Fall Hunger
I am currently in a state of mind where I want to eat constantly. I fully understand why I am in this state at the moment, but it does not really make it any easier.
There are several facets to my UTTERLY RAVENOUS, NEARLY INSATIABLE APPETITE currently:
1. I have always been a "big eater". This is why around ~21 years ago I weighed my largest at ~290 pounds (~132 kg ; ~21 stone). I now work to maintain my weight between 160-165 pounds (~73 kg ; ~11.5 stone), and have been successful in doing so for many, many years.
2. Biologically, when you live in a Northern environment, the Fall transition to colder temperatures induces a drive to eat more in most animals. It is akin to the idea of putting on a layer of "fat" to help during the harsh and fast approaching Winter.
3. Current emotional stressors in my family (in the realm of those I mentioned I cannot talk about) also psychologically encourage me to "stress eat" which had always been a "coping" mechanism I used when experiencing high stress throughout most of my life. To purposefully retrain myself to NOT STRESS EAT was perhaps one of the hardest tasks I have had to learn in my whole experience working to have a normal BMI. And, even though I am far, far better at NOT stress eating than I have ever been in the earlier part of my life..... it is still very damn hard to avoid when I am heavily emotionally stressed, especially emotional stressors concerning family. I am still trying to persevere to the best of my abilities, but I have to admit some failures in this regard. Two days ago, for instance, I ate half of a fairly large bag of roasted, cinnamon & sugar coated pecans my wife had purchased although I wasn't really hungry. Yesterday, I ate a small bag of "trail mix" containing peanuts, M&Ms, raisins, cashews even though I wasn't really hungry.
4. Halloween Candy is another stressor currently. We had relatively fewer "trick-or-treaters" this year than usual due to rather harsh weather.... which means we had MORE than the usual amount of left over candy. I try to avoid eating this candy, and typically even bag it up and ask my wife to hide it where I will not know where it is, so she can access it when she wants, but I cannot. But, I have to admit I have eaten perhaps 6 "Fun Size" mini candy bars since Halloween even though I wasn't really hungry.
So.... FOOD is a challenge for me currently. But I have tried to take some actions to help me as well:
1. The primary way I am working to help me, is that I KNOW I need/require the act of eating/chewing TO help me reduce stress.... but if I eat only when hungry, and eat only healthy foods, there would not be any real problem.... even if I eat a lot of food.
2. My typical daily salad these days is usually a heaping mountain of salad that is housed in an 8X8 inch glass cake baking pan. The total amount of dressing I typically put on a salad of that proportion is perhaps 1-3 teaspoons. I am fortunate in not really liking a heavy application of dressing.
3. My daily intake of air-popped popcorn these days is also huge. We have a huge, round bottomed, stainless steel bowl that is ~14 inches in diameter and I fill that with air-popped popcorn most evenings these days.
4. My already considerable fluid intake is further enhanced. Most days, I will now drink about ~200 ounces of fluids (coffee, water, some diet pop) a day.
5. The above helps me to eat normal sized portions of the regular foods I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
If I can just wrangle in the few slip-ups and not let them happen again, I should be ok. But, the family stress... the timing of the year, and my especially strong weakness for both nuts and for chocolate candy.... have made it quite challenging. The one bright spot is that my one OTHER (third) major food weakness..... PIZZA... has not been around in our house lately, so that has not created the horrible trifecta of food temptations for me. Those three items..... nuts, chocolate candy, and pizza.... those are the three food items I have never yet been able to develop a consistent ability to eat in normal portions. If I see these items around the house, I tend to over indulge.
PipeTobacco
7 Comments:
Would you be better off keeping a pipe in your mouth instead of high-calorie nuts and chocolates? I'm not even saying you should smoke your pipes; I wonder whether an unlit pipe in your mouth could give you some of the same comfort as the pipe-in-pocket you mentioned, as well as being something you would objectively prefer to the snack foods?
I do often do that. It is both very pleasant but also a bit melancholy inducing, especially when I get a hint of the flavors of one my pipe tobaccos that I had indulged in with the particular pipe. :)
A few times, having the pipe in my mouth, especially with the hints of the flavors of previous smokes, has resulted in quite a bit of temptation to arise in me for me to pick up the beloved hobby again.
I suppose I'm in the minority among your blog readers for thinking that if you had to choose between a daily pizza on the one hand, or a couple of daily bowls of pipe tobacco on the other, the pipe tobacco would be a far better choice for you.
That said, you should be proud of yourself for keeping up your running regimen and favoring healthy salads over so many kinds of "junk calories" that are available. Keep up the good effort!
I don't think that any of your transgressions have been serious or large and you are finding healthy ways to satisfy your food cravings. When we're under that kind of stress, we can only do the best we can and not beat ourselves up over our momentary weaknesses.
That nasty Halloween candy. I can relate.
Coffee is on and stay safe
I have a pot belly, but it is not always because I eat too much but that I eat too much of the wrong stuff. That plus the reality that I can't get much exercise.
Oh yes, nuts, pizza, chocolate. Add cheese and bread and I'm totally with you.
I have definitely got that extra layer of fat ready for the winter already. Stay well.
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