Kaizan Blog

I have a confession to make. Over the last year or so, although most people didn’t notice it, my waistline has been getting bigger and bigger. I knew I had to eat less but whenever I tried to cut down my eating, I felt really hungry.

Ok, I realise this is sounding more and more like a diet pill commercial, but actually I just wanted to tell you about some of the thoughts and insights I’ve been having about food over the last month.

Of course, exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle, but the fact is, unless you eat less, you are going to struggle to lose weight.

A Typical Attempt to Eat Less

When someone decides they need to eat less, what do they usually do? Well heres an example of a typical “dieter’s” meal plan, the day before the diet and the day after:

Day before the diet: Big meals, lots of snacks including chocolates, potato chips (crisps) and  ice cream

Day 1 of the diet: Salads for lunch, steamed vegies for dinner. No more unhealthy snacks. Carrot sticks and rice cakes instead of chocolate and ice cream.

Chances of success? Close to zero. It’s too much of a change all at once. As I mentioned, in a previous post about starting a new habit slow changes are much more sustainable. Making a drastic change in your diet is really difficult to maintain in the long run.

Why Do We Eat?

So, I started thinking about my eating habits and realised something interesting. I had always thought that the only time I ate was when I was hungry. But in fact, this was hardly ever the case. Yes that’s right, hunger was one of the least common reasons why I was eating.

In actual fact, most of my eating (especially unhealthy foods) was:

1. Habit - When I’m sitting watching the TV or a movie, I like to snack. Not because I’m hungry, but because it’s what I do.

2. Mindless - When snacking on crisps (chips), nuts or chocolate, I would notice that often my eating was totally mindless. I wasnt thinking about the food. I wasn’t even really enjoying it. I was just on automatic pilot, one bite after another.

3. Boredom Relief - As bad as it sounds, often if I felt bored, I would have a snack. I wasn’t actually hungry, I just wanted to pass time.

4. Stress Relief - Food is a nice way to feel less stressed. But surely so is a punchbag? Or a run around the block?

5. Conventional - “My plate has x amount of food on it. I must finish what’s on my plate.” Why? As children we were taught to eat everything on our plate, but when you think about it, for an adult it’s a crazy habit. How likely is it, that the amount you served yourself is exactly how much you need to satisfy your hunger?

6. Misguided - I can be most of the way through a big meal and still feel hungry. But if I stop and wait ten minutes, shock horror, I’m actually not hungry at all. I’m full. It still surprises me that our satiety (fullness) meter in our brain isn’t very reliable. It takes time to catch up with how much we’ve eaten. So using hunger as a measure of when to stop eating is not ideal.

So, taking into account all of this information,  I approached my food in a totally different way. I wasn’t going to change my diet drastically. I was just going to be thoughtful each moment of the day about why I was eating. I would look at eating as a way to get energy and not necessarily to keep me company, occupy me, soothe my worries or be part of my routine.

I decided to try this new approach to food for a month. The results were very interesting.

The Effects of Thinking About Your Eating

The most immediate change I noticed was that I was snacking much less. Just being aware that most of my eating was due to habit, boredom and stress meant that I could pause and say “Is this really necessary?”. I didn’t cut out the snacking completely but it meant that I was eating MUCH less than before.

I also noticed that at meal times, even though I hadn’t snacked all day (and therefore must have eaten a lot less than usual) I still didn’t feel the need to eat more to compensate.

The third thing I noticed was that despite eating less, I wasn’t constantly hungry. In the past, when I have consciously tried to limit my food I have noticed that my feelings of hunger would be increased. And when my hunger went up,  eventually I wouldnt be able to handle it and would cave in and have some kind of sugar rich food that gave me instant hunger relief.

Knowing that hunger wasn’t a reliable sign to stop eating at meal times was also an important insight. Whereas previously, I would finish a large meal and feel uncomfortably full and even  a little sick, now I was stopping ahead of time. Quite aside from avoiding needless eating, it meant I felt better after a meal too.

Over the month, I noticed no change in my energy levels, despite eating much less. This was a surprise to me.

After 30 days, I lost 3kg (7 pounds) which was a significant amount given that I had not had to switch to a “steamed vegies” meal plan, buy a fancy ab workout machine or run a marathon. It was simply a matter of reminding myself to think more carefully about what I was eating. That’s all.

So, that’s how a few new thoughts about food changed my approach to eating. I’m not saying this is for everyone, but it has been a good experience. My eating habits didn’t change immediately. I still had some days when I ate a lot, but over the 30 days, my intake gradually reduced.

I will be continuing in my new approach to eating and will let you know if the weight stays off,  goes down even further or rebounds.

Think about the things you eat, and why you eat them. Could it be possible, that most of your intake is due to habit, boredom, stress or misinterpreting your hunger?

Photo by Brianna Lehman