May
30
Rule #5 of Healthy Eating, The Am I Hungry Rule
Filed Under Eating Healthy, Healthy Habits, Motivation
Last Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect. Today we look at rule #5, which I like to call the “Am I hungry rule?”. This particular rule is all mine although it’s based on a whole wide range of information that I picked up while I was researching good health and eating habits.
By the way, you may have noted that I’m not exactly following a sequential order in discussing these rules; I started with rule #2, followed by #4, then 3 and now I’m jumping to rule #5. That’s for two reasons, one because I want to emphasize that none of these rules is more important than the other. Also, I picked each rule because it was appropriate to the day I was writing it. Today is Friday, the perfect day to talk about eating when you’re not hungry.
What Is The Am I Hungry Rule?
One of my biggest problems in controlling my eating was eating for reasons other than hunger. I would eat when I was stressed as a way of calming down. If I had a bad day at work I would think of that whole tub of ice cream as a justified way of rewarding myself and cheering myself up. Of course, the realization of how much I ate would just make me more depressed but that’s a whole other story. I would also eat as an excuse to avoid doing other things. For example, if there was something I really needed to do but didn’t want to start, I would go to the kitchen and look for things to eat. The act of eating took time as did the eating itself and by the time I was done it was too late to start the thing I needed doing. So yay for me, I avoided something unpleasant. Finally, I would find myself eating for social reasons. For example, friends wanted to go out and eat so I would go with them and order food even if I wasn’t hungry.
These days, I have the “am I hungry” rule. Basically, if I’m thinking about eating or if I find myself about to grab something to eat I pause and ask myself if I’m really hungry. I take a minute or two to think about what I’m doing and why. Quite frequently I find that I’m not really hungry and that I’m about to eat for the wrong reasons. In that case I put the food down and go on with my daily business. If I really am hungry then I eat and I don’t feel guilty about it.
One other aspect of the “am I hungry” rule is stopping eating when you’re no longer hungry. Again, I used to eat way past the point at which I was full. I would feel stuffed and bloated but I still kept eating. These days I eat slower and I stop eating when I’m no longer hungry.
Advanced Applications
Are you at a restaurant? Is it the kind of place that serves huge portions? Why not ask for a to go box before you even start eating. Put half the food away and then start eating. It will stop you from cleaning your plate and eating too much.
Is your restaurant the kind with a bottomless dish of chips? Just say no and have them take it away. No one can refuse chips or those bowls of bread for long. No matter how strong your will power is you’ll eventually find yourself munching away without really thinking about it.
Make food a little less convenient. We all have those open bags of chips or bowls of cookies sitting around the house. Why not prevent the temptation to mindlessly eat and put them out of sight. Trust me, you’ll find them when you’re hungry.
Why not write down what you feel when you eat? Keeping a food journal doesn’t have to be just about calories, it can also be about feelings and mindsets. That will help you identify the reasons why you eat when you’re not hungry and possibly avoid them in the future.
Clarifications to the Am I Hungry Rule
There are really no clarifications to this one. It’s pretty simple to understand.
Why Use the Am I Hungry Rule?
Because mindless eating adds a lot of pointless calories to our diets. The typical mindless snack like chips, cookies and bread is full of calories and very unhealthy. I suppose if your mindless snacks is carrot sticks it wouldn’t be so bad.
But I Like Eating!
Well, so do I. In fact, I love eating, but I love other things more. I love my wife and I want to spend many happy and healthy years with her. I love hiking and I want to climb to the top of Half Dome next year. I love scuba diving and I want to see the great barrier reef in Australia. There are many things I love and I’m willing to sacrifice a little mindless eating if it means I get to do those things.
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It wasn’t my meals that killed my diet, it was the silly stuff I ate when I wasn’t hungry. It was the chocolate bar I had when I wanted to avoid work. Learn from my mistake and stop mindless eating. Eat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full.
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