Self-coaching for the MIND diet

Before proceeding, you should be familiar with the Self-Coaching Overview in the Welcome section, Identify your most powerful motivations for change in the Motivation section. Additionally, you will want to have read Foundations I in Reducing Cognitive Decline and Foundations III the MIND diet on reducing cognitive decline.

Step 1 :I-Identify:

Remember, this step takes some time for reflexion. However, tapping into your most powerful reasons for change is essential if you want to make changes that last. If you’ve already done it for another area of health, though, you may find some significant overlaps.

Identify your overall goals:

Examples of overall goals:

I want to reduce my risk of cognitive decline by improving my eating, getting more exercise, and scheduling an appointment with my primary caregiver to ask for help to stop smoking.
I want to reduce my risk of cognitive decline by getting my blood pressure under control, adapting the pattern of eating represented in the MIND diet, to increase my physical activity.

Identify any reasons that you are reluctant to change:

Examples:

I love hamburgers and fries at my favorite fast food restaurant and besides, it’s convenient.
I don’t know how I’d increase my vegetable intake very much because I don’t like vegetables.
I’ve eaten dessert after lunch and dinner my whole life. It doesn’t seem like a meal would be complete without dessert.
Won’t eating more beans give me gas?

After you’ve been honest with yourself about reasons you are reluctant to change, ask yourself whether there is anything you can do to address the fear or minimize the loss.

Identify your deepest, most powerful reasons for making these changes

“I want to avoid cognitive decline” is a pretty powerful motivation, but motivations that involve gaining something, not avoiding something, tend to be more powerful still:
“I want to be able to remember my loved ones and continue making and sharing memories all my life.”
“I want to be able to get together with friends and play bridge.”
“I want to be able to continue to contribute to my community.”
“I want to be able to live independently in my home.”

Imagine how your life and your interaction with your loved ones and ability to do the things you now enjoy will be impacted if you stay mentally sharp versus if you decline cognitively. Though it’s hard to think about the impact of cognitive decline, change is hard, too. There will be times when you need to remember these deepest motivations in order to move forward with change.

Now compare your reasons for being reluctant to change your eating pattern so that it conforms more closely to the MIND diet to your reasons for wanting to change. Which is most important to you?

Identify your strengths and resources:

What are your strengths? Are you adventurous? Are you a decent cook? Are you willing to learn and try new things? Have you ever been able to change part of your pattern of eating before? What worked for you then, even a little bit? Do you enjoy sharing a meal with other people? Are you still able to prepare your own meals?

What are your resources? Do you have access to the internet to look for new recipes? Does your budget allow you to purchase whatever good quality foods you want or will you have to modify a bit? Do you have transportation to get to a grocery store? Do you have freezer space? Access to a microwave? Do you have family members or friends who will be supportive of your efforts to improve your eating patterns (and not try to sabotage you)? Do you have family members or friends who actually share your commitment to a healthy eating pattern?

Identify your starting point:

The point scale makes it easy to calculate your starting point and to set specific goals in Step 3.

If you scored 8.5 points on the quiz you are already within the range of the participants in the Rush studies who had a 60% reduction in risk of cognitive decline associated with their diets.
If you scored between 7-8 points, you’re in the middle group who had a 37% reduction in risk associated with their diets.
If you scored less than 7 points, you’re in the group for which diet is not associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline.

Identify how ready are you to change:

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0 1 2 3 4 5

Not at all ready I am totally ready

How ready are you to at least start to think about changing so that you can reach the goals you have?
How ready are you to take a few small baby steps toward changing so that you can reach the goals you have?
How ready are you to make at least one significant change in order to reach the goals you have?

You are not stuck with your current level of readiness. You can nudge yourself forward.

