I Ate These Every Day for 70 Days (Lost a Stone)

Seventy Days Tracked Sixty-four – eating days. Finn Crisps with pate showed up fifty-seven times.

That’s eighty-nine percent of days. Nearly every single day for two months.

Not once in a while. Not as a treat. Daily.

And I still lost a stone. [Pause]

Which… wasn’t what I expected, honestly. Turns out there’s actual research on why this works.

Ben Gardner – habit researcher at Surrey – has spent twenty years studying this exact pattern.

And what he’s found? Changes everything about how we think about quitting bad foods.

Let me show you what happened.

Right, so. Thirty or so years of the same morning routine.

Coffee. Biscuit. Screen time. Every single day. Chocolate digestive, usually. Sometimes two. Refined flour, sugar, palm oil. Proper ultra-processed. About eighty to ninety calories per biscuit. Mostly sugar and fat. And I wanted one. Every. Single. Day.

Not because I was hungry. Because it’s… comfort, yeah? Ritual ? The Pattenr ! Coffee triggers biscuit. Screen time triggers biscuit. End of fast triggers biscuit.

It’s not about taste – well, not just taste, anyway. It’s about the pattern your brain’s wired into.

Day seven of the Rhythm Reset. Reached for the usual chocolate digestive. Stopped. Grabbed Finn Crisps instead. Thin scrape of pate on top. Same crunch. Same satisfaction.

But twenty percent fibre. Whole rye. Non-UPF base. [Pause]

Probably went overboard with it, mind you. Ate them eighty-nine percent of days for the next two months. But my gut didn’t complain.

Across sixty-four days of tracked food diary: Finn Crisps: fifty-nine mentions.

Days consumed: fifty-seven out of sixty-four. Frequency: eighty-nine percent.

Weight: fourteen stone two down to thirteen stone two. One stone lost.

Waist: forty-two inches down to thirty-eight and a half. Three and a half inches off. Trousers falling off.

The Finn Crisps didn’t stop the weight loss.They… enabled it, I think.

Because I wasn’t fighting cravings every day. I was satisfying them. With something better.

Here’s what I thought would happen. I thought quitting biscuits meant willpower.

White-knuckle resistance. “Be good” for a few days, then binge. Repeat until I hated myself.

That’s what I’d done for years. Didn’t work. Because I was trying to eliminate the behaviour.

Delete the pattern. Leave a gap. And your brain? It fills gaps with stress. “I want a biscuit. I can’t have a biscuit. I’m depriving myself.” [Pause] Not sustainable.

So instead of fighting it… I swapped it. Non-UPF base: Finn Crisp. Whole rye. High fibre.

On its own? Tastes like Stiff cardboard. So I added a thin spread of pate. Now, pate is ultra-processed. I’m not pretending it’s health food. But I’m using it as a condiment. Thinly.

Vehicle for the flavour, not the main event.

Chocolate Digestive: 80-90 calories – Refined flour, sugar, palm oil – UPF throughout

Finn Crisp + Thin Pate: 40-50 calories – Non-UPF base (whole rye, fibre) – UPF spread (minimal)

Not perfect. Better. And better’s what you can actually keep doing.

So I wanted to know: why did this work when willpower hadn’t? Found Ben Gardner’s research.

University of Surrey. Hundred and eighty-plus papers on habits. Eighteen thousand citations.

Basically, the UK’s top expert on why we do what we do. And what he’s found… changes everything. Here’s what Gardner says:

“Rather than thinking I just need to become more motivated, it’s more a case of I need to work out what situations are causing this kind of non-conscious impulse.”

Meaning: The craving isn’t about the biscuit. It’s about the trigger. Coffee = biscuit. Screen time = biscuit. End of fast = biscuit. Your brain’s on autopilot. Willpower can’t override autopilot. Not long-term, anyway.

Think of it like this.

Hunger’s a fire alarm going off because there’s actual smoke. You haven’t eaten in twenty-four hours. Glycogen’s low. Body’s asking for fuel.

