Showing posts with label eating the moment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating the moment. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
Eating the Moment, Activity 4 - Cravings Essay
Having learned what hunger feels like, i now get to work on identifying cravings.
I kind of assumed that i'd be writing this about some thing specific. Wanting french fries or candy or something particular. Instead it was a craving to eat due to being tired and a little low.
As i drove home from Springfield i felt false-hunger. I wanted something comforting, and the idea of grabbing something crossed my mind. I looked at the clock and it was well after 9PM, but i had eaten a delicious meal of salad and stir fry a few hours ago. I thought about my hunger essay (as i was driving and couldn't read it per the book's directions!) and asked if i felt the same way as when i was hungry. The answers over and over were no, other than feeling tired. Well, my plan was to take a shower and go to bed, solving that issue right quick, so why did i need food?
That's when i looked harder at my day and realized i was having an emotional craving, looking for that comfort that food brings.
Yesterday was a strangely full day. A little time with Duncan in the morning, followed by a walk, lunch with the engineer girls, time with my folks & brother and then a trip to Olympus for dinner and TV shows about the Amish. It also involved some sadder moments - Duncan leaving for the week, changes in the lives of the engineer girls, and seeing Grandma's house empty in preparation for the closing this week.
I thought about what i wanted - salty or fried, startchy, and doubted it would of been sated with a salad the same way my hunger had been. I wanted the specific feelings from carbohydrates and fats, unlike hunger which just wanted food.
Cravings aren't good or bad, but they are a signal of something, physical or emotional. If i take a moment to examine them, rather than just react, i can make better choices. Sometimes i may really want something, and that's ok! I'm not bad for wanting a cheeseburger! And i'm not a good person if i deny myself candy! It's about making conscious choices about my food, which is much more important for me to learn.
Next up will be playing Craving Detective, and tracking what i crave and when/why. Sorry this is all so food/weight/crazy oriented lately.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Eating the Moment, Activity 3 - Hunger Essay
The next exercise in Eating the Moment is an essay about hunger. Yesterday was the ideal day for the experiment. Often i don't eat breakfast or lunch during the course of the work day, particularly when i'm in the field for one reason or another, and it just so happened i got sent to the state library and DEEP.
Around noon i felt it, the uncomfortable rumbling in my belly. As i drove back to the office every billboard i passed with food seemed to be reminding me of how i was feeling, how much i wanted sugary, salty, fried whatever. I was determined to let myself feel this however.
The feeling in my stomach was fleeting. By mid-to late afternoon i was unable to focus, cranky and a little headachey. i was looking at recipes online, which only made things worse.
After work I made myself go to the grocery store, make up a salad at the salad bar and pick up some other things. I made better choices, but struggled against impulse buys because i wanted anything and everything to eat.
I made myself go for a walk after putting all the groceries away. It was the most emo walk ever - gray, slow, rainy, painful, crampy, cold, windy and full of angst. While some of this was in reaction to the weather and PMS, i suspect plenty of it was my body saying "ummm, remember me? i like fuel ya know!".
I tried to focus on what i was feeling because of the hunger. irritable, cranky, tired, distracted. My body felt heavy and slow. No wonder i often confuse tired and hungry!
When i got back i made my dinner, logging as i put things together. i didn't let myself eat until i had sat down with everything completed (and logged). It was very hard! I would of eaten just about anything and felt better, but taking the time to make a relatively healthy dinner (turkey burger, pop chips and a salad) felt good, and tasted good.
No wonder i often would grab whatever was fast and easy on the way home from work if i didn't eat breakfast or lunch. When i let myself get to that level of hungry anything will do, it doesn't have to be good for me!
The next awareness activity is to work on differentiating between cravings and hunger, so stay tuned as i keep learning.
Around noon i felt it, the uncomfortable rumbling in my belly. As i drove back to the office every billboard i passed with food seemed to be reminding me of how i was feeling, how much i wanted sugary, salty, fried whatever. I was determined to let myself feel this however.
The feeling in my stomach was fleeting. By mid-to late afternoon i was unable to focus, cranky and a little headachey. i was looking at recipes online, which only made things worse.
After work I made myself go to the grocery store, make up a salad at the salad bar and pick up some other things. I made better choices, but struggled against impulse buys because i wanted anything and everything to eat.
I made myself go for a walk after putting all the groceries away. It was the most emo walk ever - gray, slow, rainy, painful, crampy, cold, windy and full of angst. While some of this was in reaction to the weather and PMS, i suspect plenty of it was my body saying "ummm, remember me? i like fuel ya know!".
