The substitution strategy is commonly used by people trying to eat healthier. Instead of eating a bowl of chocolate covered peanuts while watching a movie, you can instead eat a bowl of lightly dusted almonds with cocoa powder. A bowl of strawberries with sugar free whip cream instead of strawberry ice cream. Substitute something in for the bad thing you eat all the time and pretty soon you can see a dramatic improvement to your diet regime. The substitution pattern is best deployed one thing at a time until eventually you have supplanted your entire diet with new and healthy way of eating.
However, the substitution pattern can be used to magnify your health improvement. For example, eating the bowl of lightly frosted almonds in lieu of candy is good however, you can magnify the health impacts if instead of sitting and watching that show, walk on a treadmill and watch the show while eating your snack. That magnifies the benefit. Instead of sitting down for lunch, set your tray up outside and and walk around, take a bite to eat, walk around some more. This is a process of magnification. When you can use the substitution pattern and add eating better and more activity at the same time.
The substitution pattern works well in many other areas of life and can produce the same magnification effect. Incorporate things you want to improve upon or do better in your routines and you will gain instant improvement. For example, I have this habit of writing a blog daily. This has dramatically improved my ability to tell stories and also develop more ability in composition. A great way to achieve magnification was to add a vocabulary word into my daily writing. By adding that, along with my daily habit, I have been able to slowly improve my vocabulary as well. That is a substitution pattern, call it a design pattern for more healthy living.
Guy Reams
