I've learned/am learning a lot about myself. One of the keys to losing weight is eating smaller portions. And once I was eating smaller portions for a while, my body got used to them. I wasn't as hungry. A 6" would fill me up where I would used to eat a 12".
But here's the interesting part: If I want to eat the 12" (or say a whole frozen pizza, or a 1 lb. burger and fries) I can do so with alarming ease. Even though my body is used to smaller portions, I can easily put away huge foods.
Which I find very interesting, because it reveals a human truth. For me, for all that time and to this day, eating was so often more for me, than it was for my body.
...
Every time I go to Burnsy's I'm shocked that he has the same snacks in the cupboard that he had weeks/months earlier. Bags of chips that are still open--they're open!--and haven't been touched in weeks. It's so foreign to me because I'm so used to eating for pleasure, that when I get something snacky, it disappears instantly. Once a bag of chips gets open, it gets finished in a day or two. That's just the way I am. So I've learned it's easier to not buy the chips then to try and make them last.
It's true...and I've found that my eating habits are setup (unintentionally/unconsciously) so I don't end up snacking a lot. I get home from work and then end up waiting a while before having dinner, even on days when I come home hungry. Then after dinner I'm not compelled to snack unless I'm up really late. The weekends are a different story, but somehow at some point in college I moved away from snacking (I used to do it all the time).
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, because until a few months ago I'd still get snacky foods, but after realizing the Twizzlers at work are just sitting there and the Pringles at home in my desk are still unopened it occurred to me that I no longer felt the need to eat something while doing passive activities. I still can't figure out what prompted the change though.
How do you not eat immediately when you come home hungry?
ReplyDeleteEvery day, I come home starving (after having about 200 calories for breakfast and 400 at lunch) and eat FIRST THING.
How can you stand to eat late?
Well, there's only a few days where I come home starving, despite eating lunch at 11:30 or noon on weekdays.
ReplyDeleteUsually I'm at least somewhat hungry, but I'll occupy myself with something (working out, watching TV, going online) and quickly spend an hour or two with that. It's enough distraction that I don't end up grabbing food.
In those rare cases that I can't make it a few hours, I'll eat a cupful of this cajun party mix I've got which is realtively healthy and is enough to tide me over until dinner.
The other thing is I frequently skip breakfast (I know that's supposedly not good to do) so I wonder if that plays into it at all as well.