Possible Pitfalls
|
There are as many reasons you've given yourself to eat as there are minutes in a day. Storm clouds do it for me. They trigger a memory from when I lived in Florida and went deep-sea fishing in Key West. When a squall was imminent, we'd pull our boat into a nearby atoll and wait out the storm while eating fresh fish sandwiches and drinking cold beer. Sandwiches are finger foods, which I now steer clear of, and I don't drink beer anymore, but the smell of a rainstorm can be a powerful pitfall for me. I don't act on it, but the memory is a tantalizing trigger, nevertheless.
A splash of red wine on white pants may not trigger an overeating episode nor will the car not starting, a flat tire, and your cell phone losing a signal at 4:58 p.m. when you must reach someone before 5:00 p.m. But these things have a cumulative effect, and all the mini-annoyances have the potential of becoming maxi-eating responses by the end of the day.
You might stumble because you saw your favorite dessert on a restaurant menu. Or a celebration may convert a tentative no to an emphatic yes as soon as you hear a champagne cork pop from a bottle.
"I could resist anything but temptation," said Oscar Wilde.
Consider the reasons you're tempted to eat. Highlight or circle the ones to which you respond. There are many and they are varied.
Do you eat because you're hungry? Do you even know what hunger is? Or are you eating because you're lonely, tired, angry, or bored?
Think of all the reasons you eat that have nothing to do with hunger.
Perhaps you eat because you're up: it's your birthday, my birthday, our anniversary, or Groundhog's Day; or because you're down: sad, or grieving. You might eat because it's there, or someone else is eating so why not you? Is food easily available in your office, your home? Do you eat in your car?
Are you eating because of good news? Bad news? No news? One man said he eats during the news.
You might find yourself eating some foods because they came with a restaurant dinner or others because they came free with your airplane ticket or hotel room. There's bread on the table in a restaurant, peanuts on the plane, chocolates on your pillow, and you think: I'll never pass this way again.
To some, food is seen as a reward: I've been so good all day. I didn't have breakfast. I didn't have lunch. I'll just have this side of beef for dinner. Of course, if you're feeling stuffed, bloated, and not so good about yourself, then overeating is not a reward. It is a punishment.
When a young woman used the excuse that she overate prior to going to the ballet, I asked, did you dance? Unless she was dancing on that stage, she ate too much for dinner. She ate more than she was able to burn.
For many, food has become a socially acceptable drug. It seems to numb the tensions and stresses of your life. Perhaps you use food to stuff down feelings and thoughts you don't want to feel or think or to escape.
Do you eat when you're frustrated, disappointed, or angry? One fellow told me he knocked off a box of cookies and a pint of ice cream when the courts awarded his ex-wife a big divorce settlement. I wanted to know if she had returned the alimony check when she realized he was hurting himself.
Although eating doesn't change the outcome of anything but your waistline and self-esteem, you might still be eating to cheer yourself up when you're down. Or not to feel so alone when you're without company. Or to socialize: you don't want to be left out. You might continue eating even though your clothes are too tight and you're huffing and puffing when you walk. That is part of addiction: you continue doing what you do even though there are negative consequences.
Perhaps you eat because you're bored or have to fill unstructured time, such as evenings and weekends, or because you experience family, business, money, or peer-group pressure: ("Come on. We're all going for pizza and we want you to come.") You don't want to be left out. You might use food to avoid intimacy or sex. Perhaps you use food to avoid nurturing or being nurtured. You are procrastinating: ("I'll have lunch first and then work on that report.")
You might eat during food preparation and put-away. Perhaps because once you start you can't stop. You might think, what the hell, I blew it anyway. Maybe food is used as a reward because you did something wonderful, or a punishment because you already overate and figure What the hell, it won't make a difference. When you smell the coffee in your office or the popcorn in a movie, or fresh donuts in a bakery, do you queue up? Do you use food as a meal extender? You're having such a nice time and don't want the evening to end so you order another cup of coffee, a cocktail, a dessert. You're entertaining guests. There is an abundance of extra food and all those leftovers.
