I just finished reading Gary Taubes article “Why the Campaign to Stop America’s Obesity Crisis Keeps Failing” at http://bit.ly/JYrg8m. He contends that our obesity epidemic isn’t a “calories in – calories out” problem, where we’re eating too many calories and not burning them off with exercise and physical activity. He sides with the new “hormonal theory” of obesity where Americans are eating too much sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, which with the help of insulin can be converted to fat and preferentially deposited in the abdomen.
While it’s true that any calories that are more than the body needs immediately will be either converted to glycogen, the storage form of glucose or to fat, he’s wrong in saying that the eating of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup automatically gets converted to fat. Some of those calories will be used immediately once they have been converted into glucose. The brain is a glucose-junkie, running almost solely on the stuff. Muscles need glucose, as well.
It takes so many calories a minute or an hour for the heart to pump, the lungs to breathe, the muscles to work, the brain to function, etc. For discussion purposes, let’s just say that every hour it takes 100 calories for the body to run. To satisfy those needs, at the top of every hour you eat 100 calories, calories that come from all foods including sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. When you’re eating just the amount your body needs to run, there is no reason for it to store excess calories.
However, no one eats this way. We normally have three meals a day and a snack or two. Let’s say that breakfast consisted of 400 calories made up of scrambled eggs, buttered toast, an orange, a glass of lowfat milk. Now we just said that you only need 100 calories per hour for the body to run. If we wanted to get very scientific about it, we’d have to add calories burned for the digestion of the meal. But to keep things simple, let’s not worry about that at the moment.
With 100 calories of those 400 calories being used up in the first hour, what happens to the other 300 calories in that first hour? They aren’t just going to float around in your bloodstream until you need them. Your body is going to put them into storage. Some of them will be converted to glycogen and some to fat. And because the presence of any food is going to trigger an insulin response, since it’s not just sugar that does, those extra calories are going to end up in the muscles, liver, and eventually the fat cells.
Now we’re at the top of the second hour and you’re not eating anything more, where are the calories that your body needs to run going to come from? They come from those calories that have been put away into storage. The muscles will use their resident glycogen until that runs out. When it does, the liver will send some more. The calories that went into the fat cells can be called upon and converted by the liver into whatever the body needs at the moment.
So while I agree with Gary Taubes that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup can be converted into fat, it does come down to how many calories are being eaten and how many being used. Now if we start discussing the quality of the foods you’re eating, then sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are merely calories with no nutritional benefits. And they hide in some of the least conspicuous places. Without reading an ingredient label, you often don’t know that you’re eating more than you can imagine.
Of course, everyone knows about sodas and enhanced beverages being loaded with sugar. But even a savory salad dressing may contain sugar. Sugar mascarades in so many forms such as sucrose, honey, corn syrup, dextrin, maltodextrin, dextrose, levulose, molasses, fruit juice concentrates.
Since we should only be eating a certain number of calories to maintain our weight or lose weight, it’s imperative that those calories be healthy ones. Just as with your credit card having a spending limit, so does your body. We all know we can’t freely eat a ton of calories and not have it show. However, the more you eat from food sources that are as close to the way nature made them (in other words, less processed), the less sugar you’ll be eating. We still have to make good choices.
Tags: Gary Taubes, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, insulin, obesity, overweight, sugar
Why do people put themselves through the agony of dieting only to gain it all back? It’s because they don’t have a very good relationship with food. Food is to nourish not only your body but also your soul. When you’re constantly in a mind battle over whether you should eat something, eating no longer is a pleasurable event.
I’d really like to see people throw away the diet mentality and stop looking at food as the enemy. Your mindset about food is the enemy and the only way you’re going to begin to enjoy the food you eat without guilt is to eat whatever you want. Yes, you heard it here from a nutritionist. I want you to enjoy what you eat without guilt (unless you’re doctor has told you to avoid certain foods).
I can hear your cries of “some of what I enjoy eating isn’t healthy”. So what makes a food unhealthy? It’s probably high in calories, fat, sugar and sodium. Those are the “bad boys” of the food world right now. Give it time. One of those will become the darling and some other nutrient will take its place. How is it that the cavemen never questioned whether what they were eating was healthy? They were just thankful to have a meal. So, our abundance of food choices is causing some of the problems.
