fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2541 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2541 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

__________________________________________________

12.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 040 secrets from Secret Submission Post #363.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I know his is a controversial subject, and I not a medical professional and just speaking from my own experience and from what I see in other people's eating patterns. For me, the only thing that finally made me feel ok about my body/want to make and eat nice food/stop constantly being obsessed with and feeling bad about food was the exact opposite of what you're doing here.

The thing is, it seems initially like having these kinds of eating rules should be helpful. It makes it easier; just follow all the rules, and presto-- you'll be healthy and happy! It's way easier to just follow a set of arbitrary rules than to say "from now on I'm going to listen to my body and allow myself do do what is best for me with regards to cooking and eating." Thus, the incredibly lucrative diet industry. People want rules so badly that they'll pay good money for them. But ultimately, it really doesn't work that way. The only instruction manual that your body comes with is your own senses and good sense. Your body actually tells you what it needs, really really loudly. And, by creating this web of rules and regulations for yourself, you're eliminating the possibility of being able to listen. Even if you did manage to stick to some kind of regime like the one you're describing, it would just be replacing one set of poor eating habits with a more regimented and neurotic kind of poor eating habits.

So honestly the only thing I can suggest is to throw the whole thing away. And it's going to be waaaay harder to get a handle on than just following the instructions, and for a while it'll feel like you're not getting anywhere and you just want someone to tell you what to do and be done with it. But in the end, it's the only way you'll ever gain a reliable framework of judgement about how to eat and live.

Yeah, well, when my taste buds really want a big-ass brownie every day, that's a problem, and I don't think I'm going solve it by being all "there are no rules!" about it.

Yeah... That's why it's harder. You have to train yourself to listen to parts of your body that aren't your taste buds, too.

Also, not having rules doesn't mean you can't say, "I want a brownie, but I don't think I should have one right now." That's just thinking critically about the stimulus you receive, which is always a good thing to do.

Except... this isn't actually how it works. Your body doesn't actually tell you what it "wants". There aren't different hunger cues for fats or sugars or vitamin deficiencies. If there were, there wouldn't be so many nutrition guides and we wouldn't be able to advertise so much food with emotional imagery.

How a person eats is a combination of what they've been taught and what they've become accustomed to eating. Most people have a very limited diet and they stick to a dozen different key combinations of food for everyday nutrition needs. What's more, we get reinforced in a multitude of different ways- from the contents of the food itself (ex. foods containing refined sugar will stimulate more reward mechanisms in the brain than food that doesn't) to the social and emotional rewards we associate with eating certain foods.

So yes, despite the fact that we're all individuals and all have somewhat different requirements in terms of our calorie intakes our bodies are actually terrible at telling us what we "need". They are in fact very good at telling us what we want, despite the fact that what we want tends to be pretty bad for us if we consume too much of it.

mte

Maybe my use of the phrase "what your body wants" was misleading-- it's kind of new-agey and indistinct. What I really meant, as I said above, is learning the ability to react appropriately to stimulus without needing to rely on arbitrary rules. For instance, like everybody else, all I ever want to do when I get home from a long day is eat a giant bag of chips and vegetate on the couch. However, past experience has taught me that if I do that! I'll feel shitty, and I probably only want to do that because I haven't eaten anything that my body can use in a while. If I eat some real food, all of a sudden the urge to do that disappears. Sure, chips still taste good, but that not longer has to be the only driving force behind what I choose to eat. So, taking into account how certain foods make you feel when you're choosing what to eat is a really important skill.

And there aren't different hunger cues for different foods or anything, but there don't need to be. You don't need a special vegetable cue to tell you vegetables are good food, you already know that. And getting to a place where you're able to see good food as it's own reward, instead of "if I eat enough vegetable units I'll be allowed to have a dessert unit!" is what's actually going to make you happy with your eating habits in the long term.

In my experience the level of "want" associated with garbage food is a very superficial desire, and it's possible to get past it and begin associating good food with good feelings.

Then again, as I said, not a doctor, that's just what works best for me.

Yeah, but you're talking here, apparently, as someone who has the health privilege of being able to try and fail however many times it takes to get to that mental state.

As I said in the main post, I'm not diabetic, but I'm not far from it either. I don't have the luxury of working through hippy dippy food psychology. I need to be doing things now that make a quantifiable difference so that I can have a later that isn't seeped in illness.

So I'm glad this works for you, but I've got to say, the more I think about it, the more I really resent your original comment and the implication that people who want some structure in their food choices are just sheep-ish slaves to the diet industry who just need to learn how their body works.

I'm sorry that what I said wasn't helpful for you, and I hope things work out in a way you're happy with.

Haven't there been studies or something that essentially say a lot of cravings can (but don't always) tie back to something we're lacking? This Huffington Post article (http://www.naturalblaze.com/2013/08/all-foods-that-you-crave-are-driven-by.html) has a graphic of cravings, what they might mean you need, and alternative foods to get that. Like, if you're craving chocolate, you could be short on magnesium, which you could get from nuts, legumes and fresh fruits.

[ SECRET POST #2541 ]

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?

Re: How do you dessert?