What do you do before a snack or meal? Alternatives to using "will power"

Anyone do anything like this:

http://drdavidhamilton.com/how-to-think-yourself-slim/

hamilton wrote:

The conclusion of the study was that imagining eating the M&Ms suppresses the appetite to eat more of them, just as if we had physically ate them. It kind of makes sense. It’s almost as if the brain thinks, “OK, I’ve had enough now. I’m full,” even though the person hasn’t actually eaten anything at all.

Or what do YOU do pre-meal?

Replies

mikestobbs1

?? There are no alternatives to will power. IMO these things are for people who aren't mentally strong enough to control themselves and are looking, yet again, for the easy way out. How anyone can achieve anything following stuff like this is beyond me. Not hating, just my opinion.

vadimknobel

I think drinking a good amount if water helps and also choosing high fiber foods

kommodevaran

I don't keep candy/chips/icecream/cake/cookies in my home. I will eat it on occasion, but out of the house. Imagining eating a trigger food on purpose would never work for me. The more I think about it, the more worked up I get. I do have nuts and nut butters, honey and maple syrup, dried fruit, palm sugar, bisquits, which I semi-binge on from time to time, when I can't stop thinking about them, but I can also have some as part of a usual meal.

Before meals I assess how hungry I am, and I aim to eat when I go from 4 to 3 on the hunger scale.
After meals I assess again, and may eat some more if I am still on 5, trying not to hit 7.

eric2light

kommodevaran wrote: »

I don't keep candy/chips/icecream/cake/cookies in my home. I will eat it on occasion, but out of the house. Imagining eating a trigger food on purpose would never work for me.

@kommodevaran oh, would you do me a favor and ignore that the study he talks about was done with M&M's. Imagine it were done with spoon fulls of lentil soup or whatever IS on your diet. I imagine eating two bowls of soup before I start then eat the one bowl I want to eat and my mind/body feels more like I eat 3 bowls. If you forget that it was done with candy, NOW does it seem like an interesting thing to try?

kommodevaran

eric2light wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

I don't keep candy/chips/icecream/cake/cookies in my home. I will eat it on occasion, but out of the house. Imagining eating a trigger food on purpose would never work for me.

@kommodevaran oh, would you do me a favor and ignore that the study he talks about was done with M&M's. Imagine it were done with spoon fulls of lentil soup or whatever IS on your diet. I imagine eating two bowls of soup before I start then eat the one bowl I want to eat and my mind/body feels more like I eat 3 bowls. If you forget that it was done with candy, NOW does it seem like an interesting thing to try?

It seems interesting, it really does. I'm in fact intriged by appetite and satiety. I would have to wait until tomorrow to do that experiment, because I'm still quite full from dinner and would like to have supper too before I go to bed.

I would imagine that visualizing food beforehand would indeed make me feel full sooner. (I feel more full now that I am full, when I think about eating more food.) That's not something I feel the need to do often, as I'm in maintenance and mostly eat food I can eat to satiety. But I can try tomorrow

I have read a lot about how people react to sweet, salty and fatty (I call them hyperpalatable) foods. People's (and in particular overweight people's) accounts stress how difficult they are to moderate. Authors of diverse articles and books (I have the book "Taste matters" on my mind just now) agree that these foods are much liked, but also stress how we supposedly get enough very soon. I've seen lots of people "satisfy/kill their sweet tooth". I don't know which world they live in, but it's not in mine.

eric2light

@kommodevaran and anyone, please do give it a try and tell us what shows up for you!

kommodevaran

I tried it for my last meal today

It consisted of brie, grapes, walnuts and cucumber, a normal supper for me. I enjoy it very much, but I don't get unhealthy cravings, and when it's eaten, I'm content.

Before I ate, I visualised eating the different components, even did some hand movements and chewing and swallowing to mimic eating. I don't know if I felt the taste, but I remembered it, lol. After some time I started to feel "enough", hard to explain, but it may be interesting to investigate further. The real meal tasted... well... so-so. Just like I already had had enough for real!

I will try it again, but not too often, because I want my meals to be as fulfilling as possible, not just filling.

Wytcher9

Slowly drinking a glass of water to take the edge off hunger while physically removed from food. Once calm, I can enjoy every delicious morsel without inhaling...

ColinsMommaOC

I have starting bringing my own lunch and snacks to work with me, and I have noticed that I think I am hungry/want to eat it because I know it is there. So I watch the clock and if it isnt at least 2.5 hours since my last meal or snack then I get up and walk the length of the building and back. Sometimes I will drink a glass of water too. It seems to work, and it is getting me out of my chair more often.

eric2light

@ColinsMommaOC "because I know it is there" - that is an interesting and important problem, right? I want to bring my own food so I can control quality but I don't like that feeling that my lunch is calling my name! What to do about THAT issue? Ideas?