Not to worry. Choice is good if you know how to handle what choices you make. That leads me to my Simple Rule of Eating. Memorize this and you’ll never fret again about eating anything.
Just a little bit.
Be sensible.
Have at it.
That’s it. That’s all there is to it. I probably don’t even have to tell you what foods would go into what category. That’s because I think most people know what foods are not so healthy and those that are good for them. You’d have to be living under a rock these last several years to not know. It’s in the news every day. But, just to give you some sense of what a nutritionist would do with those categories, here are some examples:
Just a Little Bit: Chocolate, wine, beer, butter, ice cream …
Be sensible: Cheese, steak, pizza, chips …
Have at It: Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and beans …
What foods would you add to each category? Let’s work on putting together a list for each category for others to consider.
Tags: calories, fat, healthy eating, losing weight, sodium, sugar
February is National Heart Month. Wearing red shows you recognize it, support it and hopefully do something for your health so you don’t succumb to heart disease. For so many years research has spotlighted men and heart disease. Yet heart disease is the number one killer of women.
Unfortunately, many women may suffer a heart attack but not recognize it as such. Often they don’t have the classic symptoms of chest pain that most men experience. They may experience:
- Upper body pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness
- Unusual fatigue
- Cold sweats
- Dizziness
To paraphrase Shakespeare, if you have any of these symptoms that last more than a few minutes, “get thee to a hospital” fast. Better to be wrong, finding out it was something else, than dead or disabled the rest of your life.
Of course, there’s no reason you have to wait until you get symptoms and have to be reactive. How about being proactive? See your doctor and have your blood pressure and cholesterol checked. Eat a heart-heatlhy diet (check out www.heart.org – American Heart Association for ideas or visit www.spinarecipe.com for healthy recipes) and for goodness sakes, get some aerobic exercise. Choose the activity you enjoy the most and do it for at least 30 minutes per day.
Okay, so you don’t enjoy exercising. Do you have anything against a vigorous walk in the park? That will do just as well as any organized exercise regime. As Nike would say “Just do it!”.
Tags: aerobic exercise, American Heart Association, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease, heart healthy, Spin-a-Recipe, www.spinarecipe.com
In trying not to be the food police, healthcare professionals try to assure Americans that, unless their doctor has told them to avoid certain foods, all foods are legal. But with that permission comes a caveat…you can’t pig-out just because you’re allowed to eat everything. Even too many carrots can turn your skin a bilious yellow. Just because research has found that dark chocolate is good for you, no one is saying eat tons of it. Instead you’ll be told to “eat in moderation”.
That sounds lovely but what the heck does it mean to “eat in moderation”? Your sense of moderation may not measure up to the same amount of what I consider a moderate amount. When we look up the word in the dictionary, it says:
mod·er·a·tion
1. the quality of being moderate; restraint; avoidance of extremes or excesses; temperance.
mod·er·ate
1. kept or keeping within reasonable or proper limits; not extreme, excessive, or intense: a moderate price.
Frankly, I would say one ounce or 100 calories is a reasonable amount of chocolate, not the whole bar or over 200 calories worth. That 100-calorie level is considered by many as the benchmark for what would be a moderate amount. That’s why so many food companies are packaging snacks and candy in 100-calorie packages.
So, how would you decide how much you should be eating of a food that is considered high in calories, fat and/or sugar? How do you decide how much would be considered eating something in moderation? I’d love to hear your ideas.
Visit www.spinarecipe.com to play the slot machine for recipes.
Want to have a healthier holiday season this year? Take this quiz to test your knowledge of calories and fat in traditional holiday foods. The answers are at the end. But don’t peek!
- Which appetizer contains the least amount of fat?
- Three stuffed mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons of cheese ball with nuts
- Three pizza rolls
- Which cookie has the most calories?
- One medium gingerbread man
- One medium butterscotch chip cookie
- 2″ square lemon bar
- Which cocktail has the least calories?
- A rum and Coke®
- A whiskey sour
- A martini
- Which candy has the least fat?
- 2-cubic-inch square of chocolate fudge
- One fudge-dipped Oreo®
- One medium-piece peanut brittle
- Which meat has the most fat?
