Mindless Eating Project

Ever wonder what makes you go and grab that snack, that soda, that piece of chocolate?

I do. I am always curious what it is that makes me go from having a healthy diet day to losing it all because I decided to eat some cookies or snack on something that isn't healthy. I never really understood what the trigger was for me until I decided to sit down and think about it. And that's when it came to me.

Thinking about it.

For me thinking about food is almost a trigger in itself. I have had days where I didn't eat until 1 or 2 o'clock because I wasn't hungry and didn't really think about it. I've had other days when I'm bored and it's ALL  I can think about. I have noticed that if I have extra time on my hands or am bored I tend to immediately think about a snack. Seriously....it's kind of strange how I do it.

The problem, as I'm sure you can tell is, food doesn't solve boredom. Not even close, so what ends up happening is you end up eating WAY more than you should because you're not actually addressing the problem.

So as the title of this blog suggest I have been doing a bit of a science project which I'll call MEP, the Mindless Eating Project. Whenever I get a mind trigger that I want food I stop to ask myself why I'm going to get the snack and ask, am I really hungry or am I bored? If I'm bored I go for a walk, call a friend, read, watch TV and miraculously the boredom is gone and so is the hankering for a snack. Then there are times when I am in fact hungry. My stomach is growling and I can tell I need food. I first though check it's not thirst so I drink some water first and see if that does the trick and if not I feed myself a healthy snack. These days I carry three options. 1. A Fiber One bar. 2. A strawberry breakfast bar. or 3. Honey-wheat pretzel sticks. I'm actually pretty content with those options because I like them all and they all come in between 100-150 calories which is perfect snack size. I usually carry them all in my purse so if I'm out and hungry I always have a healthier option.

As far as the small meals and healthy choices I'm also making choices that I can live with which is something that I talked about in my balancing act blog. Although one of the interesting parts of self-control that I have learned is if there are multiple areas in your life where you are having to perform self-control you eventually give in on one of them. If you are stressed about work, finances, weight, etc the plate is too heavy and one will slip.  

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and author of Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals and in her book introduction she uses this example.

"People who are very successful in one or more areas of their life are successful precisely because that’s where they devote the bulk of their capacity for self-control. When you deal with a lot of stress all day, no matter who you are, you may find yourself depleted and vulnerable to goal failure.

 In an article in O magazine, Oprah concludes a discussion of her most recent weight gain by observing:

              What I’ve learned this year is that my weight issue isn’t about eating less or working out    

              harder…It’s about my life being out of balance, with too much work and not enough play, 

              not enough time to calm down. I let the well run dry."

She goes on to discuss how if you have multiple things going on you are more likely to "lose your self-control" and slip up by spending, or eating, or missing a meeting, whatever it is that you are working to better about yourself. 

That really resonates with me because I often am stressed about multiple factors including jobs, finances, career path, weight, and other issues and then something happens, I make an impulse buy, I eat a snack that I shouldn't, I make a mistake at work, and I typically blame willpower on my slip up when in fact it was a matter of not balancing things appropriately and being successful at all of them. My long commute does take it's toll on my success due to sleep patterns, difficulty getting exercise, etc and it isn't that I'm not determined or motivated it is just that, as Oprah mentions, my life is a little out of whack with too much work and too little play and down time.You can check out her article here, 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-success/201110/forget-willpower-stop-mindless-eating-and-other-bad-habits-through-d
and  also check out her book on amazon. I found it really interesting and I have now decided to take a more organized approach to my weight loss goals and help make sure I'm getting the balance right. 

Hope you all are having a good day. I'm off for a run after work tonight; wish me luck!