I tried to focus on what i was feeling because of the hunger. irritable, cranky, tired, distracted. My body felt heavy and slow. No wonder i often confuse tired and hungry!
When i got back i made my dinner, logging as i put things together. i didn't let myself eat until i had sat down with everything completed (and logged). It was very hard! I would of eaten just about anything and felt better, but taking the time to make a relatively healthy dinner (turkey burger, pop chips and a salad) felt good, and tasted good.
No wonder i often would grab whatever was fast and easy on the way home from work if i didn't eat breakfast or lunch. When i let myself get to that level of hungry anything will do, it doesn't have to be good for me!
The next awareness activity is to work on differentiating between cravings and hunger, so stay tuned as i keep learning.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Eating the Moment, Activity 2 - Why am I about to eat?
This week's activity in Eating the Moment was to shift the question from "Why did i just eat?" to "Why am i about to eat?". I admit i didn't do this perfectly, and intend to continue trying to incorporate it into my routine.
Plenty of times the answer was "I'm hungry" but it definitely wasn't the only one. Sometimes it was about trying something new and tasty (like at the wedding), or how my cooking/baking was (like the failed GF rolls). I sometimes ate because i wasn't hungry exactly, but felt like i needed fuel, like after my morning run. And sometimes i think i felt as thirsty as i did hungry, but wanted to go for food instead of water. There were also some opportunities where i ate to fill my calorie needs more so than hunger. I need to not be so afraid of things. Eating more fruits & veggies is great, but they can't be the only thing i eat. I can eat something with more than 100 calories per serving and not explode. Really.
Sometimes i did choose to put something down and wait, because it was out of boredom or wanting to delay going back to work. Today was a great example. On the one hand, i was more productive, because i came back to the office without a stop at Dunkin Donuts. On the other hand, i'm back and the office earlier, and totally could have stopped without any negative consequences (it's sort of an unwritten rule about field work).
Anyway, i'll keep working on it. Eating isn't just about bare nutrition or we'd of turned food into a pill. It's about pleasure and taste and so if the only reason i eat is pure hunger... well, it'll be missing all of those things. But there are bad reasons. Learning the difference between thirsty & hungry, or tired and hungry will help me in the long run take better care of myself as a whole, not just my waistline.
Plenty of times the answer was "I'm hungry" but it definitely wasn't the only one. Sometimes it was about trying something new and tasty (like at the wedding), or how my cooking/baking was (like the failed GF rolls). I sometimes ate because i wasn't hungry exactly, but felt like i needed fuel, like after my morning run. And sometimes i think i felt as thirsty as i did hungry, but wanted to go for food instead of water. There were also some opportunities where i ate to fill my calorie needs more so than hunger. I need to not be so afraid of things. Eating more fruits & veggies is great, but they can't be the only thing i eat. I can eat something with more than 100 calories per serving and not explode. Really.
Sometimes i did choose to put something down and wait, because it was out of boredom or wanting to delay going back to work. Today was a great example. On the one hand, i was more productive, because i came back to the office without a stop at Dunkin Donuts. On the other hand, i'm back and the office earlier, and totally could have stopped without any negative consequences (it's sort of an unwritten rule about field work).
Anyway, i'll keep working on it. Eating isn't just about bare nutrition or we'd of turned food into a pill. It's about pleasure and taste and so if the only reason i eat is pure hunger... well, it'll be missing all of those things. But there are bad reasons. Learning the difference between thirsty & hungry, or tired and hungry will help me in the long run take better care of myself as a whole, not just my waistline.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Eating the Moment, Activity 1 - Why did I just eat?
As part of my weight loss goals, i'm working on Mindful Eating and developing a more healthy relationship with food. Part of this is finding resources that work for me. One of those is a book called Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time by Pavel Somov. I'll try to write more about it as we go.
The first activity in Eating the Moment is, after you eat, write down why you ate, for a weekish. It was pretty simple, but having to actually think why something just landed in my mouth was interesting, particularly as i'm being more aware of what and how much i'm eating.
Today is technically 7 days, but since i don't have a functional computer at home, i thought i'd make yesterday the last day and move on to the next exercise today. Because Duncan and i are using Friday as our weigh in day, it also feels like a good time to move along.
Saturday
Breakfast - hunger
Snack - hunger
Dinner - hunger
Dessert - craving, needed calories, hunger(?)
Sunday
Breakfast - hunger
Snack - tired, thirsty, hunger(?)
