Last week you divided your portions in half. This week we go one step further, shrinking our portions so that we can graze. Our challenge is to eat a palm-sized portion of food every two hours. For those who start their day around 6:00 AM and finish about 8:00 PM that means eating eight small meals.
The intention here is to experience dieting not only as avoiding certain foods, but also as a commitment to eating at regular intervals so that you don't binge. Our aim is to balance the consumption of food evenly throughout the day, not eat a standard portion-sized meal and then a snack two hours later. You may find yourself deliberately eating when you're not hungry.
You could execute this challenge with pre-packaged convenience foods, but you know that isn't a proper way to eat. Thus, this week involves a great deal of preparation, and for some of you, a great many to-go, plastic containers. At restaurant meals, you will be ordering only an appetizer and beverage. Even the side salad will be too large a portion.
Make it Real:
Look at your week in advance. This exercise may not be realistic every day of this week. You can elect to omit certain days from the challenge. Perhaps three days Monday, Wednesday and Friday, rather than the full five will give you enough of a sense of grazing as an eating lifestyle.
You will have to go shopping for foods that will keep in small containers and you will have to store them somewhere near your person. Most work places do not support such frequent eating breaks. If eating on the job is not possible, you will have to consider where you'll go to eat your mini-meals.
If you can't master the change of schedule the first day you try it, please don't throw up your hands and quit. Modify the challenge and try other food options the next day. Think of this challenge as an experiment rather than a test.
Food for Thought:
Do you eat full meals even though you know you'll be eating again in two hours? Obviously this challenge can take you in the opposite direction from your intended weight loss.
Do you count a bag of chips or an ice cream as one of your meals? Now you KNOW that's ridiculous.
When you forget or get too busy to eat at the two-hour mark, do you double up on the next meal, allowing yourself a full portion because you erred earlier?
Do you see the advanced planning and food preparation as drudgery, or as gaining skills that will contribute to a new and healthy eating habits for years to come?
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Week VI: Half Way There
We have arrived at the mid-point of our twelve-week diet program. It is time for assessment and an intermission. This week your assignment is to divide your portions in two and then wait a full ten minutes before eating or drinking the second half of your meal. Yes, the soup will get cold. The ice cream will melt. Our intention is to reduce portion size for good. You may elect to eat all or just a small amount of the second half, but your aim during the intermission is to confirm that you've already eaten enough. Instead of just cleaving the single plated portion in two, dirty an extra plate right from the start. Set the second half aside for later. It makes the decision to eat the remainder of your meal clear and dramatic.
Thus far the Never on Sunday diet has targeted your awareness but has not demanded any change in what you eat. The desired effect is a shift in attitude so that you are prepared for permanent behavioral change. The remaining six diet challenges test your control and ask you to alter your food choices. Advanced planning and preparation will be necessary in order to assure your success. Modifications to this week's challenge, also made in advance, will likewise sustain your sense of control.
Make it Real:
When rushed at meal time, you can abbreviate the intermission to five minutes instead of ten.
Having a to-go container at the table, before you sit down, is a smart addition.
Breakfast foods don't divide or travel well. You may want to allot yourself only half a bowl of cereal or half a cup of coffee at a time.
Food For Thought:
After the ten-minute intermission, once the dish gets cold, do you finish the entire portion anyway?
Do you cheat by giving yourself an extra large portion at the start so that eating half still assures you a lot of food?
Have you discovered a growing sense of control? Are you eager to apply your skills toward diet modifications that might reduce calorie consumption?
Does the addition of exercise now appeal?
Thus far the Never on Sunday diet has targeted your awareness but has not demanded any change in what you eat. The desired effect is a shift in attitude so that you are prepared for permanent behavioral change. The remaining six diet challenges test your control and ask you to alter your food choices. Advanced planning and preparation will be necessary in order to assure your success. Modifications to this week's challenge, also made in advance, will likewise sustain your sense of control.
Make it Real:
When rushed at meal time, you can abbreviate the intermission to five minutes instead of ten.
Having a to-go container at the table, before you sit down, is a smart addition.
Breakfast foods don't divide or travel well. You may want to allot yourself only half a bowl of cereal or half a cup of coffee at a time.
Food For Thought:
After the ten-minute intermission, once the dish gets cold, do you finish the entire portion anyway?
Do you cheat by giving yourself an extra large portion at the start so that eating half still assures you a lot of food?
Have you discovered a growing sense of control? Are you eager to apply your skills toward diet modifications that might reduce calorie consumption?
Does the addition of exercise now appeal?
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Week V: The Silent Treatment
Last week you savored and rated the taste, smell, temperature and texture of your food. This week you'll appreciate its sound. Snap, crackle, pop! The challenge is to eat in silence.
This exercise makes the meal a meditation, a mini retreat. You will take a moment each day to step away from a world where the pace of change frequently accelerates. Not only will you not talk while you eat, you'll not listen to anything else, just your own chew and swallow, no television, radio or other auditory stimuli. Silence.
Make it Real:
Not every meal may accommodate silence this week. You'll have to choose your battles, the meals in which you can realistically keep quiet. How many times per day, and on which days of the week, can you arrange to be silent in a place without auditory stimuli? Three meals a day in silence may be impossible for those of you who do business over lunch. Can you manage (commit) to two or even just one a day for five days? If not, decide ahead of time which meals on which days can engage this challenge.
Total silence may not be possible, but that doesn't mean you can't limit conversation or those sources of sound over which you have influence. The greater point is that you must make a change, assert yourself and go beyond convenience. You could eat your main dish prior to a social meal or shortly after, and just enjoy an appetizer and beverage during the conversational rendezvous.
