danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I just finished reading “Is Willpower Obsolete” in the New York Times.  It points out that almost half of dieters quit, which is almost no wonder, since they typically lose only 5% of their body weight within a year.

More interesting than those statistics, however, are the reader comments.  Two I find especially compelling:

“[I]t is a variant of addiction, where the overeater has developed a compulsive, comforting ritual that is a dysfunctional adaptation to life’s stresses and upswings, has little to do with appetite or hunger.”

“The people I know who are seriously overweight consider food more important than it is; it’s their hobby, their form of recreation, the subject that their minds gravitate toward when they’re idle.”

I am lucky to not be obese, considering how much sugar I consume.  And I am also lucky to be able to shed pounds quickly by adjusting my diet.  Eliminating foods I snack on, like animal crackers and ice cream, and switching to zero-calorie Coke, produces noticeable weight loss.  But as the above comments suggest, maintaining a healthy weight isn’t simply a matter of changing the specific foods one consumes, but changing behavior.  My eating behavior is presently problematic, and I think it is largely a result of access.

In days of old, food was much less available to me.  Put simply, I was too poor to stock my cupboards as full as I can today.  Consequently, I did not engage in the sort of activity I now do, like snacking on something sweet just because I am not doing anything else.  I have noticed that when I am at work, and food is not available to me, I manage to make it through just fine.  But when I am at home for a similar span of time, I eat. 

Additionally, I now eat out often.  I am not complaining; quite the contrary.  But eating out invariably means that I eat more than I should, and walking away from the table with food still on my plate is difficult, particularly when an entree costs upwards of ten dollars. 

Where does this leave me?  I have to go back to calorie-free Coke, which I only recently abandoned after a visit to Orlando, where Miriam’s parents keep the fridge stocked with delicious full-sugar soda for me.  I need to not buy animal crackers and vanilla wafers.  I love them, but I don’t need them, and when I have them, I eat much more than I should.  I need to force myself to make it to the next scheduled meal, rather than just eating at the first sign of hunger.  I must accept that there is nothing wrong with feeling a little hungry.

That said, I am hungry right now.

Filed under: Health on July 10th, 2007