dLife Bookshelf
Ditching Old Habits
People commonly overeat out of habit, and old habits die hard. You go to the movies and buy popcorn and eat it all because that is what you always do. The TV is on, so you eat, and commercials may give you ideas for some additional snacks, so you nibble some more. In these situations we are like automatic eating machines, plowing through the food in front of us until it’s gone—even though we weren’t hungry. And when the food is gone, we hardly remember eating it. This is called distracted eating and it is the least satisfying way to eat. Distracted eating is also a high-risk way to eat because we’re not giving eating our full attention and it’s hard to remember everything we’ve
consumed.
Many of us also eat because we think it’s expected—a ritual. For example, stuffing yourself at Thanksgiving dinner is practically a family tradition. Cooking and eating an abundance of food can become a habit. So make sure that your rituals are helpful habits that recognize hunger effectively and not habits that lead to overeating.
You may be uncomfortable saying no to extra food because you do not want to insult the host or hostess. Or maybe you just eat whatever is served because you don’t want to be “rude.” Some people overeat to avoid getting hungry later. “It is going to be a busy day and I may not get a break, so I better eat extra now even though I’m not hungry.” These are more habits, and habits can be broken.
The best way to change an old, unhelpful habit is to replace it with a new, more helpful one. What if you bought a cup of coffee or bottle of water to drink during the movie instead of soda and popcorn?
Are You Hungry or Are You Eating out of Habit?
Evaluate your degree of hunger before eating and your degree of satiety or fullness after eating. Rate your degree of hunger on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being “overhungry or starving,” and 10 being “stuffed.”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0 = overhungry
1 = very hungry
2–3 = hungry
4 = a little hungry
5 = satisfied/comfortable
6 = a little full
7 = full
8-9 = very full
10 = stuffed/uncomfortable
If you are not sure whether you’re genuinely hungry, close your eyes and put your hands on your stomach to help you focus on your body rather than your self-talk, emotions, or other eating triggers. If you think that you might be thirsty, try drinking a tall glass of water and see if you feel satisfied. Ask yourself how long it’s been since your last meal or snack. If you have eaten within the past two hours, it is unlikely that you would be physiologically hungry again so soon. On the other hand, if it has been more than four hours since your last meal or snack, it is more likely that you could be truly hungry.
Once you decide how hungry you are, then you can decide on how much food you’d need to quell your hunger and bring your satisfaction rating to a 5 or a 6 (being satisfied or a little full). It is important to eat consciously and enjoy your food without other distractions. It takes twenty minutes for the signal to go from your stomach to your brain that you have eaten, so if you eat too quickly (in less than twenty minutes), then you will not be able to accurately evaluate your degree of satisfaction or fullness. In fact, if you eat a lot of food quickly because you are overhungry, then twenty to thirty minutes later when the signal finally reaches your brain, you could feel uncomfortably full at a 9 or a 10. So it is really important to slow down. Sometimes playing slow music in the background may help; if you play a march in the background, research shows that you will eat faster to keep that pace.
By now, you’re probably starting to understand that modifyingy our behavior—making a true lifestyle change—involvesmore than just changing your diet. It involves evaluating and managing your food environment (where and what you eat), your emotional environment (how you respond to your emotions), your cognitive environment (the way you think), and your habits (the way you eat). Now let’s focus on how to start changing what you eat.