If breakfast and lunch require a noisy environment, and you typically eat with a family or spouse at dinner time, you may have to excuse yourself and eat alone in another room this week. Whether you explain your diet program or not, leaving the family table, or turning off the stereo or television, (even if it's only thirty-minutes to an hour), may prove to be a helpful practice and demonstration of declaring your personal boundaries.
What do you notice about the qualities of the meal and your eating behavior when you have nothing else upon which to focus?
What happens when you assert yourself in a way that requires change in your lifestyle and impacts others? Who complains the loudest?
This exercise makes the meal a meditation, a mini retreat. You will take a moment each day to step away from a world where the pace of change frequently accelerates. Not only will you not talk while you eat, you'll not listen to anything else, just your own chew and swallow, no television, radio or other auditory stimuli. Silence.
Make it Real:
Not every meal may accommodate silence this week. You'll have to choose your battles, the meals in which you can realistically keep quiet. How many times per day, and on which days of the week, can you arrange to be silent in a place without auditory stimuli? Three meals a day in silence may be impossible for those of you who do business over lunch. Can you manage (commit) to two or even just one a day for five days? If not, decide ahead of time which meals on which days can engage this challenge.
Total silence may not be possible, but that doesn't mean you can't limit conversation or those sources of sound over which you have influence. The greater point is that you must make a change, assert yourself and go beyond convenience. You could eat your main dish prior to a social meal or shortly after, and just enjoy an appetizer and beverage during the conversational rendezvous.
If breakfast and lunch require a noisy environment, and you typically eat with a family or spouse at dinner time, you may have to excuse yourself and eat alone in another room this week. Whether you explain your diet program or not, leaving the family table, or turning off the stereo or television, (even if it's only thirty-minutes to an hour), may prove to be a helpful practice and demonstration of declaring your personal boundaries.
Food for Thought:
How will you find silent surroundings for your meals this week? The challenge becomes a threefold task. 1.You must endure a silent meditation. 2.You must consider potential pitfalls and plan ahead. 3.You'll also have to declare your intention, go public, in other words, ask for support for this effort.
Compromise and enlisting allies is a good strategy whenever you dare a sizable goal.What do you notice about the qualities of the meal and your eating behavior when you have nothing else upon which to focus?
What happens when you assert yourself in a way that requires change in your lifestyle and impacts others? Who complains the loudest?
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Week IV: Vote with Your Fork
This challenge is about satisfaction, recognizing and defining your pleasure. Every time you eat, rate the food and beverage on a scale from 1 to 10, the higher the number the better the meal. Rate not only the overall quality of the meal, but each part of it (i.e. salad was okay but nothing special = 5, main dish was delicious = 8, dessert was stale = 3).
Define what gives each eating experience its value: taste, smell, presentation, texture, temperature, color, ambiance of the room. Don't miss the flavor at the end of each bite (the lingering after taste of chocolate is my favorite part of candy). Locate the primary physical area of the pleasure in your body (i.e. coffee in your nose, salty foods along the roof of your mouth, sweet at the tip of your tongue). Then look for patterns in your habits.
Most importantly, don't forget the sensation in your torso. When your hunger is getting gratified, the feeling may start out as a ten. Watch for the moment the satisfaction level in your belly drops to below 5.
Make it Real:
It is okay to eat something that is less than pleasing because you're hungry and it's all that is available at the moment. Indeed, this is a circumstance forced upon most of the people on this planet. In our case it's a choice, so let's set a limit to this compromise. Know how much mediocre food you'll consume to forestall hunger and STOP there.
You can realize that a familiar food is no longer satisfying, eat it and plan on changing the flavor or the situation later.
If writing the rating down helps your focus then use your notebook from the Week I challenge: Written in Stone. Your host or hostess doesn't need to know what the low number rating on the page signifies.
Food for Thought:
Do you usually give highest marks to breakfast foods, dinners at home or lunch out?
After assessing a food with less than a rating of 5, do you eat all of it anyway? Do you keep eating beyond your delight? Will you drink a second glass of bad wine?
Does the food or flavor become less interesting or satisfying as you chew or after several bites, dropping from a high rating at the beginning of the meal to a lower number by the time you finish?
.
Define what gives each eating experience its value: taste, smell, presentation, texture, temperature, color, ambiance of the room. Don't miss the flavor at the end of each bite (the lingering after taste of chocolate is my favorite part of candy). Locate the primary physical area of the pleasure in your body (i.e. coffee in your nose, salty foods along the roof of your mouth, sweet at the tip of your tongue). Then look for patterns in your habits.
Most importantly, don't forget the sensation in your torso. When your hunger is getting gratified, the feeling may start out as a ten. Watch for the moment the satisfaction level in your belly drops to below 5.
Make it Real:
It is okay to eat something that is less than pleasing because you're hungry and it's all that is available at the moment. Indeed, this is a circumstance forced upon most of the people on this planet. In our case it's a choice, so let's set a limit to this compromise. Know how much mediocre food you'll consume to forestall hunger and STOP there.
You can realize that a familiar food is no longer satisfying, eat it and plan on changing the flavor or the situation later.
If writing the rating down helps your focus then use your notebook from the Week I challenge: Written in Stone. Your host or hostess doesn't need to know what the low number rating on the page signifies.
Food for Thought:
Do you usually give highest marks to breakfast foods, dinners at home or lunch out?
After assessing a food with less than a rating of 5, do you eat all of it anyway? Do you keep eating beyond your delight? Will you drink a second glass of bad wine?
Does the food or flavor become less interesting or satisfying as you chew or after several bites, dropping from a high rating at the beginning of the meal to a lower number by the time you finish?
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)