How do I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full?

I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading about mindful eating and I think I can definitively say that I see two main categories of mindful eating behaviour: over eating in a sitting and eating when you're not physically hungry. For me what it boils down to is that most of my eating is procedural and habitual and as such I'm not thinking when I eat.

I remember way back to my elementary school gym teacher who told me "it takes 3 weeks to make a good habit and only a week to break it!" This is a little devastating because when I think of vacations I think of at least a week so in a week I could undo all my efforts. But I guess this is the point. I'm not supposed to be on good behaviour, I'm supposed to always eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. Which means I'm allowed ice cream. And potato chips.

Anyways, I got a little off topic thinking about the poutine flavoured potato chips I left behind on the kitchen counter this morning when I left. At the time I wasn't hungry and consciously knew I would not get hungry for several hours after the fabulous smoothies I made Alex and I this morning. I'm regretting it now but not because I'm actually hungry. It's a craving. Which is not real hunger.

Back on track (I think I have EDD - Engineers Deficit Disorder, like ADD but it's untreatable because being an engineer is so awesome!) So I need to break my habits, but how do I do that? A quick google search brought me to this: 3 Easy Steps to Breaking Bad Habits. For the record I don't think knuckle cracking is a bad habit.

A quick summary though:

1. make it conscious, 
2. put it in writing so it really sinks in, and 
3. bait and switch. 

The last one I think you need to be careful with. You and I need to substitute eating for something healthy and productive. (Refer to the Before I Eat app for suggestions!)

I like steps and tangible things I can do. I also like a schedule so I'm going to draw on a challenge I saw on Pinterest not too long ago called How To Become A Mindful Eater In 10 Days, it was a mindful eating challenge. I see a lot of parallels between this challenge and the Thin Womans Brain steps for mindful eating, which reinforces my faith in it! I also saw something similar on Psychology Today so booya!

I call it a challenge because I tend to be more motivated when it's a challenge, and hopefully not demotivated afterwards. I also want to stretch it out a bit, so basically I want to spend three weeks on not over eating and three weeks focusing on not eating when I'm not hungry. I want to do it in this order because I can spend the first three weeks not actively thinking about but taking into account not eating when I'm not hungry while primarily focusing on over eating. So taking from the challenge the steps in a slower drawn out process that I hope will have more lasting results. I will spend roughly 3 days on each step:

Now I'm cheating a little here because I've been thinking about why I feel like eating when I'm not hungry and been aware of when I'm over eating and in general trying to curb my behaviour. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on until last night was that when I don't overeat I feel like I'm missing something. It's unreal to think that I'm so dependent on the feeling of being over full, which in reality doesn't feel good.

So over the next three weeks I'm focusing on curbing over eating! I will not feel like I'm going to pop from dinner. I will not feel indigestion because I ate too much of something greasy. I will stop and think and feel.

Will you join me in eating only what you need for the next 3 weeks? 

Eat When You're Hungry, Duh!

It's no secret, most people gain weight as they get older, myself included. Typically, women invest the most into weight loss products and plans than men. I have no stats to back this up besides common sense because every LA Weight Loss or Weight Watchers commercial has some lady that's lost 100+ lbs on such and such diet plan. When I started out this blog I briefly talked about my weight and eating habits and mentioned a book called "The Thin Woman's Brain: Re-wiring the Brain for Permanent Weight Loss." I also mentioned that I was going to try that and that I'd get back to you about it later.

Well needless to say I didn't try it. I instead put myself on a rollercoaster, buckled up and hit GO! I tried paleo, I did paleo Monday to Friday, then I did paleo whenever I could and then I just tried to eat healthy meals. In the end all I really did was obsess about the foods I couldn't have, deprive myself of them, obsess some more, then out right binge. BINGE on chips, chocolate, beer, ice cream, all that good stuff.

Then something changed. I realized nothing was working. I remembered as well in the Thin Woman's Brain that they had mentioned these so called "naturally thin women." When I read the book I was like "oh whatever, these people do not exist! Everyone I know that is thin is a calorie counting nazi that does 5 hours of cardio every day. Hrmph." But I have this work mate that I've known for some time and always envied her thinness but told myself that I can't be a calorie counting nazi. But then I talked to her about my weight and she said, and she could have been quoting the book, "I only eat when I'm hungry." She also suggested I talk to someone about my eating habits.

Being the cheapskate I am I instantly started reading and searching and found an app called "Before I Eat" (Android - Iphone). I saw several different apps but I figured I would take the plunge and download this app using my google survey funds. It was like 1.11$ I think? At first I just looked at the app and thought "meh," and basically disregarded it for a couple weeks. Then one day I was feeling fat and unhappy and figured I had nothing to lose and listened to the intro.

I need to take a pause here because as much as I agreed with the book The Thin Woman's Brain I feel like she took me by the hand and walked me up to the edge of the cliff and said "FLY!" but I felt like I knew there was the potential to fly but couldn't rationalize the how. She said "identify if it's real hunger and if it's not address what the real issue is." This is easy when it's thirsty but what do I do when I'm at work and sleepy and going for a casual stroll around the cube kingdom doesn't work? I was frustrated and felt lost so that's part of why I gave up. But this is where this app picks up. It has audio tracks to talk you THROUGH these urges. If you're bored it gives you ideas of things to do instead of eat, stuff like that.

So basically where I'm going with all this is that I'm going to try mindful eating and so far my toolbox contains the book "The Thin Womans Brain" and the app "Before I Eat." What I need now is a plan.

Do you feel like you're riding the diet rollercoaster?