call and called it “as good as free”.So here is my suggestion. Try the cucumber this week, on your own. If it is still there on Sunday, wonderful, you don’t need us. If it is already slipping, that is exactly what the group is for. Join the November 16 round here: try28.com.
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.