Mindless Eating

Fuel:  fruit, almond butter, oats, and spinach! 

Currently reading another very interesting book from the library, Mindless Eating:  Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink, Ph.D. 

"The best diet is the one you don't know you're on."  This pretty much sums it up!  Dr. Wansink makes a lot of good points. Here are some of my favorites: 

• Reengineering your environment so that you can eat what you want, just less. (Those small plates are key!  Keep food out of sight.) 
• Watch out for hidden cues that cause us to eat more than we intend. 
• Mindlessly eat more healthy foods, for example, have vegetables and fruits on the table family-style and leave the starchy, more calorie dense foods on the stove.  (LOVE this!) 
• You can eat too much without knowing it, but you can also eat less without knowing it!  (Hence, the best diet is one that you don't know you're on.) 
• Deprivation diets don't work because our bodies as well as our environments fight against them. They cannot be maintained for the long haul. 
• It has been scientifically proven that in general you can loose 1/2 a pound per week without triggering your body's anti-starvation mode.  This means cutting out 100-200 calories per day.  This is almost imperceptible to our body.  Small, consistent changes add up. 
• If we consciously deny ourselves something again and again, we're likely to end up craving it more and more, thus eating more than we would have in the first place if we included it in our plan. 
• Day to day environment is full of eating cues.... food is everywhere we look!  Be aware! 

These are just a few offerings from this book.  I certainly agree with him about depriving yourself of favorite foods, but, I personally don't know how to eat my favorite foods and still loose weight.  I am worried that I am setting myself up for trouble.  Already, I go to the bakery to buy our bread and their giant cinnamon rolls cry out to me like a siren.  I have decided that when I go next week that I am going to buy one and split it into five pieces to share with my family.  Just that much would probably satisfy my craving!  Or, I may ask for the ingredients.  Maybe it has corn syrup in it!  That would probably end it for me!  If that's the case, I may make some of my own.  Maybe I will anyway!  I can use whole wheat flour and nothing fake.

OK, back to the book!  Dr. Wansink provides Reengineering Strategies at the end of each chapter, something to help you make the small changes he is suggesting.  I am going to pick three, as he says three is a good number.  He also suggests keeping track of them by putting a check next to them each time you accomplish your change.  At the end of a month, you will have made quite a difference in your diet. 

Here are mine:  

• Serve vegetables & fruits family-style, keeping the calorie dense food in the kitchen at meal times.  
• Drink ice water, he says this will burn 70 calories extra a day, if you drink your required 8- 8ounce glasses.  This alone is almost the 100 calories I need to loose an extra 10 pounds in a year!  
• Adopt the policy, "No dessert unless I exercise!"  

The book has lots more, easy things to do to cut out 100-200 calories per day.  This is not a quick fix.  It is not a diet.  More and more I am convinced that diets are not the answer!  One day I hope to be a mindless eater, a person who eats to live and not the other way around.  I think by adopting some of these new habits, I will get there.  It's just a matter of time!