My Weight Loss Journey: Part 2
Why do we eat?
A casual observer may have noticed that dieticians and other experts are starting to avoid the language of ‘dieting’ and instead focusing on phrases like ‘changing your relationship with food’. Although I’m not an expert, my understanding of the logic behind this change is an attempt to really grasp why we eat to excess, as opposed to pretending we can simply stop it through sheer force of will.
Again, I’m not an expert, but from my personal experience and amateur research on the topic, people eat for six main reasons:
- They’re hungry
- They’re thirsty
- They’re tired
- They’re depressed
- They’re bored
- Out of habit
Hunger
Eating because you’re hungry should be no surprise: When we have empty stomachs, we want to eat. The feeling of ‘fullness’ is known as satiation, so the trick is to eat foods that provide as much satiation as possible, relative to the amount of energy they contain. Foods that are high in fibre and/or protein are especially good for this (most vegetables, legumes, eggs, lean meat). Foods containing fat and oil (dairy products, for example) contain a lot of energy, but also provide high levels of satiation, and so can be good in moderation.
The foods to avoid are ones which are high in energy, but provide very little satiation, usually because they’re high in easy-to-digest sugars/carbohydrates (lollies, chips, etc). In particular, sugary drinks are a real menace, because they barely satiate us at all (as they are absorbed very quickly through the stomach lining), while oftentimes containing oodles of calories¹.
Personally, I cut out all liquids except water, and restricted myself to a good breakfast (yogurt, fruit, celery, hard-boiled egg), a light lunch (usually a salad), and dinner (any meal in a small portion). I avoided potato, pasta and bread, not because these foods are especially bad (although they are high in carbohydrates), but because they are trigger foods for me.
My willpower is much higher at the grocery store than it is in the kitchen, so I made sure not to have trigger foods around the house at all. Part of the reason why a new roommate was a problem for me this year was that they kept a loaf of bread in the kitchen (quite reasonably). Unfortunately, leaving a loaf of bread around me is like leaving a line of cocaine and a stripper around Charlie Sheen.²
Thirst
There is a growing body of research suggesting that people don’t properly differentiate between hunger and thirst. The result is that people commonly eat because they’re thirsty. Of course, this (usually) doesn’t make the feeling of thirst and dehydration go away, and if the food is very sugary or salty, it will actually dehydrate you, likely causing you to eat even more!
As such, staying hydrated is extremely important to maintaining a healthy weight. What worked for me was drinking water often throughout the day, and drinking about a litre (4 cups) before each meal (aiming for 5+ litres in total per day). Although this may seem like a lot, it really helped me feel fuller after meals, avoiding the temptation to have ‘seconds’.
Tired
Many people, myself included, will try to compensate for feeling tired by seeking a ‘sugar high’. Even if you (wisely) don’t engage in that behaviour, the willpower and clarity needed to make sensible and healthy food choices is made much more difficult when you’re absolutely zonked.
A big source of support for my diet was establishing healthy routines, and especially getting enough sleep. Frustratingly, when I was obese I had difficulty in getting a good night’s sleep (physical discomfort, sugar highs, etc) to the point of having diagnosed insomnia, so this was a difficult hurdle to clear: All I can say is that it got easier with time.
Depressed
Eating, and especially binge-eating, for emotional reasons is probably the most difficult part of my relationship with food to successfully manage. Getting adequate sleep, or remembering to stay hydrated, are fairly straightforward changes to make. Keeping one’s mental state on an even keel is obviously much harder and more complex.
Thankfully, it’s not entirely outside of one’s control, and having a good routine and a clear goal actually helped me psychologically. That being said, there were hiccups along the way. A careful look at the bodyweight graph (above) will show a few gaps in the data. These were periods of low mood and high stress, when I knew I overate, and didn’t want to see the results in the figures. Although this attitude to data gathering might seem somewhat Goebbels-esque in character, I actually found it helpful. The guilt and shame of falling off the wagon is a huge impediment to clambering back on, and having a graphical reminder of my transgressions would not be ideal.
Boredom
Sometimes, we do things simply to take up time, to make the clock hands move a bit closer towards the next appointment, work shift, or social engagement in our lives. Snacking, smoking and social media are particularly seductive pastimes, because they can easily fit into those obnoxious ten minute intervals when we have nothing to do.
Habits
Growing up, my family instilled in me the importance of not letting food go to waste. I was taught to not leave food on the plate, not be a picky eater, eat the blackest bananas first, etc. In the intervening years, both my environmental conscience and the pecuniary necessities of student life have reinforced these behaviours. In many ways, I stand by it — I truly think wasting food is a sin. However, its not a helpful mindset when you’re dieting.
As I’m writing this, I’m in the process of moving house, and yesterday I sold my refrigerator. In the process of moving everything into my roommate’s smaller bar fridge, some things couldn’t be kept. Logically, I know I should simply throw these things out, and yet, I found myself drinking cooking wine straight from bottle and eating chicken nuggets that have been in the freezer for an unknown length of time. Hardly a red letter day in the history of dieting, but I simply couldn’t let them go to waste.
To that end, I found it helpful to buy pre-packed salads and Weight Watchers frozen meals. Although relatively expensive (and creating a lot of plastic waste), these meals allowed me to avoid problems of overly large portion sizes and the temptation to “clean up the bowl” or “save having leftovers”.
Other Tips
Works: Cleaning teeth after a meal. Whether its the strange mix of mint with other tastes, or the symbolic finality of the process, cleaning my teeth soon after a meal reduced my likelihood of snacking.
Doesn’t work: Popcorn Diet. A fad from the 70–80’s, the idea is that popcorn doesn’t actually contain much energy relative to the space it takes up in your stomach. Unfortunately, salt and butter are both trigger foods for me, so this was a disastrous experiment (with a larger sample size than I care to admit).
Situational: Imagining being trim and handsome while your ex-girlfriends have gone to seed. Provides excellent motivation. Long-term psychological effects still unclear.
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¹ Alcoholic drinks are especially problematic, as they are exempt from usual nutrition labelling rules, so you can’t know how much energy you’re consuming.
² Apologies to both Charlie Sheen (if you’ve cleaned up your act), and Connor, to whom I owe an apology, and many loaves of bread.
