In deciding that you are hungry, what are you really saying? Is your hunger a biological need for food for fuel, for energy, to exist? Or is your desire caused by some other trigger? Are you an emotional eater? A stress eater? A bored eater? Or do you eat just because it is lunch time?
Determining the source and reason for your hunger will help you find your starting point, maybe even one reason behind your initial weight gain.
I've been thinking about this a lot since reading Rethinking Thin and writing this blog the last few months. What I've discovered is that I am rarely if ever hungry. I eat because it's time or because I have a headache. Sometimes I eat if I am bored. For my situation hunger or even the desire for food are not my primary motivators for eating.
Realizing this I have no idea why I can't lose the weight. I've just begun the journey of determining my root causes and motivations. But for now, at least I know that hunger is not my reason for eating.
This waterfall is another side of gravity.
Without that force, the water would have no reason to fall over the edge.
The caterer is feeding a large number of people most days and therefore makes economical bulk meals usually containing pasta of some form. We also have a fridge with a constant supply of sugary sodas and a snack room full of snacks and treats.
I’d like to say that when dieting I am above the temptation of all these options but I would be lying. Truthfully, the urge to snack comes more from boredom or the desire to step away from my desk rather than any sense of hunger.
My workplace is the first saboteur of any diet I am on. One of my coworkers has a lot more willpower and control that I do. I admire her strength and ability to avoid snacking, stick to green tea instead of coffee and salad instead of pasta. One of the ways she sticks to her diet (she has lost 50 pounds in the past year on a low fat, moderately controlled diet) is by allowing the occasional indulgence.
The office is aware of one of her favorite rules. She sticks to her diet all week except at lunch on Friday. The time is now known as Fat Friday. Whether we have pizza leftovers or order some other treat in, she allows herself a moderate treat on some Fridays. She doesn’t seem to feel like she has cheated or fallen off the wagon by allowing the indulgence.
I wonder how she has talked herself into such control. I realize that most of weight loss is mental. You have to have control in order to practice moderate eating habits and regular exercise. I apparently don’t have what it takes.
So if giving in just once ruins my entire attempt to diet,
how am I supposed to get anywhere?
I tend to be an overachiever so a plan like this might also include 2 work goals and 2 or 3 writing goals to be accomplished in the same month.
For some reason I’m still surprised when I’ve given up by Thursday because I just want to go to sleep and not think about exercise or how far behind I’ve gotten on writing my 1000 words per day.
Overdoing it, setting too many goals with too high of expectations is a great way to stop yourself from sticking to a diet. It is the fastest way I’ve found to not lose weight. Yet I repeat the pattern at least 3 or 4 times every year.
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