1. The Impact of Data Review
An Experiment in Mindful Eating
Quantified Self SiliValley Meetup Oct 13, 2011
Paul Whitmore Sas
paulsas@xpcxpts.com

2. Lifelogging is NOT the crux of QSelf
Not sociology-style correlations
Rather, the goal is experimental interventions
Create conditions that evoke the behavior you want to see
Initially, one key dependent variable focuses on “compliance with
the instruction”
2

3. A “Copernican revolution” in my thinking about the QSelf
Create a script that intervenes to manipulate pre-existing
patterns of behavior
Shift away from placing monitoring at the center
Don’t simply track ambient behavior
Move toward methods that deliver an instruction
3

4. Mindful eating
Inspired by Robin Barooah's Mindful Attending Exercise
(QSelf Silivalley Meetup 8/11)
Robin’s experiment went from
WORN (Write once, read never)
to
WOWA (Write once, with attention)
4

5. If you snack it, track it
If you bite it, write it
If you nibble it, scribble it
If you eat it, tweet it
+ It’s not a diet, it’s a live-it
(Inspiring quotes from a Weight Watchers coach in the East Bay)

6. Using tech to control/direct attention
Initial Task: Photograph every food I eat
First week (9/27) simply collect baseline data on how
many distinct occasions I eat (or drink anything other
than water)

7. Using tech to control/direct attention
Initial Task: Photograph every food I eat
First week (9/27) simply collect baseline data on how
many distinct occasions I eat (or drink anything other
than water)
Count photos per day (160, or 11.4/day)
Note any lapses (5 in 15 days)
Two exceptions:
Shabbat every week & Yom Kippur this October

8. I’m not a Data Nudist
Potential aspects that might (optionally) be more public
1- Food intake
2- Weight gain or loss
3- Commitments about what regime you’ll follow

9. Just a peak

10. Imagining before Eating
Experiment published last Dec in Science showed:
Thinking about eating 30 M&Ms
vs.
Thinking of eating 3 M&Ms
Those who thought of 30 were more “habituated” and
ate less when given the option
“Thought for Food: Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption”
Carey K. Morewedge,1* Young Eun Huh,2 Joachim Vosgerau2
10 DECEMBER 2010
VOL 330
SCIENCE

11. Apps that Support Tracking Food
Meal Snap
Affiliated with DailyBurn
Appears to use
Mechanical Turk to guess
Thin-Cam
Affiliated with ThinSite
Premium product sends
3X/week emails
$ from Supplements, etc
DietPicture (not released)

12. Extending Further
Awareness as a wedge:
Review last N things you ate.
Test yourself on the time stamp of when you ate a
randomly snapped photo

13. Platform for Further Behavior Shifts
Use this behavioral platform to splice in other activities
E.g., practicing a language, doing a math problem, writing
an expression of gratitude, whatever
Monitor level of compliance
Modulate the demand if compliance drops

14. Decision Fatigue as your friend
Roy Baumeister’s research shows that deliberating,
making choices, and resisting temptation all lead to
fatigue
Can conceptualize yourself as two parties:
Commander/controller is the “decider” at T 0
Executor/actor of script is the “follower” at T 0+N
Set up a stream of decisions in your longterm self interest
Send those instructions to your future self
Observe the success in implementing those
ITERATE