A little tidbit that occurred to me a couple of days ago: snacking.
Snacking is a two-sided sword. If I was a Vorlon, I’d go so far as to say that it’s actually a three-sided sword: my side, their side, and the truth of the matter. A lot of weight loss related websites will tell you that grazing all day long is of course a no-no, and that you need to pay attention to all those licks, bites and tastes. And then they also tell you that letting yourself become too hungry will ensure a lunch or dinner of complete overeating, so you still need to snack, but do it intelligently.
Okay.
Enters the French woman who had lost the habit to snack since she was 18 or so. Because, you know, every diet book says French people don’t snack. I don’t know where this comes from, because we do, but I guess we’re not hell-bent on it either? Whatever. I had stopped snacking when I entered cram school. I didn’t have too much money to spend, so most of the time, I preferred to spend it on books rather than on buns and bretzels. I discovered after a while that not having a snack under the hand at all times wasn’t a problem. If I was hungry, I was hungry, bear with it. On very time-consuming revisions periods, I would go with a hot tea, an apple and a yogurt for a dinner, so no snacks really wasn’t such a biggie in comparison. (And no, this period of my life did not make me fat, on the contrary! At the time, I was barely heavier than I am now.)
Anyway, fast-forward to 2005 and my first “real”, “serious” attempt at losing weight. Fast-forward to websites, forums, diet books and other readings about the do’s and don’ts of weight loss. Everywhere, I would see that stuff about snacking. So I kind of began to force myself to snack in order to avoid being uber-hungry come lunch or dinner time.
The result? I accidentally conditioned myself to be hungry every 3 hours or so.
Nevermind that I eat a solid breakfast. Nevermind that it includes dairy, fruits, veggies, proteins, instead of crappy cold cereals for kids that won’t keep anyone full for more than half a hour. No. You can be sure that if I eat at, say, 7, I’m hungry again by 9. Illogical. I’m not supposed to be hungry, given what I eat in the mornings. And I didn’t have that problem when I wasn’t used to snacking.
So here’s a habit I need to break. I don’t plan of voluntarily driving myself crazy with hunger, of course. but when your “hunger” goes away all by itself if you don’t give it a snack, and you don’t arrive at the dinner table with a stomach ready to eat a whole buffalo, then it probably means it wasn’t that important a hunger, right? (As a matter of fact, that’s what I did this morning: I was at the gym at 10 am, I ignored my hunger, and then when I went to eat lunch at 1 pm, I was quickly satisfied, and didn’t devour a meal for 3 people.)
Intelligent snacking can be a good thing, I’m not saying the contrary! However, I guess that in my case, snacking just because some diet book tells you so is not a good thing in the long run.
December 14th, 2007 at 17:38
God, what sensible advice!
Snack if it’s right for you; don’t if it’s not. Different people’s hunger/eating patterns are different, so don’t let some diet book tell you what your body knows doesn’t work as well.
Yet it’s so tempting every time we see something in print to do just what it says–’cause it’s in a book!
December 14th, 2007 at 18:57
Aye, that’s the problem. Books and websites taught me A LOT of good things–things that helped me–but that one in particular was definitely a downer.
I do snack sometimes, if I’m genuinely uber-hungry. But I’m really not convinced I absolutely NEED to snack every morning and afternoon. ^^