Let’s say you’ve given yourself a 5 for willingness to think about changing .You can begin to expand your “thinking about changing” by reading articles or watching Youtube videos about the MIND diet, Mediterranean diet, or DASH diets. (Those are the three that current research has shown to have an impact on cognitive health.) Look for meals that fit the eating patterns that appeal to you. Immerse yourself in thinking about your goal. This in itself will be a step toward change.
Perhaps you’ve already been thinking about changing, but you gave yourself a “3” for your readiness to take some baby steps. You can ask yourself, “What would it take for me to feel like I was at a 4?”
You can actively compare your most powerful reasons for change with the reasons you are reluctant to change. What do truly want most? Is it possible to proceed in a way that minimizes your fears or concerns about loss?
Perhaps there is one thing that you are most reluctant to let go of. Would you be willing to take a step toward change that didn’t involve that one thing? Examples: You want to hold onto having dessert after every meal, but you’d be willing to add berries to your eating plan once per week (for a 1/2 point increase) or twice per week (for 1 whole point increase.)

STEP 2: S-Seek reliable information

Remember that though I have endeavored to present reliable information in Foundations, it is for general informational & educational purposes and does not take the place of consulting with a registered dietician, your primary care practioner, or other health professional.

I strongly encourage you to read the actual studies for yourself!

Other sources of reliable information you may want to check out:

NIA: the National Institute of Aging
The Alzheimer’s Association

STEP 3: S-Set SMART GOALS

Remember, a SMART goal is : Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound. The point system presented in Foundations makes it easy to set SMART goals:

For someone who typically eats no beans:
This week, I will add one serving of beans to my eating pattern for 1/2 point increase.
For someone who eats salads 3-4 days per week:
This week, I will eat 4 salads, and add 1 or 2 serving of cooked greens to my eating pattern for a score of 1 point for eating greens.
For someone who always eats red meat and poultry:
This week, I will eat salmon at one meal, for a 1 pt increase in my score.
For someone who eats fried food several times per week:
This week, I will look for a baked chicken recipe that sounds appealing and I will prepare it instead of fried chicken one time.
For someone who uses lots of butter:
I will substitute olive oil for butter 3 times this week.

STEP 4: E- Experiment with strategies:

1.Strategies that strengthen your motivation:

Use visual reminders of your most powerful reasons for wanting to change your eating pattern to reduce your change of dementia. You could use either a photo (of loved ones, of a favorite place in your house) or a sticky note with a word or phrase that calls to mind your reasons WHY you want to change: “Preserve independence,” “Travel,” or “Memories with my kids.” Place the reminder either someplace you will see it frequently or at the “point of decision” such as on the door of the refrigerator or pantry. (Hint: change the position by a few inches or so every so often so the reminder continues to catch your eye.)

2.Strategies to cue the new habits you want to create or that minimize environmental cues for eating habits you want to decrease:

Try putting foods that you want to eat less frequently in the back of the pantry or fridge, so they are not the first thing you see when you’re hungry. Instead, put the foods you want to eat more of where they are most visible.
If you won’t be tempted to eat too many or if you need to increase your calories, leave nuts out in a dish where you can easily see them.
Associate new eating habits with old habits: If you already eat cereal or salads regularly, try adding berries and nuts.
If finishing lunch or dinner is a cue for you to eat dessert, you can try substituting fruit for dessert. It will give you the sweetness of dessert, but with greater nutritional contributions. And if you substitute a dish of berries, you not only get points for fewer desserts but for added berries as well! Eventually, finishing a meal will become a cue for a fruit not for dessert.

