You think you’re in control of your eating behavior—but you aren’t.
This line from an article I read today (via +Mealime) couldn’t have reached my eyeballs at a more opportune moment. I’ll explain that below. Upon reflection, I have realized that most of my eating is mindless. And it might be that way for you, too. You can easily eliminate mindless eating. I did it once. Here’s how you and I can do it again—and why we should. Hint: it involves less stress, less guilt, and good health.
First, why did my reading this article today strike me as a boon? Because yesterday, I bought this:
Ashamed? Triumphant? Not sure. But definitely happy.
Count them. 24 units of 6 each. That’s 144 peanut butter eggs. If I consumed them at my desired rate, they might just last until Easter. But not likely.
By the way, 144 peanut butter eggs equates to about 24,500 calories. So a normal person could safely consume this entire crate in just two weeks. (If any nutritionists are reading, just roll with me on this one.) Moving on…
You can read the article to catch all the juicy details, but mindless eating is pretty much what it sounds like. You eat without thinking. You eat because food is near you, not just because you are hungry. You eat because you are bored. You eat socially. You just kind of eat whatever, whenever. This is a fact of life for many Americans.
As a result, you get fat. Or, if you’re like me and have been blessed with lots of metabolism, you just get extremely unhealthy.
Fortunately, you can solve the problem of mindless eating nearly as easily as you can recognize the problem in the first place. In fact, awareness and solution are nearly one and the same.
Are you ready for this?
Record what you eat. Period.
You see, to record your food intake, you have to think about it. That act alone will drastically reduce and probably eliminate nasty, mindless, extra eating.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to count calories. That approach can provide more detailed information, but it is not necessary in order to eliminate mindless eating. To illustrate, consider the following lists.
Day 1:
(You laugh, but this is not far-fetched. Especially for a single guy who doesn’t like getting up early and has a cafeteria and vending machines at work.)
Day 2:
Can you see the difference? This represents a real example. As soon as you start recording what you eat, you’ll quickly realize that your diet needs improvement. You’ll also realize that it’s not that hard to improve. Just pick something different at lunch. Buy some cheap breakfasts next time you shop.
Awareness. I promise that if you write down everything you eat, your diet will improve almost overnight.
Aside from the fact that you will start eating better food, you will also enjoy an awareness of when you can eat more and not worry about it.
On Day 2 in the example above, I checked my progress at lunch and realized I could totally eat a cookie with no worries.
Another experience that might surprise you is wandering to the refrigerator out of habit, only to realize that you have already consumed enough food and don’t need to eat. Hunger is a funny thing, and my personal observations lead me to believe that a lot of it is psychological.
There are so many times I’ve had the munchies, but they immediately subsided when I looked at my list and realized that I’d had plenty of food so far.
Perhaps the most important and wonderful benefit of eating mindfully? Feeling great. You will feel great.
That’s a promise you’ll have to either take my word on or put to the test for yourself.
As usual, I associate self-improvement with technology, toys, and nerdery. If you want to start recording what you eat today, you can use a pen and paper. Or consider one of these fun apps as an alternative:
Pro Tip: Make a rule that you won’t put anything into your mouth until it’s recorded.
So what about all those peanut butter eggs?
Well, I’ve decided to start recording my food again. This time I’ll be using the FitBit website and app because they connect to my scale, so I can track my weight at the same time.
Those peanut butter eggs will probably last a lot longer now, since I’ll be using them as a treat for myself when I see that I’ve been eating mindfully enough to save room for one (or several) of them.