Clean plate club

I found this interesting article about hunger cues by Brian Wansink on MSNBC. I recently read Wansink's book, "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think" on the recommendation of my group counselor in the 20/20 Lifestyles program. It was a fairly quick read, full of good information pulled from many years of studies on how people eat, and more importantly how they decide to stop eating.

It turns out that many cultures stop eating when they no longer feel hungry; this is a different feeling than being full where you're not able to shove another spoonful of something into your mouth, which tends to be the American way of eating. It also turns out that many people with weight problems rely on external cues (i.e. whether their plate is clean) rather than their internal cues (i.e. I'm not hungry anymore or the taste of my food has diminished).

I'm guilty of both of these things. I would always eat until I was full, and I had always qualified for the clean plate club. I think a lot of this had to do with my upbringing. I think every kid on the face of this earth has heard something like, "eat your peas, there are starving kids in Africa" and "no dessert unless you clean your plate". Over time, you start to figure out that it's a requirement to make other people happy or satisfied, and then it becomes a requirement for you to know that you can stop eating. And then pair that with my summers working on my grandparent's farm, and suddenly I'm stuffing myself at breakfast because I'm going to be out in the field all day long and need the food for energy. Then, when I get back at night, I stuff myself again because I worked so hard all day and I'm so hungry.

This pattern might have worked had I decided to go into the family business of farming, but sitting on my butt all day behind a desk is a whole different ballgame. Then add long hours and lots of overtime, which leaves little time for a personal life let alone time for exercise, and you see where I'm going. Thank goodness I got out of software testing when I did. Technical writing has gotten me to a much more balanced lifestyle where I do have personal time (which now includes my workouts), as well as some times when you still have to step it up a notch to get through a ship cycle. But it's not pulling 70-hour weeks nonstop like when I was in testing a few years ago. So, that's where I ended up after software testing for several years, and I carried those habits into the next phase of my career for a couple of years. Life is always learning, and I'm learning that I need to take better care of myself and pay attention to the situation at hand rather than get caught up in unhealthy habits.

This brings me back to Wansink's book. After reading it, I realized that I needed to pay better attention to my cues. I've been trying to eat slower so that my body can register the food that I'm eating and send me the signal that I'm not hungry anymore. And instead of eating until I'm full, I can stop and be satisfied when I'm just no longer hungry. And because I'm eating more regularly (every 3-4 hours), I don't get to that point where I'm so hungry that I'll just eat any junk around that I can get my hands on and then shove it all down as quickly as possible so I can get back to my life. In a different way, eating has become my life-the planning, the preparation, the measuring, the tracking, the timing. Some things are starting to become more habit, but at times it's still a lot of work to get it all right.

The other thing that I've done is to start figuring out portions. There are lots of measuring spoons, measuring cups, and a good scale involved in preparation of everything now. And I've started using my smaller salad plates for my food rather than the large dinner plates. It's a simple trick that really works. Five ounces of chicken breast and an ounce of cheese on my salad plate looks like a good meal, whereas it would only take up 2/3 of my dinner plates. I have little 1/2 cup bowls for my fruit or beans, or other foods that I need to eat in smaller portions. And I use my bowls to make a good big salad but make sure to measure out the dressing very carefully. By the time I get everything to the table, I've got a small plate with my lean proteins, a big bowl with leafy greens and healthy fats, a small cup with my complex carbs, and my 32-ounce water bottle. I have to run the dishwasher almost daily now to clean all of the dishes and utensils that I use for cooking and eating. I used to run it a couple of times a week. On a related note, I do laundry a few times a week now, too, because changing twice a day (once for regular clothes and once for workout clothes) makes my closet sparse quickly. Thank goodness L. likes to help me fold clothes :)