- 3 ounces (oz) boneless ham (lean and fat eaten)
- 3 oz boneless duck (skin eaten)
- 3 oz boneless cooked chicken leg (skin eaten)
- Which starch has the most sodium?
- ½ cup (C) homemade bread stuffing
- ½ C homemade mashed potatoes
- One dinner roll
- Which warm beverage has the least calories?
- 1 C hot chocolate made with whole milk
- 1 C apple cider
- 1 C eggnog made with whole milk
- Which of the following contains the most sugar?
- One piece of fruit cake
- One pecan roll
- 2″ square frosted brownie
Answers
- c. The pizza rolls contain 6 grams (g) fat, the stuffed mushrooms contain 11 g, and the cheese ball contains 10 g.
- c. The lemon bar contains 143 calories, the gingerbread man contains 64 calories, and the butterscotch chip cookie contains 50 calories.
- b. The whiskey sour contains 123 calories, the martini contains 160 calories, and the rum and Coke contains 154 calories.
- c. The peanut brittle contains 2 g fat, and the fudge and the fudge-dipped Oreo contain 5 g each.
- b The duck contains 15 g fat, the ham contains 6 g, and the chicken leg contains 12 g.
- a. The stuffing contains 542 milligrams (mg) of sodium, the mashed potatoes contain 266 mg, and the dinner roll contains 134 mg.
- b. The apple cider has 117 calories, the hot chocolate contains 190 calories, and the eggnog contains 343 calories.
- a. The fruit cake contains 34 g of sugar, the pecan roll contains 13 g, and the frosted brownie contains 15 g.
Visit www.spinarecipe.com to play the slot machine for delicious nutritious recipes. You can create dozens of recipes by spinning the wheels.
Tags: healthy holiday eating
I’ve wondered for a long time since I got involved with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), whether the results of the MBTI (a personality type questionnaire) would reveal those people who would be considered either Type A or Type B personality types.
First, if you’re not familiar with the MBTI, let me suggest that you take the free personality quiz so you know a little bit more about yourself from the MBTI perspective.
What Is the MBTI All About?
Briefly, the MBTI reveals various aspects of your type – how you orient yourself to he world; what type of information is important to you; how you make decisions; and how you handle yourself in the world.
First, the MBTI helps identify whether you’re an Extravert (E) or Introvert (I). Those letters tell you about your orientation to the world. As an Extravert you look for stimulation outside of yourself – you’re energized by the crowd. You’ll look to activities involving people or things. Your interests are many, though you tend not to explore them in depth. Your best thinking is done while talking. As an Introvert your stimulation comes from within where you explore ideas, impressions and emotions. An Introvert prefers to keep all of these to themselves until they are well thought out. Then maybe they’ll share them. You could say you’re a deep thinker.
Next, you’re either a Senser (S) or Intuitive (N), giving you an idea of what type of information is most important to you. As a Sensor you tend to pay attention to the information you receive through your five senses. Facts and details are what you are interested in. The information must be practical and useful. The world of the Sensor is the here-and-now or the “what is”. As an iNtuitive you tend to pay attention to your instincts or “gut feel”. Compared to the Sensor, you could say you listen to your “sixth sense”. The world of the iNtuitive is the future or the “what might be”. Change is paramount for the iNtuitive.
The third category would be how you make a decision, either as a Thinker (T) or a Feeler (F). As a Thinker you take an analytical and logical approach to making decisions. With that, you can see the consequences of taking certain actions, which helps you in the decision-making process. It’s easier when there are accepted rules on which to base the decision. As a Feeler your decisions are made based on personal values and convictions. You either “like” or “don’t like” something. Decisions are made based on the effect they will have on yourself or others.
The last category of the MBTI is Judger (J) or Perceiver (P). Being a Judger doesn’t mean you’re judgmental. It means you like your life planned and structured. When making a decision, it is done quickly so you can move on with your life. To you, it is better to start and finish a project, then start and see it sit on a shelf too long. Your life seems to be governed by “should” and “ought”. As a Perceiver you like your life to be flexible and open, so you can be spontaneous if the occasion arises. That means that you don’t like to make decisions too quickly because you believe there is more information you should find first. Your life seems to be governed by “could be” and “maybe”.
