Itchy Mouth

Listening to a lecture from a major conference, I was struck by a comment by one of the professors. He referred to our mindless snacking (we are not hungry, we just desire something) as an "itchy mouth". Indeed it appropriately describes what we are doing; putting some food to our mouth to satisfy a need, to relieve a desire.

The challenge though is to recognize what we are doing. I would prefer if people stopped using the word hunger, and more honestly said "I have an itchy mouth and want something to satisfy it". Possibly changing the vocabulary will lessen our need for these unnecessary snacks.

I learned this week the power of 'trial and error' from two patients, and I'm extremely proud of them. No one really knows what works best for us, especially in the context of our busy lives, with various unexpected stressors. In the first case, I had simply suggested to one patient to take the 2 week challenge on the 'Diet Doctor' web site. We had been working together through some medical issues, and as these resolved she remained frustrated with her lack of weight loss progress. Well, she went to the website and listened to many lectures to gain more insight into our body metabolism. Once convinced, she took the challenge, lowered her carbs, increased her fats and quickly lost 11 pounds. She admitted that we had been trying to change her habits towards this for some time, but it was when she felt most knowledgeable about why to eat this way that she committed herself to change.

In the second case, another woman had been frustrated with a longstanding plateau, and she felt she was doing everything right. She decided to "tweak" things and began to lower her supper portions to very small amounts. She changed her exercise from less weights to more run walks, and eliminated some of the healthy, but probably unnecessary snacks she has mid-morning and mid-afternoon. These simple changes also lead to significant size change.

I mention these cases only to make the point that all of us must keep searching for what works for us. Don't be afraid to 'tweak' things a bit, if you seem stalled. I do believe we all eat too much at dinner, and lowering our quantity and really being careful of significantly minimizing any night snacks can go a long way in seeing significant loss of adipose (fat) tissue.

Too many fruits per day may also hold you back. The fruit we are exposed to these days have come a long way and are gassed to keep them looking fresh. They are not filled with as many nutrients as we think, and you may be simply getting an extra load of sugar. It's much better that you get your vitamins and some minerals from leafy greens.

Lastly, and I realize I talk about this a lot, if you aren't really hungry, don't eat. If you aren't hungry at breakfast, well, skip it, and have your first meal at lunch. Or, have your breakfast, skip lunch and have dinner. Better yet, have breakfast, have lunch and minimize dinner. (And really, really try not to snack after dinner).

Spring is here, time to get outside and walk more, garden more, bike more ....just move more.
You can do it. Never give up and never give up trying to find what works for you!

Dr. Doug