That’s real hunger. Appetite? That’s the fire alarm triggered by burnt toast. You saw an ad. You’re bored. It’s seven PM and you “always” eat at seven PM. Different signals.

The biscuit craving? That’s appetite. Burnt toast. Not actual hunger. Just a learned response to a cue.

Gardner’s research shows three ways to break bad habits:

1. Stop yourself after the trigger (willpower – exhausting)
2. Remove the trigger entirely (no biscuits in the house – works sometimes)
3. Replace the behaviour with something better (what I did)

Option three’s the only one that’s sustainable. Because the trigger’s still there.

Coffee still happens. Screen time still happens. But the response changes.

Coffee → Finn Crisp with pate (not chocolate digestive). Same ritual. Better food. Gardner calls this “habit stacking.”

Piggybacking on existing routines. You’re not deleting the pattern. You’re upgrading it.

And here’s the bit that saved me: Gardner’s research shows missing one or two days doesn’t derail progress. “The odd missed opportunity here and there… doesn’t really seem to be that detrimental.”

Some days I had four Finn Crisps. Some days two. Some days I went back to chocolate (ten percent of days, actually).

But the trend held. Eighty-nine percent Finn Crisps. One stone lost.

Three and a half inches off the waist. [Pause] Sustainable beats perfect. Every time.

Right, here’s exactly what I did. You can copy this for your own comfort food.

Step 1: Identify the trigger

For me: morning coffee. End of fast. For you: might be evening telly. Stress at work. Whatever. Write it down.

Step 2: Find the non-UPF base

Finn Crisps for me. But could be: Oatcakes Rice cakes (plain, not flavoured) Rye crackers Any whole-grain, high-fibre base

Step 3: Add minimal flavour

Pate for me. But could be: Thin scrape of butter Nut butter (small amount) Cheese (thin slice) Hummus Key word: thin.

You’re not making a meal. You’re satisfying a ritual. My window: four hours. Finn Crisps: inside that window. Not breaking the fast. Not grazing all day. Contained. Controlled.

I logged every Finn Crisp. Kept me honest. Some days I’d have four or five. Some days two.

But I knew. Awareness prevents creep.

One more thing. You’re going to slip sometimes. One day, you’ll eat the chocolate digestive instead of the Finn Crisp.

Or you’ll eat both. I did. Here’s what most people do: “I’ve ruined it. Had a biscuit Friday night. Week’s destroyed. May as well order Deliveroo all weekend, start fresh Monday.”

One slip = five seconds lost. Sitting on the ice for three days = hypothermia.

Don’t do that. One meal doesn’t ruin progress.

Quitting for a week because of one meal does. Get up. Keep walking.

Or think of it like tiling a bathroom. You lay ninety-five tiles perfectly. One tile’s cracked.

Perfectionism says: “Ruined. Tear it all up. Start again.” Result: no bathroom. Pile of rubble. Months wasted. Pragmatism says: “One cracked tile. I’ll replace it next week.”

Result: functional bathroom now. One tile fixed later. Don’t tear up ninety-five good tiles because of one bad one.

Just replace the cracked tile and move on.

Here’s what two months of Finn Crisps taught me. You don’t have to eliminate comfort foods. You have to find a better version of them.

Non-UPF base where possible. Minimal additions.

Inside your eating window. And here’s the bit Gardner’s research proves:

Substitution works because you’re not fighting your brain. You’re working with it.

The trigger stays. The ritual stays. Just the food changes. [Pause]

Took me forty-eight years to figure that out. Probably should’ve known sooner. But here we are.

Three Steps:

1. Identify your craving (What do you reach for daily?)
2. Find the better base (Non-UPF, high-fibre option)
3. Make it sustainable (Thin spread, inside window, track it)

That’s substitution. Not elimination. Not willpower. Strategy.

Quick reminder: This is what worked for me. Might not work for you.

Educational content, not medical advice. Speak to your GP before changing your diet or fasting pattern. Your body. Your GP. Your decision.

Next up in this series: “Chocolate on Sixty-One Percent of Days: How I Had Treats Most Days and Still Lost Weight.” See you there.