3.Strategies that overcome obstacles:

Make use of advanced food preparation: 1) If you want to increase your intake of leafy greens, for instance, you could prepare a large spinach frittata for breakfast and eat it for a few days, or you could prepare a large salad and keep it in your fridge, needing only to add ingredients like cucumbers that spoil easily at the last minute. If you wanted to increase the number of servings of beans each week, you could prepare a large batch of a bean-based soup, then freeze individual portions for later.
Make sure you have the foods you will need for the MIND diet in your house: Frozen veges, or salmon in the freezer, some beans, a tin of sardines or box of oatmeal in the pantry, fresh berries in the fridge, etc.
Take culinary shortcuts to reduce your preparation time: For example, perhaps you want to begin marinating your meat before cooking to reduce AGEs. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I used to work at an upscale steak restaurant and London broil was extremely popular. The secret recipe? It was marinated in Kraft Zesty Italian dressing for a couple days! Make large batches of seasoning mixes and keep them in a jar for use whenever you want a quick meal. One of our family favorites is Caun seasoning. It’s great on chicken, fish, rice, and vegetables.
If you need to overcome a dislike of vegetables there are some strategies to try: 1) Try preparing a serving of it, freezing half, and eating one bite of it several days in a row. (This worked for one of my kids who wouldn’t eat any green vegetables.) Eating a tiny bit of the same thing seems to help you get used to it. 2) Hide your veges in things you already like: Toss a handful of frozen spinach into your pasta sauce or add some pureed carrots. 3) Learn ways to prepare vegetables other than boiling. Roasting vegetables is a matter of cutting them up, tossing them in olive oil, and baking. Roasting brings out the sweetness. Or steam them, but add a seasoning mix before eating. I dislike string beans normally, but really like them sauteed in olive oil with some garlic and then balsamic vinegar added at the end.
If cost is an obstacle: frozen leafy greens are often cheaper than fresh. If fresh or frozen fish doesn’t suit your budget, try canned salmon or sardines. Sardines can take some getting used to. Since they are oily (that good Omega-3 kind) and dense, many recipes add something crunchy (like crackers or toast) to serve them on and use something acidic (tomato or lemon) and something sharp (red pepper flakes or mustard). You can look for recipes and find one you like.
You are a pasta lover, but don’t like the texture of whole grain pasta? Try Barilla Plus. It is made from both semoline (wheat) flour and bean flour. My family could not tell the difference between Barilla Plus and regular pasta growing up. You get a bonus of increasing your intake of beans while you’re decreasing your intake of refined flours.

4.Strategies that increase your sense of reward:

It’s usually not a good idea to use food as a reward when you’re attempting to change an eating pattern! Here are some other strategies:

Slow down and savor the foods you really enjoy but need to cut back on a bit. For example, make sure not a bite of dessert goes in your mouth mindlessly. Instead, enjoy it with your eyes, inhale the aroma, and savor the flavor. Give your full attention to it. Don’t eat your ice cream or pie in front of the TV and then want more because you were distracted and didn’t really taste it!
Invite a supportive friend or family member over to enjoy a new meal with you. Since the foods emphasized in the MIND eating plan are found in many different health diet recommendations, you may find your family or friends really appreciate a social meal that allows them to stay on a health path, too.
When you have successfully changed a portion of your eating pattern to better align with the MIND diet, consider getting yourself a treat related to cognitive health: for instance, buy yourself a new book, a beautiful puzzle, or plan a visit to a museum or concert with a friend to celebrate.

5. Strategies that keep you accountable to yourself (tracking):

Track your goals on your calendar, in a notebook, or on a spread sheet.
Make a chart to track the points on the MIND diet, and give yourself a MIND diet score at the end of every week. Since it’s counting servings, not calories, it’s much less work than many tracking methods for other eating patterns! (There is a chart at the end of this article that you can copy and print if you’d like)

STEP 5: E-Evaluate how well your strategies worked and revise as needed:

Read that last part again: you’re going to be evaluating strategies, not yourself as a person! There is a reason that the previous step in the I-SSEE method is specifically named experiment with strategies. It focuses on strategies and implies that you will need to go through some trial and error to arrive at a solution that works.

Experiments are followed by evaluation.

Thomas Edison was famous for his attitude toward experimentation and evaluation: “Negative results are… just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.” That was the attitude that led him to experience success after success.

What if he had instead given up after only a try or two and either decided the problem was too big to solve or attributed the failure of strategies to his qualities as a person: “I’m not smart enough to solve this problem.”