When you combine one preference from each of the four categories you end up with 16 different personality types. Again, as I mentioned earlier, take the personality quiz and find out what your type is.
A Little Bit About Type A and Type B Personalities
Let’s briefly talk about Type A and Type B personalities. According to Wikipedia, the original theory was proposed by Jacob Goldsmith, describing Type A personality people has being high-strung while those with a Type B personality were more easy going. It was until Meyer Friedman in the 1980s tied that type of behavior to possibly increasing one’s risk of coronary heart disease. While this hasn’t scientifically been proven, it brings me back to my original question “Can Type A or Type B Personality be Equated with MBTI Types?”
The theory describes a Type A individual as ambitious, sometimes aggressive, very business-like, controlling, highly-competitive, often impatient, can be preoccupied with status, and very time-conscious. Many people will refer to Type A personalities as high-achieving “workaholics” who always have a deadline to make.
In contrast, Type B individuals are seen as generally patient, relaxed, easy-going, and at times lacking an overriding sense of urgency.
Does the MBTI Tell Us About Type A and Type B Personalities?
There is nothing scientifically proven that says there is a correlation between Type A and Type B personalities and the MBTI types, so I admit up front that I’m just speculating. But when you look at the characteristics of Type A and Type B personalities, I can draw some similarities to MBTI types.
Taking Type A characteristics, one of them stands out as a dead ringer for those MBTI types with Judging (J) in their type name – that of being time-conscious and being almost obsessed with timelines. That is in sharp contrast to Perceivers (P) who really would prefer to continue processing whatever they’re doing rather than see it come to an end. It’s not that Perceivers don’t finish projects, but they often have to really push themselves at the end to get it done. The Judger, on the other hand, would like to get the project done so he or she can move on to the next project.
Another facet of Type A and B personalities is the concept of being “relaxed and easy-going”. That definitely rings true for Perceivers. Whereas Judgers feel they need to get work done first and then, if there’s time, play, Perceivers would rather play first and do whatever work that’s need doing at the last minute.
This isn’t to throw any aspersions to either Judgers or Perceivers because each in their own right have much to contribute to a project, a relationship, or any endeavor. It’s how they attack it that makes them appear either as a Type A or Type B personality.
Another way to look at the comparison is to think in terms of Extraversion and Introversion. Extraverts like to be involved in a lot of things while Introverts tend to favor delving into just a few things deeply. Consider that in terms of Type A and B personalities. Type A behavior is a continuous struggle to accomplish and achieve as much as time will allow or do it anyway, figuring whatever it is can be fit into the 24-hour day. That sounds like some Extraverts I know. Because we can see an Extravert at work, we do notice them hurrying about trying to get it all done. The problem we have is that we can’t see all that’s going on with Introverts. Much of what they’re doing is happening inside their minds and not visible to the outside world. Maybe they’re as driven but we just can’t observe it.
Yet, one of the trademarks of a Type A personality is to multi-task, hoping that doing more than one thing at a time means more can get accomplished in the measly 24 hours in a day (measly because 24 hours isn’t even enough time for a Type A to get it all done). That is somewhat the antithesis of an Introvert who likes to work on something in depth, concentrating on one thing at a time to fully experience it.
So far, if my theory were right, Extraverts and Judgers would have Type A personalities while Introverts and Perceivers would lean more toward being Type B personalities. Of course, one can’t blanketly say that all Extraverts and Judgers have Type A personalities nor all Introverts and Perceivers have Type B personalities. I’d love to hear from you. Share what your MBTI type is and whether you think you have a Type A or a Type B personality. Might make for an interesting discussion.
Tags: coronayr heart disease, extraversion, Extravert, Feeler, introversion, introvert, iNtuitive, Jacob Goldsmith, Judger, Judging, MBTI, Meyer Friedman, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Perceiver, Perceiving, Senser, Thinker, Type A personality, Type B personality
Last time I wrote about Eye Hunger. Today, I’m going to be discussing Nose Hunger, adding one more petal to our “Types of Hunger” Flower.
Don’t deny it! If you smell something being barbecued or you pass a bakery and a waft of cooking cookie dough comes your way, all of a sudden you feel hungry. You could have just finished eating a big meal and you’re still going to feel that tug of following the smell. If I’ve cooked a very nice meal, say braised beef, it doesn’t matter how good it tastes, the smell of something barbecuing will always make me feel like what I’m having is second best.