Going home to family is tricky for some. You may feel guilty that your family and friends have been cooking since last Thursday, and you have to taste (and comment on) everything that is offered. Does the cook get offended if you don't have seconds and thirds?
We eat differently when we are in the company of two people, three people, four people, more people. A recent study said that people who eat with six or more other people consume a whopping 78% more than they would if they ate alone. The more people there are, the more food is offered.
The longer food remains on the table, the longer you're tempted to eat.
Are you too tired to cook so you pick pick pick and convince yourself you didn't eat anything?
A point to remember:
If it's not water, it's food.
And this, too:
If you swallowed it, you ate it. It all adds up.
Whether you overeat because of genetics, ethnicity, religion, circumstance, or emotion doesn't matter. Perhaps you eat for some of these reasons or all of these reasons. Each person gets into the habit of using food inappropriately by eating for reasons you tell yourself it's okay to eat, even if you're not hungry. Having followed these habits for such a long time ? sometimes decades ? they've become involuntary conditioned responses. Just as Pavlov's dogs, when a stimulus appears, can a yes, thank you, be far behind? The intelligent you, thinks you shouldn't be doing what you're doing, but you can't stop. That's the sneaky part of the addiction ? as if making up your mind will do the trick when it never has before. This might be the moment to make a list of the reasons you eat. Put down the breadstick and get a pencil.
After seeing my list, a middle-aged woman said to me, "According to your program, I haven't been hungry since 1963." She was correct. She and you may have misidentified these situations, circumstances, and emotions as hunger for such a long time, you've lost your innate ability to identify this most basic of feelings.
If you're trying to satisfy a physical hunger, your body doesn't require a great deal of food. If you're trying to fill an emotional hunger, you could back up a truck full of food to your home or office, and it would never, ever, contain enough food. "Okay guys, put the Mallomars in the cabinet, the Häagen-Dazs in the freezer. The Twinkerdoodles go on the bed."
If you become so overwhelmed, confused and paralyzed with not knowing what to do about this multi-faceted, many-layered topic of weight control that you can't stop eating once you start, chances are you do nothing.
If hungry, you need to nourish the body. If, along the way, it also tastes good, looks good, and smells good, you've got a bonus. But you shouldn't be eating because it looks, smells, and tastes good. Almost everything fits that criteria.
If you're thirsty, drink water.
If you're responding to one of the above stimuli, change habits by creating new and constructive responses to replace your old and destructive ones. This is called repatterning.
I might have missed one of your Possible Pitfalls, but you get the idea. Add yours if it's not here. Observe how you eat when you're up or down, alone or with friends. We even eat differently with men, differently with women, and another way with children. These pitfalls might be because of emotions, circumstances, or just because it's there or you're there, in the neighborhood where your favorite something is prepared as nowhere else in the world! Pitfalls can be any of these things or all of these things.
None of the Pitfalls I've described above are hunger. And if it's not hunger, it's not a reason to eat.
What are your Possible Pitfalls?
About The Author
This article is an excerpt from the book Conquer Your Food Addiction published by Simon and Schuster. Caryl Ehrlich, the author, also teaches The Caryl Ehrlich Program, a one-on-one behavioral approach to weight loss in New York City. Visit her at http://www.ConquerFood.com to know more about weight loss and keep it off without diet, deprivation, props, or pills.
|
|
|
The College Student?s Guide For Easy Weight Loss!
