I think tracking our food is a good thing. It helps us to really know what/how much we're eating. Too often we eat without being in the moment....munch while doing other things and don't realize just how much we're consuming. But there is a drawback to being hyper-aware of just what you're eating for the purpose of losing weight. Once again, it comes back to my beef with formal diets.
While eating is necessary to sustain us, thinking too much about it is every bit as troublesome as not thinking enough. Diets tend to teach us what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat it. [i]What they don't teach us is how to eat intuitively.[/i] So you have success with losing weight because you follow a plan. Whether it's a calorie/point plan, or a eat this, not that plan. ..great! But when you're done with the plan (because generally, a diet plan is not a lifelong plan), you still don't know how to eat intuitively.
Intuitive eating in built-in at birth...it's a primary drive to survive. A baby cries when he/she's hungry. A baby stops eating when he/she is full (note to Greenie's in-laws ;) ). Somewhere along the line, whether it's because our mom's told us to finish our plates even though we didn't want more....or because we started eating when we were bored, angry, sad and not because we were hungry....or maybe it was simply that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are at "set" times, so we eat at a certain time of day, not because we're necessarily hungry at that time of day...whatever it was, the trigger mechanism of hungry/full got wonky.
Diets work because you eat according to plan. To eat intuitively means eating when your hungry....stopping when you're full. Sounds simple. And it is. But because it's an inherent trait...something we didn't have to learn, once we've suppressed it it takes some work for our conscious mind to recognize again.
The loop of intuition^^^
And this is where writing down what/how much you eat is so important. As you write it down, take note of the time of day you ate, what you were feeling at the time (hunger, boredom, etc.). When sitting down to eat, take notice of how much food is on the plate. How do you feel about the food (can't wait to shove it in your mouth!....meh, I HAVE to eat it because it's lunchtime, or because the diet said I should). Start getting in touch with your bio-rhythms. Are you never hungry in the morning? But you eat anyway because everyone says you're supposed to? Are you sometimes more hungry, sometimes less hungry? Are you craving certain foods? Are you hungry? Do you prefer meat over salad? Do you like dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner? Are you full, but keep eating because it tastes soooo goooood?
Maybe your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to it. Our bodies and our subconscious mind are so much smarter than we are. The body knows what it wants. The subconscious brain does too. But our conscious brain is stupid and our mouth is even stupider. It will eat whatever we put into it whenever we do it (most of the time). So listen and interpret and start to eat intuitively again.
4 comments:
I eat all day long. I buy mixed nuts with dried fruit and have it in the car. I hardly ever sit down to a "real meal". I also have chocolate whenever I get the urge for it, but just a few pieces (dark chocolate) not a whole bar. Some days I don't eat meat at all. Not because I say "today I'm not eating meat", but because I just don't.
I carry water everywhere I go. I'm 45, 5' 6" and I weight 135 lbs.
I think you are right about the plate and the idea that we have to finish it, have to eat what was put in front of you. Originally our species were grazers, eating as we found food. Now food is everywhere you look!
Eating has changed into a social event. We are a "wealthy" country, so we have so much we make huge amounts to celebrate, sometimes just to show that we can. Maybe if we get away from that it will help?
It's the televisions fault. Kill your TV.
Food is a funny thing. Starting from the breast or bottle its comforting. As we got older, going to grandmas for that wonderful turkey dinner and great apple pie, its again wonderful. So, when we are depressed we want to feel wonderful. Today, we make more money and hot dogs now come in 5 lb. boxes, we buy 2 lb steaks, we have more in the house to eat. Yes we can blame it on T.V. and advertisers and fast food restaurants I blame it on the 90's when everything was there for the taking and we all took. Everyone's to blame. Life is not simply as it was in the 50's. Just look at 1 hour of news and how depressing is that. It's a cycle that truly is sometimes too hard to break away from.
Thanks for your comments. I agree that the TV doesn't help, but neither do restaurant portions. A salad I was going to get at Ruby Tuesdays today was over 1100 calories! That's 3/4 of the calories I can eat in a day and not gain weight. Craaazy!
But yeah, still working on recognizing when I'm actually hungry and when I'm full. Today while eating the Creole Catch with broccoli and rice that I chose over that salad (only 700 calories, with a salad!) I was talking and eating, and in mid-sentence realized I was still eating but wasn't still hungry. I immediately stopped, put the fork down and pushed the plate away.
Good on me! hee!
When babies are breast fed, they can regulate their food intake. But bottle fed babies are fed by others and their standard of what is enough. Food and drink are very complex. I started eating anything I want at anytime. I'm ha[[y.
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