Late Lunch - hunger, boredom
Dinner - hunger, needed calories
Monday
Breakfast - calories, fuel/tired
Lunch - wanted a break from work, lunchtime trigger?
Snack - hunger
Dinner - social, hunger
Tuesday
Lunch - hunger, smelled food
Snack - hunger, bored(?)
Dinner - hunger
Dessert - calories, craving
Wednesday
Breakfast - fuel, hunger
Pre-dinner - cooking trigger (tasting), hunger
Dinner - hunger
Dessert - hunger, tired, calories, pain (wanted cold)
Thursday
Breakfast - hunger
Lunch - hunger, habit
Snack - hunger, food in front of me
Dinner - hunger, tired
There is a huge bias here. In reducing my calories i'm being forced to think before i eat, and not eat so mindlessly. If i wasn't being so careful boredom, tired, lonely and cravings would likely have shown up much more.
When i looked at this, i first thought "gosh, i must be hungry all the time!", but i think the reality is i'm feeling hungry, so i eat, which is a normal cycle. And normal people eat every 4-6 hours. Normal people eat meals and snacks. This is OK.
Breakfasts are still a challenge. I've been doing a greek yogurt and sometimes fruit in the mornings, though often one becomes lunch or a snack.
Today i start the next activity, which is asking before i eat "Why am i about to eat?". The upcoming week includes a wedding (social eating opportunity) and four unscheduled evenings (bored/emotional eating opportunities). I can change my mind or not once i answer that question, but it's about the honest check in beforehand. I wish loseit had a notes option to keep everything in one place, but so it goes.
Related, C25K continues. The dental work is still sore and mucking with my sleep, so exercise is being pushed to after work. I hope to get back to 6AM next week. Still, i'm doing it. Yesterday was a walk day, but i chose to run 2 3 minute sections just to see if i could. God that's a long time at this point, but i know soon enough it'll be easy. Just keep swimmin'. Or runnin'. Or something.
The first activity in Eating the Moment is, after you eat, write down why you ate, for a weekish. It was pretty simple, but having to actually think why something just landed in my mouth was interesting, particularly as i'm being more aware of what and how much i'm eating.
Today is technically 7 days, but since i don't have a functional computer at home, i thought i'd make yesterday the last day and move on to the next exercise today. Because Duncan and i are using Friday as our weigh in day, it also feels like a good time to move along.
Saturday
Breakfast - hunger
Snack - hunger
Dinner - hunger
Dessert - craving, needed calories, hunger(?)
Sunday
Breakfast - hunger
Snack - tired, thirsty, hunger(?)
Late Lunch - hunger, boredom
Dinner - hunger, needed calories
Monday
Breakfast - calories, fuel/tired
Lunch - wanted a break from work, lunchtime trigger?
Snack - hunger
Dinner - social, hunger
Tuesday
Lunch - hunger, smelled food
Snack - hunger, bored(?)
Dinner - hunger
Dessert - calories, craving
Wednesday
Breakfast - fuel, hunger
Pre-dinner - cooking trigger (tasting), hunger
Dinner - hunger
Dessert - hunger, tired, calories, pain (wanted cold)
Thursday
Breakfast - hunger
Lunch - hunger, habit
Snack - hunger, food in front of me
Dinner - hunger, tired
There is a huge bias here. In reducing my calories i'm being forced to think before i eat, and not eat so mindlessly. If i wasn't being so careful boredom, tired, lonely and cravings would likely have shown up much more.
When i looked at this, i first thought "gosh, i must be hungry all the time!", but i think the reality is i'm feeling hungry, so i eat, which is a normal cycle. And normal people eat every 4-6 hours. Normal people eat meals and snacks. This is OK.
Breakfasts are still a challenge. I've been doing a greek yogurt and sometimes fruit in the mornings, though often one becomes lunch or a snack.
Today i start the next activity, which is asking before i eat "Why am i about to eat?". The upcoming week includes a wedding (social eating opportunity) and four unscheduled evenings (bored/emotional eating opportunities). I can change my mind or not once i answer that question, but it's about the honest check in beforehand. I wish loseit had a notes option to keep everything in one place, but so it goes.
Related, C25K continues. The dental work is still sore and mucking with my sleep, so exercise is being pushed to after work. I hope to get back to 6AM next week. Still, i'm doing it. Yesterday was a walk day, but i chose to run 2 3 minute sections just to see if i could. God that's a long time at this point, but i know soon enough it'll be easy. Just keep swimmin'. Or runnin'. Or something.
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