Listen, I am not DIETING. I’m just thinking all the time about food and when to eat it.
Here is one of my many food issues (do any of us have fewer than, like, a dozen?): I don’t plan what I’m going to eat ahead of time, and so by the time I’m thinking about what I’m going to eat, I’m on the prowl. My mind flickers over the possibilities (carrots and salads are quickly psshh’d aside) and latches tightly to “shortbread cookies with vanilla ice cream.” YES.
So here is what I’m trying. Let’s call this Attempt The First. I’m deciding ahead of time what the next thing I eat will be, and then when I’m hungry I eat it. So in the morning, I have a glass of water, because of nursing and because that’s a good way to begin anyway. Then I go about the day, and when I get hungry, the first thing I plan to have is coffee with Splenda and fat-free half-and-half. Don’t tell me what they do to make it fat-free, because I don’t want to know. I assume someone lost a soul over it.
Then, while I’m drinking the coffee, enjoying the way my knee now feels like jittering up and down rapidly, I decide what I’ll eat next. I don’t like bananas, but they’re filling, and they’re a good choice for earlier in the day when I have less food despair. So let’s say I choose banana. I finish the coffee and go back to whatever I was doing. As I get hungrier, I think, “When I want something to eat, I can have a banana”–and I may have it whenever I want it, but I see if I can go just a LITTLE longer. Normally, pushing it too long would make me grab something like ice cream, but because I have in my mind that it will be a banana, it makes me feel it MUST be a banana. (This part may fail later. We’ll have to see.)
I get hungry enough, and I eat the banana. While I am eating the banana and the hunger is low again, I decide what I’ll eat next. Two scrambled eggs, say. And so I start again: I MAY have the eggs immediately if I want them–but I see if I can go a little longer. When I’m hungry, or feel like my resolve is weakening with regard to the bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard, I eat the eggs.
And so on.
In a bigger-picture way, I am allowing brownies. I don’t PLAN to eat the brownies, the way I plan the banana. But I say to myself, “Oh, yes, you MAY have brownies! Yes, you may! But see if you can wait a LITTLE LONGER before baking them!” This is the kind of thing that may come crashing down on my head (“Nope! Can’t wait!” *GLOM*)–or perhaps it will keep me from rebelling against my own rules the way I usually do with diets.
I’m on my third day of this, so it’s too early to say if it will work long-term or even short-term, but it’s working great for these first few days of trying not to eat QUITE so much.
Wow! I get to be the first one to comment :) I know that for me, I try to have a little protein at each meal. That helps me go for a longer time before I get hungry again. I LOVE Laughing Cow cheese because it is yummy, low cal (I think like 30 calories per triangle??) and it fills me up. Good luck!
I instinctively said “GLOM” out loud, because it is the perfect word.
And now I am hungry.
This “can you wait a little longer” strategy seems to be working for you in general–didn’t you do it with the running, too? It sounds like a good plan, except the part about not eating when you’re hungry early in the morning–eating when you wake up is how you get your metabolism going. But as long as you aren’t making yourself dizzy. I mean, here I am on WW for three months and suddenly acting like the expert. Anyway, good luck! First we ran together and now we’re depriving ourselves together. It’s always nice to have company.
“Don’t tell me what they do to make it fat-free, because I don’t want to know. I assume someone lost a soul over it.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Once upon a time, I accidentally bought the fat free coffee creamer and I didn’t realize it was fat free until I read it on the container but I still won’t buy it even though it tastes the same because something about the words fat free seem so very very wrong.
I think it sounds like a great idea!I also agree with jmh…protein makes a HUGE difference for me. When I’m HUNGRY I never want carrots either…I want protein and carbs. I am trying to do a bit of the South Beach thing now–protein, but with tons of veggies. I guess it takes your body longer to digest the veggies so that plus protein leaves you satisfied longer.
I think planning ahead is a really good strategy!
Great strategy Swistle! You should bottle these ideas. =)
It sounds like a very good plan. I used to go to the gym every morning and promise myself that, if I finished the entire 45 minutes on the treadmill, I could pick up the bagel and cream cheese (crammed with fat) on the way home.
JAC- Your hamster picture is doing a GLOM. That is exactly what I like to do with an 8×8 brownie.
I had leftover fried chicken and ribs for my brunch this morning. I don’t think I’m allowed to speak on food topics. Unless they are fried food topics.
Good for you. I need to get a plan. Let us know how it works!
Good for you with the brownie thing…Ive always found that by giving myself permission to have the “bad stuff” i end up eating less of it. It’s terrible but Ive even gone so far as to actually buy the bad stuff, take one bite and toss the rest. Makes me feel like I have so much self control (even though Im being kinda wasteful and majorly tempting fate :))
Good luck!
This sounds like a good plan. And I know you’ll keep us updated with your progress…won’t you. Be a good blogger now.
I think your brain works a lot like mine. If I plan out my meals ahead of time I tend to eat better than if I wait until I’m driving by Taco Bell and starving. Mmmmm Taco Bell.
My god, that hamster IS inhaling that carrot in a GLOM-like manner. I must be more food-obsessed than I realised.
I’m still hungry.
You are a smart lady, Swistle. Very smart.
And you must get out of my head. Seriously. I think the downfall of so many (of us), is the tendency to plan meals (and be on the prowl) instead of eating when we are hungry.
It makes me feel like I always should be eating, when I shouldn’t. But then again, if I try to wait, I end up waiting too long, and then I binge. Ahhh, why do we have such an attachment to this necessity of life? I mean, it’s not like I think about peeing all the time, why can’t it be the same for food? Why can’t I eat when I need to, instead of need to eat when I want to. Did that make sense? Maybe I should refrain from commenting after 10pm.
I find that predecisions help me in a lot of areas of my life. I stress over decisions on a regular basis, so if I just decide ahead of time, it gets a little bit less stressful. And it takes the blame off me. “Hey, don’t ask me, I already decided…”
I’m all about that.
CakeHead- THAT IS SO INTERESTING. I never thought of it that way! We DON’T go around wishing to pee more often, trying to pee less, etc., do we! It’s just FOOD we do that with.
Flax seed. Fills you up, great omega 3’s, protein… mmmmmmmmm…..
Good plan, and as a tip, might I say that carrots with spicy three pepper humus is a really good filler-upper that staves off my desire to run across the street and eat a burrito as big as my head from Chipotle.
I’m not sure I fully understand fat-free half and half. Is the entire THING fat free (that would be…magical) or just the half that is MILK?
One of my weirder quirks is that I love reading about other people’s healthy efforts, so This. Is. Awesome.
Your instincts on the loss of a soul resulting in fat-free half-and-half is RIGHT ON. Weird shit.
I think this is great that you have developed (and are developing and tweaking, it sounds like) a plan to become more aware and present with your eating habits. The shoveling in of food and not paying any attention to what I am eating is EXACTLY what is catching up with me. Mindful eating, ala Swistle!
Pann- How is flax seed eaten? I have a bag of it in my fridge RIGHT NOW and don’t know what to do with it. I bought it at the health food store where I buy raw pumpkin seeds, and I bought it just because it was so pretty and glossy brown. But do I just eat spoonfuls? Or does it go IN things? Or both?
Tessie- BOTH HALVES are fat-free. I know, how can this be?
Oh, dieting. Hate. I think I want to breastfeed McLaren until she’s 5, so I can keep the free calories going for awhile longer.
“Lost a soul over it.” Awesome.
Sounds like you’re on to something there. Good luck and also?
Now I want a banana.