Mind over Matter

This seems to have been a week of people getting back into old habits of extra snacking; especially in the evenings. Trying to discern what has precipitated this behaviour is difficult. In some cases, there have been obvious stressors (long days at work, family issues etc.), but in many cases, there is no obvious reason other than boredom. I am guilty of this same eating behaviour. One would think with the nicer weather and longer sunny days, we would be less bored, more active and less likely to snack, but this is not the case.

We can snack and eat all we want, I do not judge this at all; however if that snacking is sabotaging our efforts to lose weight, and we feel remorse or anger, then we must find a way to change it, and change it quickly. We have to have a plan. Ideally, we would be out of the house walking, or maybe working in the garden, or reading a book. Anything but sitting in front of that cursed T.V. Alternatively we could set a simple goal of being aware of the time. We could say, "It's 7 pm, and I will not have any snacks or any food till the morning”. Let's say a minimum of 12 hours without food going in, to let insulin settle down and have our metabolism shift gradually into utilizing our fat stores.

Although it seems so simple, I find very few people are doing this. The main thing is to remove trigger foods from the house. No ice cream. No cookies. No chocolate. No crackers. No candies. No chips or nachos. All of these foods are simple packaged sugars, and I'm sure you wouldn't sit down and chomp on 8 to 10 white sugar cubes if we broke these things down to what they are actually made of.

I was reflecting on what our eating habits were 40 years ago. There were few snacks available, but also no IPads or smartphones, and very little to watch on T.V. We didn't die, or feel deprived because there were no snacks, but we weren't being marketed to eat products the way we are now, and the availability of these unnecessary foods are all around us. It takes determination to walk through the grocery store (maybe I should put blinders on myself to avoid the middle aisles) and not pick up any carbohydrate rich sugary snacks.

This week, focus yet again on your danger times. Evening? When you come home from work? Around 3 or 4pm at work when you are slumping and just trying to finish the day? Movie theatre and popcorn? Weekend and T.V.? Friday night pizza? We all have some time that we need to improve. The Nike commercial says 'Just do it', I'm saying, 'Just don't do it'. See if you can. How hard will it be? My suspicion is, if you can 'survive' the hours between 7pm and bed, you will feel just fine in the morning; physically and more importantly, mentally. Don't bring any junk into the house.

I was listening to a podcast interviewing a well-known 80 year old Ph. D economics professor, and health and fitness guru Art de Vany. He is incredibly healthy and has the body of a 40 year old. Without going into much detail, I was fascinated to hear how he only eats 2 meals per day, mainly breakfast and supper, and even then the amounts are not excessive. No snacks in between. Mainly 12 hours of not eating between 'feeds'. He has much science to back up why he eats this way for longevity. Suffice to say, we don't need to be constantly nibbling.

No snacks (try it for one week!). You can do it. Just never give up trying. We are battling food marketing, and easily available snacks which work against our health. Reset your goals for the week.

Dr. Doug