Is the Deadline for Filing Income Taxes Worth Bingeing Over?
First, thank you one and all for reading my article in the Seattle Times and visiting the blog. You’ve offered many ideas for us to discuss, including where to shop and how to avoid paying big bucks for healthy food; diets vs. eating real food every day; the joys of farmers markets; and the horrors found once you start reading ingredient labels.
Many of us eat when we’re not hungry, have forgotten what hunger feels like, and know our eating can be triggered by sights, sounds, smells, life’s events, and the IRS. Just kidding. I’ll be filing for an extension in the next few hours but don’t feel stressed about that. What are your triggers and how do you avoid them or cope with them?
A journey into the world of "real food" with Seattle-based journalist Rebecca Morris
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I eat mostly organic food (since 2001) but I used to have a terrible salt-then-chocolate cycle (chips, then something chocolate, didn't matter what). I managed to break it, mostly, but not keeping chips around the house and I started eating a bit of dark chocolate so that all other candy and cookies had no flavor. My other solution is to have a 100 calorie chocolate pudding snack, so I got that bit of sweet every day so didn't feel deprived. I know, not really healty, but I find a need to compromise sometimes. I need to rely less on Lean Cuisine/pudding snack combinations for lunch and more on real foods.
I need to find a way to make time to plan so I don't get caught without food. I also work in the field a lot and need to figure out how to eat out without spending a lot of money or calories. Maybe I should just start going to the salad bar. I just don't find that very "satisfying" tho.
Thanks for starting this blog.
Sometimes the triggers for me aren't necessarily "bad" things, but good things - the "comfy" feeling I get from going home after a long day and eating, etc. Also, I'm a binger - which is something I need to get a grip on, too. I'm really looking forward to understanding how the "not too much" thing will work with this attempt... because for me, it's all about portion control (or lack thereof!)
Practically anything is a trigger for my sweet tooth, from mere suggestion, like the smell of good cooking, to anxiety, such as from contemplating any deadline at all.
After more than 50 years' experience, I finally learned that unless it was mealtime, all I really wanted was a shot of feel-good or anti-anxiety brain chemicals. Sweet food is the easiest way for me to get that shot, but lots of other things will do. There is no avoiding triggers because they are everywhere, and they are everywhere because they are really in one's own brain. The strategy I developed to cope with them is threefold:
1. No sweet stuff in the house or office. If I really, really want it, I can go get it, but I will at least have a chance to decide whether the trip is worth it and to try something else instead.
2. Almost anything stimulating will do. I have a whole list of things to try, from a cup of fragrant tea, to a few minutes reading an extremely addicting blog, to some kind of exercise (giving up sweets in favor of hard work sounds just too goody-goody, doesn't it, but it actually does work for me). Sometimes, I can make the smell of good food its own reward (and sometimes, I just have to run away).
3. I get to have a treat, usually chocolate, that I can look forward to at a regular time (and that I have to go somewhere to get). The treat comes in an individual package and is smallish in size so that I don't blow the whole day's progress on one spurt of brain chemicals.
I had to put some energy into developing these rules into habits, but I now feel better when I follow them than I do when I fall off the wagon.
I really like this question: what are the triggers of hunger. And I think it was critical that you pointed out that you have forgotten what true hunger feels like -- you are not alone. Several years ago, a friend of mine was dating a woman who did not make anywhere near the money he was making as a physician in Asia. Instead of trying to change her lifestyle, he experimented and joined hers, which included eating when he was hungry, and not eating when he was not hungry. This is significant when you compare it to how many times our society and culture encourages us to eat as entertainment. Over time, we can forget what it mean to feel hungry. That is when my friend told me that he had to actually think about what it meant to feel hungry, and what it meant to be satiated (satisfied after eating).
The triggers of hunger include:
salivation, growling stomach, food-seeking behavior (duh!), smells, drop in blood sugar, fatigue, intense feelings, sight of food, taste (also duh!), and the clock (set mealtimes, for example). Additionally, exercise and chewing gum, for example, are two actions which may initially delay hunger for different reasons, but once you stop them, trigger food-seeking thoughts.
Obviously, most of these triggers are good things! Imagine if food couldn't be tasted or smelled: we might eat something laden with bacteria from rotting. Michael Pollan writes extensively on this in his other book, "The Omnivore's Dilemna".
When you feel hungry, it is important to ask a few cognitive questions:
1. When did I last eat?
2. Was what I ate nutritious and satiating? Did I restrict or binge? Did I eat anything that would trigger hunger, such as a high sugar food, caffienne, or an "energy" food/drink?
3. What am I feeling right now?
4. Am I confusing hunger with something else, such as thirst, boredom, loneliness, anger, dissociation?
5. Is it time for a snack opposed to a meal?
The balance is to eat a satiating meal spaced approximately five hours apart, with a small snack in between, and to not go to bed with too much food still trying to empty from the stomach, nor to go to sleep hungry (you won't sleep well). You will likely not encounter as much true hunger this way. What you'll be left with is all the other things masquerading as hunger: namely, feelings, boredom, and habit.
I have noticed that many of my yoga friends have become "grazers". They eat approximately every 2-3 hours, but in very low amounts, keeping their blood sugar levels even, but maintaining lean bodies needed for the practice of yoga as instructors or dancers. Since that doesn't work for everyone's lifestyle (!!!), a good rule of thumb is to consider what it means, mindfully, to eat your meals to about 80% of your satiation point, eat slowly so you can feel when you are approaching that point, and stop eating when you feel you could actually eat a little more.
By doing this, I can live with the "other" categories of hunger that are not true hunger, and address them without eating them away first.
Imei, Dream Yoga and Dance
Being tired or stressed are big triggers for me. I used to have a bad habit of trying to medicate myself with food (diet coke and chocolate was a favorite combo). Ironically, most of the time my food binge wouldn't even make me feel better, or it would make me feel better only temporarily. Making sure I get enough sleep has been very helpful. I also try to remind myself that sometimes I am just going to feel tired or stressed and I am just going to have to deal with it! After all, it is ok to feel things sometimes without having to rush toward a chemical (food or pharmaceutical) solution! I tend to forget that.
Being more structured in my meals by eating smaller meals more frequently has been helpful too. If I don't find a particular meal very satisfying, I remind myself that I get to eat again in a couple of hours. It helps.
There are also some foods I can't seem to eat reasonable quantities of and I just try to avoid. Banana bread is a bad one for me. I could eat a whole loaf. So I just don't get started on it.
Post a Comment