Grab That Snack -- Or Not!

With obesity now an epidemic -- and dieting rarely a solution, what's a person to do when the pounds pile on? Not snack so much? Sure, that might work. Cancel your reach for chips, donuts and cookies, and you'll see a major decrease in calorie intake and a corresponding reduction in waist size. But why is giving up such snacks so difficult?

We can find lots of places to place the blame for that. Snacks taste so good. They're everywhere. The ads constantly entice us to eat them. They're handy, convenient, quick. Yup, all good reasons why snacks seem to almost involuntarily show up in our hands and slip between our lips.

But maybe there's another reason. We eat to fill up. Not to fill our stomachs. Rarely is eating snacks about physical hunger. We grab a bag of Doritos, a handful of M&Ms, or even a "nutrition" bar because we hunger for something else - maybe energy, a break, a sense of comfort, or relief from some kind of emotional or physical distress. We use food as a pacifier or an escape. We're hungry for a different experience from whatever we're currently having. Essentially, we want pleasure instead of pain. And Oreos or Ben & Jerrys offer us that instant  fix.

I use the word "fix" deliberately. Habitually and excessively consuming something (food) mindlessly to satisfy a craving for what we know isn't good for us - well, doesn't that describe what an out-of-control addict does who reaches for liquor or cocaine? The compulsion to eat whether we're hungry or not, or whether our choice of food is good for us or not, or whether we even really want to, could surely be called addictive behavior. It's a search for a fix.

That description may sound extreme, but it's not. The descriptive words, however, are less important than recognizing that by constant snacking we are doing something that's not in our own best interests and that our best intentions won't stop us. Once we admit that our eating is out of control and that it's often a substitute for getting what we really want, then we no longer need to deal with it primarily as a weight loss issue. Instead, we can get honest with ourselves. What are we really hungry for in the moment we reach for the snack?  We can learn to listen to our inner needs - emotional, mental, spiritual, and sometime physical -- and discover how to satisfy these needs in productive and self-respecting ways rather than through our snack fix.

I wrote a chapter in The Secret Wisdom of a Woman's Body (that can apply to men as well) about our everyday addictive tendencies (like overeating) that keep so many people missing out on what is really satisfying. In it, I suggest keeping a Food and Feeling Diary for three days to study the feelings, thoughts, and sensations that occur before and after you eat. You might try creating this diary yourself.

Use five headings across the page called Food/Drink, Time of Day, Feelings/Thoughts, Body State, and Level of Satisfaction. Then record everything you consume for three days, and with each eating episode, record when it happened, the feelings or thoughts you had just before you ate (My boss is a jerk. I can't get everything done in time. I'm so angry.) In the Body State column, indicate your body sensations (Fidgety. Headache Eyestrain. Sleepy). Finally, write how much you enjoyed the eating. (So-so. Nummy. Only made me want to have more.)

Now, in a mindful way, take time to study your eating patterns in this diary to learn what triggers your eating in these moments -- and what you really want that ultimately food can't supply. Then explore other ways to meet those needs in a way that serves your best interests. The book has many more ideas about to use this diary to help you become a mindful, non-addictive (and ultimately thinner) eater. 

Let me know, as you create your diary, what you learn about yourself and what you find to satisfy your real cravings. 

Author of The Secret Wisdom of a Woman's Body
www.patsamples.com