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Another book worth reading
I read alot of Diet and Food books. Honestly, I find the topic really interesting because they're information that affects ALL of us, since we ALL eat, and most of us, myself included, need to diet.
The entire subject of Food and Exercise and Nutrition is so.. absolutely complicated. Overcomplicated, maybe.
But that's a rant for another time.
So I picked up Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think We Eat" by Brian Wansink. You've heard of this guy. We all have. He's the guy who... invites a bunch of people over to a superbowl party and offers free wings. Then has the wait staff only bus away the leftovers bones from half the tables and then at the end of the night when everyone goes home, counts all the chicken wings eaten to see whom ate more, those with the chicken wing bone remnants in front of them, or those whose chicken wing bones were taken away (the answer is.. the one with the chicken bones in front of them).
He's the guy that invites people over to a restaurant he knows to try out a fresh soup recipe he knows, where half the people in the crowd have a bowl that empties, and half have a bowl that refills itself from the bottom up and then sees how much soup each person had.
This book 'mindless eating' is about.. all the little cues we take around us that instruct us to eat, whether we need to or not. It's about understanding those cues and then using them to your advantage.
I've only started reading the book, but it's interesting, and kind of scary, honestly.
He gives the details of one experiment. He works together with a Chicago movie theater for a presentation of .. well, the movie doesn't matter. Five days before the movie, they pop the popcorn. Then they let it go stale in a clean environment. Then, right after lunch one day, they offer free popcorn and free drinks to the movie patrons. Half the group gets a Medium Tub of Popcorn. Half the group a large.
During the showing, it's clear no one's enjoying the popcorn. "It tastes like Styrofoam", complains one guy to the management, forgetting the popcorn was free and demanding his money back.
And yet.. despite that, everyone ate it. They kept shoving it into their mouths. And worse than that, those eating out of the large tub, eat more of this garbage than those in the medium tub.
The question is.. why eat this stuff if you don't enjoy it? The answer is.. there were cues all around that day that made people, without even thinking about it, eat. The movie itself. The sound of other people eating popcorn. And, yes, the size of the bucket.
As I said, really interesting and yet really scary. We do this eating without any real clue we're doing it.
It's a really interesting book. I might say more as I finish it, but as of where I am, I'd suggest it to anyone who is also interested in Food and Diet books.
The entire subject of Food and Exercise and Nutrition is so.. absolutely complicated. Overcomplicated, maybe.
But that's a rant for another time.
So I picked up Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think We Eat" by Brian Wansink. You've heard of this guy. We all have. He's the guy who... invites a bunch of people over to a superbowl party and offers free wings. Then has the wait staff only bus away the leftovers bones from half the tables and then at the end of the night when everyone goes home, counts all the chicken wings eaten to see whom ate more, those with the chicken wing bone remnants in front of them, or those whose chicken wing bones were taken away (the answer is.. the one with the chicken bones in front of them).
He's the guy that invites people over to a restaurant he knows to try out a fresh soup recipe he knows, where half the people in the crowd have a bowl that empties, and half have a bowl that refills itself from the bottom up and then sees how much soup each person had.
This book 'mindless eating' is about.. all the little cues we take around us that instruct us to eat, whether we need to or not. It's about understanding those cues and then using them to your advantage.
I've only started reading the book, but it's interesting, and kind of scary, honestly.
He gives the details of one experiment. He works together with a Chicago movie theater for a presentation of .. well, the movie doesn't matter. Five days before the movie, they pop the popcorn. Then they let it go stale in a clean environment. Then, right after lunch one day, they offer free popcorn and free drinks to the movie patrons. Half the group gets a Medium Tub of Popcorn. Half the group a large.
During the showing, it's clear no one's enjoying the popcorn. "It tastes like Styrofoam", complains one guy to the management, forgetting the popcorn was free and demanding his money back.
And yet.. despite that, everyone ate it. They kept shoving it into their mouths. And worse than that, those eating out of the large tub, eat more of this garbage than those in the medium tub.
The question is.. why eat this stuff if you don't enjoy it? The answer is.. there were cues all around that day that made people, without even thinking about it, eat. The movie itself. The sound of other people eating popcorn. And, yes, the size of the bucket.
As I said, really interesting and yet really scary. We do this eating without any real clue we're doing it.
It's a really interesting book. I might say more as I finish it, but as of where I am, I'd suggest it to anyone who is also interested in Food and Diet books.
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I wonder if our local library has it.
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I mean.. yes, there are definitely foods that are empty of nutritional value, but offer a quick mood boost, which means they aren't, despite what the nutritionists say, a total loss, food wise.
I believe that any Diet (Capitalized to separate it from diet, the food you eat day in and day out) that tries to get you to stop eating what you want to eat is probably doomed to failure. Our minds do not react well to deprivation.
Heh. :)
I could discuss this further with you, if you like. As I said, I've read ALOT of Food and Diet books and I have Views (again, purposely capitalized)
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(Before this gig, I used to moderate at a Weight Loss site. So.. I learned a few things along the way. I also tend to go into 'solution mode' when people discuss such things with me, so if that isn't what you're looking for, please feel free to tell me. :) )
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I am oftentimes a stress-eater (and I gained a ton of weight leading up to and during my divorce). I combat that by eating mostly fruit/veggies when stressed...but if there's sweets or chips around, I've been known to attack those, too. I mostly don't keep them around. I also exercise to handle stress/anxiety.
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I don't buy most of the "Eat XXX and Exercise XXX minutes to lose 2 lbs. a week" garbage anyways. There's no guarantee it'll work for you and most people need to make healthy eating and exercise a part of their lifestyle, not some temporary thing they do while they try to lose weight.
I'm a stress-eater as well, and a bored-eater, so I understand. Theoretically, the answer is to better deal with the emotions. I find that.. easier said than done, in actuality. However, there's a few tricks I've learned, which all basically come down to Food Avoidance When I Know I'm Prone to Eating Badly (stressed, bored, etc.)
I have no idea if that's a helpful strategy for you, though. I wish I could offer more than that, but... I can only imagine that as a single mother of three, your life and my life are, often, pretty different and I don't know that I can offer you any great advice without any idea how you run your life. Sorry. :/