What has Mary Poppins and the Mary Popping effect to do with your fitness and nutrition? You’ll be surprised to find out and I promise you can relate too.
Certainly you the famous quote by Oscar Wilde famously, “I can resist anything except temptation” and that rings true for many situations, especially when it comes to health goals.
You start a fat-loss program, see results, and feel motivated. But the longer you go, the more you realize progress takes time, consistency, work and sometimes the results slow down (for a million reasons) to make it harder to stick to the plan.
Some delicious “detours” become tempting, and the “I’ll start again Monday” mentality (said on a Tuesday night at Taco Bell) starts to considerably slow your progress and impact your motivation(how to get motivated in the first place? Find out here!).
Life and its curveballs, what the heck?!
Life throws a lot of curveballs – birthdays, celebrations, work dinners and many are completely outside of your control. These can easily break your workout and nutrition consistency streak. Picking it back up can feel daunting, especially if you had a long break (AKA holidays).
On one side it’s true, there are external factors beyond your control that can cause stress, slow progress, and lead to frustration. But what about the things we can control (more about it here!)?
Mary Poppins to the rescue
This is where temptation bundling, also known as the “Mary Poppins Effect,” comes in.
Temptation bundling—pairing a pleasurable indulgence with a behavior that provides delayed rewards [Source and a full study about it here]
Remember the iconic song? “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
This principle applies to life, not to just have kids clean up their room. We know taking bitter medicine is good for us, but it doesn’t taste great so, we add sugar to make it more palatable.
This principle is used everywhere, from supermarkets point cards (you spend money which sucks, but get points as tiny reward) to making daily chores more enjoyable with music. How can we translate this to our fitness and nutrition struggles?
Temptation bundling at the core works by pairing two things:
- Things we want to do but shouldn’t: (e.g., binge watch Netflix, play videogames, doom-scrolling on IG or TikTok)
- Things we should do but don’t want to do: (e.g., cleaning the house, go to the gym and lift, do cardio, food prep)
Make laziness your ally
From Chore to Relaxation:
Let’s say you hate housework but nobody else will do it and living in a mess isn’t ideal. How can you use the Mary Poppins Effect? Bundle cleaning with something you enjoy, like listening to music with noise-canceling headphones.
Suddenly, cleaning becomes a relaxing activity with your favorite tunes. You might even find yourself doing extra, leaving your apartment spotless and feeling stress-free.
Food Prep & Calorie Counting:
Food prep can feel time-consuming and a huge burden. You might prefer to cook each day, but that can lead to a lot more time spent cooking and to “I’m too tired to cook, I’ll get UberEats” type of situations when you’re tired and hungry (hello, McDonald’s).
How can you add the “sugar” to the medicine? Put on an interesting podcast while you prep food for the week. You’ll have healthy meals ready, stay on track with your nutrition, and enjoy some guilt-free entertainment (like my podcast for example lol) while being productive.
Believe it or not, I don’t crazily enjoying cooking and doing food prep but with headphones on it’s a breeze.
Here is a real life example of that from a recent evening, it’s a timelapse but if it was a regular video you’d hear me singing (sorry) for the entire duration of the cookout:
Similar to food prep, calorie counting can feel tedious initially. How can you transform into into a fun challenge? Set simple daily macronutrient goals. If you’re consistent throughout the week, reward yourself with a treat (that fits your macros!) or a more relaxed weekend eating plan (can you actually have that cake? find out here!). The key is knowing you’ll be back on track the day after.
Making Cardio (and/or lifting) more enjoyable if you really hate it:
Cardio in the gym or outside (jogging) can be an amazing snoozefest. However, you know it’s essential for your health but when it comes to actually doing it…eh…
How can you bundle it with something enjoyable? Jump on a treadmill, with your phone or tablet, and catch up on your favorite Netflix show while doing brisk walking. Suddenly, those 40 minutes (or more!) become a treat you look forward to. I do exactly the same. I can’t make myself do any cardio in the gym unless I’m watching something entertaining or engaging such as stand-up comedy or action movies.
What about lifting weights? Not everybody enjoys it but it’s essential for your long term health and fat loss so…what to do?
- Get a trainer to prepare a simple training program tailored to your needs so you don’t have to stress about thinking what to do in the gym, especially if you’re a new joiner.
- Listen to your favorite music/podcast to keep the enjoyment, follow the training program and once done…congratulations you can go home with a sense of achievement!
Embrace the Mary Poppins Effect!
Don’t like the gym, really hate it? Take fun group classes and follow it up with 15 minutes of strength training or 1 exercise and leave. Craving a decadent cheesecake? Track your macros and celebrate with a “free meal” when your goals are on track 85% of a full month.
In a nutshell temptation bundling, or the Mary Poppins Effect, boils down to this:
Take something you dislike but need to do, pair it with something you enjoy but “shouldn’t do” as it “takes time away to being productive”, and create a win-win situation.
Use laziness to your advantage and watch your fitness and nutrition goals flourish!
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. By using temptation bundling, you can trick your brain into associating “unpleasant” activities with things you enjoy.
It might seem like a hack but this simple shift in perspective can completely change your view on fitness and nutrition, turning chores into activities you actually want to do and that will help you to become the strongest and healthiest version of yourself.