Talk about our primitive instincts at work. Our ancestors really had to trust their olfactory nerves (those in the nose) to locate food, but also to protect them from that which was harmful because it was spoiled. Even with that, humans aren’t the best at the smelling job even though we can smell up to ten thousand different scents. That pales in comparison to the bear’s sense of smell. Even though its brain is a third the size of ours, the part devoted to the job is five times larger than ours. Their noses are bigger and the inside of their nostrils have folds that give even more surface for sniffing.
To truly enjoy your food, you’d better not have a cold. That’s because taste is really made up not only of the information that is received by your taste buds in your mouth (tongue and cheeks), but also the odors or smells picked up by nose. One curious fact is that flavor, while coming from the combination of taste and smell, doesn’t happen on the inhalation phase as you would think. You’re actually sensing flavor in the exhalation phase.
Interestingly, while our tastes are limited to sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savory (also referred to as umami), our nose has no limitations. With that thought, think about how a food’s flavor can be altered just by altering the smell. I suppose that’s why there are so many flavorings created by flavorists. But also think about what you’re missing when you don’t eat slowly enough for your nose to pick up the scents to recognize flavors and send the information to your brain. Because, you see, much of what you’re eating is based on the collating in the brain of the information sent to it from the taste buds and the nose.
Satisfying Nose Hunger
Just as when you eat something that doesn’t really satisfy your taste buds, when you can’t smell your food, you’re missing out on the pleasure aspect of the food. If you’re not enjoying what you’re eat, what’s the point? You can get your nutrition in good tasting food just as well as you can with that which you find offensive (e.g., limburger cheese). But give yourself the opportunity to really experience your food by eating more slowly to make those calories count.
Homework Assignment
At dinner tonight (and preferably on your own rather than with company), place your dinner in front of you. Bring the plate up to your nose and inhale deeply. As you do, try to detect as many components of the smells as you can. Does it smell sweet? Acidic? Spicy? Can you actually smell the different ingredients?
Now, put the plate back down on the table and take a bite. As you chew, is the scent stronger as you inhale or exhale? Can you taste the different components in the dish?
When you’re done eating, sit a moment and think about what smells you experienced. Can you still taste the food in your mouth? In your mind? Has your nose become satiated so that you really don’t want to eat any more? You see, your nose is very much involved in how much you eat. It’s very possible that you tend to eat far more than your nose hunger demands.
Visit www.spinarecipe.com to play the slot machine for recipes and spin the wheels for ingredients. It’s like a Vegas experience in your kitchen!
Tags: flavors, hungry, nose hunger, scents, taste
Right now I’m eating caramel corn from a bag I bought at the fair the other day. It was just sitting on my desk begging to be eaten. Am I actually hungry? No. But my eyes are. Unfortunately, we often eat for other reasons than pure hunger. Check out my “Hungry Flower”, each petal representing a different kind of hunger. Each can get us into trouble.
Because this is such a big topic, rather than posting it all here in this one posting, this is going to be a series. Each post will add one more petal to our flower until it is complete.
Eye Hunger
Admit it. You know you’ve been guilty of eye hunger. Who hasn’t? That visual stimulus triggers us to eat something, just as the caramel corn did me. Have you ever walked by a candy store and those chocolate truffles are crying out to you, saying “come in and check us out”? Eye hunger also gets us to eat more than we should, as in “his eyes are bigger than his stomach.” I wonder if we’d have a problem with “clean the plate syndrome” if we had to eat our meals blindfolded. You’d then have to use other cues besides what you saw to determine if you had had enough to eat.
How many of you have gone out for dinner and said, “I’m stuffed. I can’t eat another bite.”? Yet, let the waiter bring around the dessert cart, and all of a sudden, you’ve found some space for that raspberry tarte or creme brulee. Or think about when you sat down to your meal and perused the menu. As you read the description of the dish, your mind’s eye was picturing what it would look like. Many times I’ve been disappointed when the dish arrived and it didn’t look anything like I had expected. Maybe that’s why I enjoy eating at Japanese restaurants where they have those plastic models of what to expect. Or I’m grateful when I’m being shown to my table that people around me have already been served their meals so I can get an idea of what the food might look like. I’m not ashamed to say that I have, on occasion, asked a diner what he or she is having because it looked so good.