Weight loss is a hot topic among college students today, especially considering the fact that most college freshmen gain half a pound every week! Since the schedule of college students is almost always hectic, weight loss efforts are not a priority. With so little extra time it is impractical to join the latest diet fad or commit to sweating in the gym for hours at a time. Are all college students destined to grow outward with each passing year, or is there a simple way for them to reclaim a healthy figure? If you struggle with your own battle of the bulge, read on for five sure-fire ways to...(related: Weight Loss)
Three Easy Ways To Prevent And Suppress Cravings On A Low Carb Diet
If you've been on a low carb diet for any amount of time, you have undoubtedlyfelt the pangs of hunger that accompanystrong cravings. There are a number ofways in which you can deal with thesecravings and mitigate them in the future; andif you want to be successful on yourlow carb diet, you will do exactly that.In this article, I will outline three methods youcan use to suppress and prevent those cravings.The first is very simple: if you want to suppress the majority of your cravings, all you have to do is drink aneight ounce glass of water and then wait. Mos...(related: Weight Loss)
The No Diet Way To Lose Weight And Keep It Off!
Yes, you read it right?no diets!The first step in this weight management program is to gather all of your old fad diets, quick weight loss remedies, and "magic cures". Once you have them all together in a nice, neat pile- throw them into the trash! One thing we have learned in the last 20-30 years is diets don't work and actually can make things worse. Fad diets may provide short term weight loss but they are generally too difficult to stick with for a lifetime. The majority of people who lose weight on fad diets regain that weight within 3 to 5 years. Over time this yo-yo dieting effect can slow your metabolism, the way ou...(related: Weight Loss)
Whats Wrong With Dr. Phils Food Plan?
I really like Dr. Phil, so I wanted to like his new book on weight loss. And I do like some of it, however, there's a big problem with the chapter on what to eat. Dr. Phil proposes exactly the same eating plan for everyone. This will NOT work!His plan may include too many calories for some people, mostly small-framed people. I was actually eating a very similar amount o...(related: Weight Loss)
3 Steps Gastric Bypass Patients Can Take To Avoid Calcium Deficiency
Most Americans do not get enough calcium in their diets; the average daily intake is 500 milligrams shy of the RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) of 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams.Gastric bypass patients are even more unlikely to intake adequate dietary calcium and without supplementation they may become calcium deficient which ultimately results in osteoporosis. Weight loss surgery patients are limited by the volume of calcium rich foods they may consume. In addition,...(related: Weight Loss)
Weight Loss With Bontril: Smooth Sailing On The Weight Loss Ocean
As many of us know, it's the first few days of starting a healthy new habit that can be the most discouraging. The first few days of exercise are always the achiest. A new reduced-calorie diet comes with hunger pangs until your body adjusts to the healthier eats.Sometimes taking an appetite suppressant can help you ride out the choppy waters and get you to the days of smooth and healthy sailing! If you're getting ready to start a new weight-loss program, Bontril SR (the slow release version of Bontril) can help you manage those first few weeks of changes.Is Bontril a Tranquillizer?Not to worry - Bontril SR doesn't mak...(related: Weight Loss)
Ghost Of Binge Past
Holidays and special events should be a time of great joy, but dieters customarily imagine these occasions with dread and hor...(related: Weight Loss)
Weight Loss Vs. Body Fat ? Mirrors And Clothes Dont Lie!
With the growing epidemic of diabetes and obesity in our country, we fitness experts must education you on how to slow them down or give you some form of prevention guidelines.First, what does it mean to be obese? Obese means that at least thirty percent of your weight is made up of fat. Most people become obese from poor eating hab...(related: Weight Loss)
Advice For The Ill = Advice For The Well
All of the things we tell sick people so that they recover more quickly are exactly the things that we should be doing every day. Following that advice will not only ward off disease, but also lead to greater energy and vitality, and best of all, weight loss. How we came to ignore these positive factors in our daily lives, I don't know.In our society, we have a tendency to put o...(related: Weight Loss)
Maximize Your Fat Burning Potential
Do you compete in sports for weight loss or fat burning? Are you frustrated by that stubborn fat that seems to stay...(related: Weight Loss)
site-map - Copyright © 2007 | Contact Webmaster - shukra1111 [AT] yahoo.com | All Rights Reserved | Weight Loss