Entry for August 5, 2008
FOOD... FRIEND OR FOE?
I used to think of food as "the enemy" and I spent a lot of my life fighting this enemy but I was wrong food is not "the enemy". When used properly food can be my best ally for a strong, healthy body.
Several years ago I kept a day by day record of what I ate. That was somewhat helpful but it is only recently I noticed that I needed to see the reason behind what I ate. I needed to see WHY I was eating the way I was eating or why was I eating THAT certain food and I came to some startling realizations. My eating is all basically from habits. Some habits I developed as a child and other habits came along later as a teen/young adult.
Here is a list of some possible habits that many of us have.
1. Clean your plate. How many times were we told other children were starving and we should finish all the food on the plate.
(I had the habit of cleaning my plate. I made the decision NOT to do that. I do not have to scrape every speck of food off of the plate and eat it. In fact, I try to stop eating when I am no longer hungry and may even leave a bit of food.)
2. We have to eat certain foods the same way. Example, Corn on the cob. As a kid I made my corn on the cob the same way my parents made it. Basically, dripping with butter and heavily coated with salt. One year for some reason I took a bite of unsalted, unbuttered freshly cooked corn and I was shocked when it tasted sweet and good. It didn't need butter and salt at all. I learned to take a good hard look at how I prepare my food and eat it. (Note: this was before I discovered Low Carb.)
3. Routine eating, for example, eating a dessert after dinner every night. Dessert used to be served mostly for special occasions like holidays or when guests visited but these days dessert is expected everyday sometimes after every meal. it has become a habit.
4. Eating the same foods. Dessert has to be a certain food a cake, ice cream or cookies, etc... yet another habit. These days if I really "need" a sweet I grab a nice piece of fruit from the fridge.
5. Eating the same way daily. Breakfast is usually small, quick or a cup of coffee. Then we are starved and eat a usually unhealthy lunch of fast food and then eat a bigger dinner. This is not a good way to feed our bodies.
6. Speed eating. I could eat a burger, fries and a milkshake in 10 minutes or less. That's all the time I had to eat lunch in high school. When we eat our meal in 10 or 15 minutes we are robbing ourselves of a event. In Asian culture eating is an event for the senses. Smell, sight and taste. Food is not just dumped onto a plate and served. It is arranged beautifully like art on the serving platter and presented. Then everyone eats together. With chopsticks food is eaten one or two pieces at a time, chewed. The tastes and flavors of the food are enjoyed. Not just shoved into the mouth and gulped down. People used to sit down, talk and enjoy their meal while they ate. Slow down. by eating so quickly our body and mind hasn't had time to signal that you're full. When eating so fast, it seems to our mind that we had didn't eat enough or we are stiil hungry so we end up wanting more.
7. We have to use a dinner plate for our meal. Wrong. I use a salad plate for my dinner and it helps a lot with portion control. It fools the mind visually. When using a dinner plate my small portion sized servings of food look small and it makes me think I am not eating enough. On a salad plate my small portioned food fills the plate and to my mind it "looks" like I am eating my normal amount.
8. I noticed I developed a habit of eating seconds, I don't know why but even when I am not hungry I will still get "a little bit more". I also tend to eat the same servings. For example when I eat hotdogs, I used to always eat two. It didn't matter if one hotdog was enough for me I still ate two.
9. Comfort eating... Comfort eating is usually emotional eating. Here we are using food like a kind of medication.
10. Food is a reward. Whenever I had a dental visit or a blood test as a kid, after it was finished, if I was good I usually got a treat, maybe a happy meal or ice cream. Also, how many times do we "bribe" kids with food or use food to control kids?
11. Traditional eating: Associating foods with events special occaissions and holidays. When we go to the fair we always must have cotton candy or funnel cake or at Easter we must have peeps or cadbury eggs. My first Easter as a low carb eater I was miserable. These special goodies only come at Easter and I felt like I was missing something special.
12. Eating the same foods our parents ate. My Mom freely admits there are certain vegetables she does not like so she never served those foods to us like spinach. Example: My Dad hates turkey. I didn't think I liked it too because we never had it at home but I had ate some, probably at a friends house, and I liked it. I am quite brave when it comes to trying different and new foods. I figure just a taste of something will not kill me.
These are the main points I could think of. We, humans, really are creatures of habit and sadly many of us have bad, unhealthy eating habits. It is these habits which we are giving to our children. We are letting these habits control our eating and control us.
By changing many of these habits, I am seeing steady weight loss. Portion control is a big key for me. I cut my usual meals in half and use a smaller plate. I have developed a way to work with my body. Now before I eat I try to think why am I eating this this way? Think before you eat. I have learned how to convince my mind I am eating enough food to be satisfied NOT full.
By controling my eating habits I have finally gained control over an important part of myself. Perhaps attitude is playing a part in this too. I BELIEVE eating a small portion and a single serving will satisfy my hunger. The mind is so powerful and by controling our mind we can control our eating. I know I am now creating some good eating habits. Food doesn't control me anymore. I control my food.
Once last point, when I started low carb I would think on and fixate on a certain favorite "forbidden" food. Then I noticed that when I did finally have that food, a planned cheat. It was never as good as I "thought" it would be. For example, after I had been off of sugar for awhile a cheat with candy or something else with real sugar tasted too sweet. So the point here is yes we can change our eating habits and yes we can change our tastes in food. Yes we can.