DO: view a strategy that didn’t work as an opportunity to learn.

DON’T: view a strategy that didn’t work as evidence that the problem can’t be solved

What questions do I ask to evaluate a strategy?

How well did the strategy actually work? Did it move me forward to my goal? Part way or all the way?
If it didn’t work: What kept the strategy from working? Are there obstacles that I didn’t consider?
Does it just need a small change—a “tweak” to work?
Are there additional strategies that I can “bundle” with the original one to get the result I want?
Is it time to choose a different strategy altogether?
What have I learned from the experiment with this strategy that I can use in choosing the next?

Revise, Rinse, Repeat!

I can’t emphasize this enough. Evaluation is only the endpoint of the I-SSEE method when you achieve the outcome you want.

Until then, you will evaluate what worked or didn’t work with the strategy or strategies you have chosen, and then go back to experimenting with strategies (Step 4) where you modify any strategies that you need to, bundle strategies together, or decide on a new strategy to experiment with.

You may need to cycle through those last two steps a few times before you find what works. The important thing is to keep going with the process. Don’t stop at the first (or second or third) obstacle and decide you can’t do this. Remember Edison!

Occasionally our strategies work for a while, then don’t work so well. That happens. It’s not a failure! It’s normal! Tuck the strategies away for future use (They worked once. You may find they work again at some point.) Re-evaluate and try out some new experiments and you’ll soon be moving forward again!

Example:

Experimental strategy: Your goal was to eat 2 servings of vegetables per day and your strategy was to make sure your freezer was stocked with frozen vegetables.

Result: You ate 2 servings of vegetables on two days, 1 serving on 3 days, and 0 servings the rest of the time.

Evaluate:

First reflect on what you did well: you planned ahead by having frozen vegetables in the freezer.

Ask what went right on the days when you had 2 servings of vegetables. Next week, can you do more of whatever it was that worked on those two days ?

Now look back on the 5 categories of strategies and see what you could add that would help you meet your goal next week:

Did you remember that you were intending to eat more vegetables but just didn’t feel in the mood for veges? You might need a strategy to strengthen your motivation such a posting a photo or sticky note on the refrigerator.
Did you intend to cook the veges, but when you opened the freezer, the first thing you saw was a frozen pizza so you heated that up instead? You may need to change your cues by putting the foods that fit with your plans so that you see them right away (providing a cue for your new behavior) and moving foods that you want to eat less often to the back (minimizing a cue to continue with old patterns.)
Maybe you came home, and you were just too tired to cook, or it was too hot and you didn’t feel like cooking vegetables. You might want to choose a strategy that works around those obstacles by having both veges in the freezer that you can cook as well as preparing some cut vegetables on the weekend that you can grab during the week to eat with hummus. (Bonus: you get a serving of legumes!) Or perhaps you could eat some veges at lunch instead of waiting for dinner.
Or perhaps when the time came, the thought of vegetables just wasn’t very appealing. You could try a strategy of increasing your sense of reward by adding a seasoning blend to them before serving.
Could you even remember how many servings of vegetables you had? Tracking your servings in a notebook, on a spread sheet, on a calendar, etc. gives you a visual idea of how you are doing over the course of a week. When you get to record 2 servings of vegetables on a particular day, you get a little “pop” of reward by recording it. And if you had 0 or 1 to record, it’s an impetus to do better the next day.

Revise: Don’t be too quick to abandon a strategy you thought would work. Revising typically starts with tweaking your original strategy or layering on an additional strategy or strategies to strengthen the effect. Often bundling a few strategies together will be the secret to success.

Your new revision becomes your next experiment in the I -SSEE approach.

The important thing to remember is to keep experimenting. Be like Einstein. Don’t give up on a worthy goal; instead keep revising your strategies until you find a combination that works.

The I-SSEE method is the process of resetting that will lead to renewing your health!