Even the size of your plate or bowl will influence how much you eat. The bigger the dinner dish, the more we’ll naturally put on it. Many of us have an idea of how much space on a plate should be occupied with food. No matter what size the dish, only so much space will be left blank. Inevitably, the larger the dish the more you’re going to eat.
I always recommend to my clients that they leave space between the different foods on their plate. Once the foods are touching, people feel they can pile it higher and wider. Watch children and you’ll often see them get upset if one food is touching the other. That’s why a picnic plate that is divided works really well for kids and may do the same for you.
The Positive Side of Eye Hunger
On the positive side of eye hunger is actually using your eyes to enjoy what it is that you eat. That’s why I always say that presentation matters. When you slop food on your plate and your eyes have to experience that, you’ve already set your mind up to a “who cares” kind of dinner and so it will be eaten with the same attitude. Instead of enjoying each bite, it’s just a matter of getting it eaten.
Why do you think people are so fascinated by all those television food programs that make it a point to present it beautifully as if it were a sculpture? When food is presented like this, you’ll respect it that much more, probably slowing down the speed in which you eat, savoring the experience.
Your Homework Assignment
Here’s a little homework assignment for you. Wander around the internet or pick up a food magazine and check out the food pictures. Let your eyes savor the food in a non-caloric experience. Then ask yourself, did it get me hungry? If the food had actually been there, would you have eaten it? If so, you now know the feeling of eye hunger and the trouble it can get you into.
Visit www.spinarecipe.com to play the slot machine for recipes and spin the wheels for ingredients. It’ s a Vegas experience in your kitchen!
Tags: body hunger, desire hunger, eye hunger, hunger, mind hunger, mouth hunger, nose hunger, seven kinds of hunger, stomach hunger
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, developed psychological type in the 1920s. He was very interested in the Tao and the concept of yin and yang.
He understood the idea of opposites; that they can only exist in relation to each other. When I say “black”, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? “White”, of course. And then there are other dualities such as, dark and light, cold and hot, male and female and the list goes on.
Using the Asian philosophy of yin yang, Jung created three sets of preferences to make up psychological type. (Isabel Myers and Kathryn Briggs created the fourth set when they created the MBTI®.) Each set of preferences is comprised of a duality. There is Extravert/Introvert, Sensor/iNtuitive, Thinker/Feeler, and Judger/Perceiver. For today, I just want to direct your attention to the Sensor and iNtuitive preferences. (By the way, the reason the “N” is capitalized is because Jung first assigned the letter “I” to Introvert. So as not to create any confusion, he capitalized the “N” in iNtuitive.)
The Sensor lives in the “here and now” while the iNtuitive lives in the” future”. If both a Sensor and iNtuitive were trying to lose weight and you asked them to hang a picture on the refrigerator of what they’d like to look like in 6 months, which one do you think would have a harder time with the assignment? As it turns out, it would be the Sensor. That picture on the refrigerator represents “what might be”, something the iNtuitive is really tuned into. For the Sensors, they saw the truth in the mirror this morning. The picture is just self-defeating.
Now the Sensor has a real advantage when it comes time to put all one’s good intentions to work to lose weight. You can’t be successful losing weight living in the future. The weight has to be lost in the present and that’s where Sensors excel. And living in the present moment is part of a Buddhist’s approach to living.
Buddha taught that we must live our lives mindfully, fully focusing on the task at hand. The only way to do that is to live in the present moment. You can’t be thinking about your past and how you got to be overweight. It’s no longer relevant. And you can’t worry about whether you’ll be able to lose the weight because that’s worrying about the future. Action can only happen in the present moment.
As I point out in my book, “A Diet for Every Personality Type”, losing weight mindfully can be done with a variety of approaches. Just make sure it’s one that is based on your type. Since there are 16 personality types according to the MBTI®, you can understand why one diet doesn’t fit everyone. That’s why when you read books that sound like the “cookie-cutter” approach, walk away quickly. You may lose a little weight on them but it won’t last. It can’t last. You will have used willpower, something that’s bound to come back and haunt you. You know what I’m talking about because most people have “been there, done that”. Willpower is like a thread that, when pulled too taut, breaks.
