Measuring Me, Part 2
Growing up, my mom would never buy my siblings and I snacks, hoping that we would never develop a reliance on snacks. Every once in a while, my dad would bring home a pack of knock-off oreo cookies and watch as I ate, and later puked up, an entire row of 15 cookies. This happened on multiple occasions. My mom’s method didn’t work because I never had the opportunity to learn self control, and now that I have access to all the snacks that I want I’m still struggling with the urge to constantly snack. For the measuring me part 2 activity, I decided to track these urges and learn about what causes me to snack.
The Tracking
I decided to make a log every hour of my snacking habits. I did so using 2 apps, one to keep track of my logs and their timestamps, and another to send me a push notification every hour to remind me to make a log. Unlike my first attempt at measuring myself where I only noted what I was doing at the time of the hour notification, this time I decided to report any instances throughout the entire hour that had passed, focusing on the most important instance.
The Models
The connection circle model really pieced together the story that the logs were telling. When I experience stress and I’m not under a time constraint, I procrastinate to avoid the responsibility that is causing me stress, and snacking has just become another way for me to procrastinate. Additionally, I never really understood why I would feel the need to snack even after I had just had a large meal, but through the diagram I saw that my body is just used to a certain amount of sugar from snacking, and if I don’t get that sugar from my regular meal then I’m going to seek it out elsewhere.
Reflection
I’ve realized through this activity that I use snacking to run away from my responsibilities or stressors. I initially believed that I only wanted to snack when I had something to accompany it with, such as homework, movies, or shows. In reality, when I am fully engaged in an activity, such as putting together a new lamp in my room or doing homework that I am actually interested in, I don’t even think about snacks.
If I were to complete this project again, I would try and change one of the triggers of my snacking to see the extent to which it affects my habits. For example, I would try eating sweet fruit with every meal such that my sweet tooth would be satiated.