Knowing how many calories you should be eating is only a very small part of the weight-loss equation. The bigger part is losing weight in a way that is comfortable for your type so it’s not a diet. Set out to establish a lifestyle habit that can be yours for life. No matter what approach is right for you, it must be done mindfully.
Here’s a quick exercise in mindful eating. Give it a try and see whether you can master the Buddhist approach. Let’s practice this with a very good piece of chocolate, preferably dark chocolate.
- Place the chocolate on the table in front of you. Look at it. Is it shiny or does it have a matt finish? Is it smooth or does it have indentations on it? Is it square or round? If it’s square, does it have pointed corners or rounded corners? Is there anything else you notice about it visually?
- Without touching it, bend over and smell it. What aromas come at you? Is it an earthy smell? Does it smell sweet to you? Is it fragrant or pungent? If you had your eyes closed, would you still know it was chocolate you were smelling?
- If it’s a big piece of chocolate, break or bite off a small piece. Don’t chew it or suck on it. Just let it sit on your tongue. If it’s a good piece of chocolate, it should start to melt almost instantly. (Inexpensive chocolate contains more wax and takes longer to melt.) Allow the chocolate to melt and gather around your tongue and gums. Inhale. Are you getting a stronger chocolate aroma? Take note of the sweetness of the chocolate.
- While all the chocolate has probably not melted yet, take a swallow. What was the sensation as it traveled down your throat? What was the texture of the chocolate? Was it smooth or slightly gritty? Could you describe it as “velvety”?
- Once all the chocolate has been swallowed, sit for a moment and savor the experience – the aroma, the texture, the taste. Did you get a greater appreciation of chocolate from your usual way of eating it?
And this is what you should do with all your food. Be totally in the moment, focusing on flavor, aroma, texture, and pleasure. If you’re not focusing on what you’re eating, how will you really know whether you’re enjoying it or not? View the calories you eat as very precious calories that should be savored. Considering that each of us can only eat so many calories per day without gaining weight, it makes sense to make those calories count. Don’t waste them on food you don’t like or food you ate so quickly you don’t even remember the next day what it was you ate.
Even though eating is a very social affair for most people, the biggest problem with eating while socializing is your attention is diverted from the food. If you’re having a pre-dinner drink, take that opportunity to catch up on the latest news and gossip. Then agree to have a bit of silence during the food courses to really get in touch with what you’re eating.
NEXT TIME, I’ll talk more on the Buddhist approach to healthful living, focusing on living life mindfully.
Visit www.spinarecipe.com if you’re looking for healthy recipes.
Tags: A Diet for Every Personality Type, Buddhist approach, Carl Jung, chocolate, Extravert, Feeler, introvert, iNtuitive, Judger, mindful eating, Perceiver, personality typing, psychological type, Sensor, Thinker, willpower
A Story I heard recently:
On a bright and sunny day a fishing boat docked in an idyllic Greek village shortly after noon. An American tourist, who was admiring the modest catch, complimented the Greek fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“A couple of hours,” answered the fisherman.
“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.
The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my f riends, drink a few glasses of wine and sing a few songs….I have a full life.”
The American interrupted, “I have a business degree from Wharton and I can help you become very successful! You should get started earlier and fish longer every day. You can then sell the xtra fish to a middleman. With the extra income, you can buy a bigger boat, which will then enable you to catch even more fish. With the extra money from the sale of the fish, you can buy a second boat and a third and so on until have an entire fleet of fishing boats. At that point you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and possibly even open you own palnt. You can then leave this little village and move to Athens or even San Francisco! From there you can direct your huge enterprise.”
“How long would that take?” asked the Greek.
“Fifteen to maybe 20 years,” replied the American.
“And after that?”
“Afterwards? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can expland on a global scale. At that point you would be able to go public, start selling stocks and make millions maybe even billions!”
“Millions or even billions? And what would I do after that,” asked the fisherman.
“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, catch a few fish, play with your children, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking wine, singing songes and enjoy being with your friends.”
And that is setting your priorities.
Tags: setting priorities
