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jam · May 30th, 2004, 03:47 PM

You've all made terrific points, but I'd like to address tellypicker's: that of food addiction and the psychological component.

Food is fuel. Somehow we Americans have lost sight of this fact and look to food for the good feelings we get from it. Sugars trigger some dopamine release in the brain or something and we've become addicted to it. The way we eat makes about as much sense, to hammer the fuel point into the ground, as spraying ten gallons of gas all over a filled-up car.

Keep this in mind as you watch TV or listen to the radio. There are huge corporate entities out there spending millions of dollars to train you to consume their product. This is not an accident, or even a shot in the dark; it is carefully designed and crafted. McDonald's doesn't care about your health, beyond keeping you healthy enough to keep pumping your money into their machine.

The thing to do is rehabituate yourself. If you feel the impulse to eat and it's not "official"--i.e., a mealtime, or in response to genuine hunger--do ten pushups or twenty-five situps. Get used to filling the void with small bursts of exercising instead of bursts of eating. Eventually you'll come to crave it: instead of "man, could I go for a Snickers", it'll be "man, I could go for a quick mile".

I'm 6'0" and was creeping up on 260 at the end of last year. My lifestyle was 99% sedentary and I was just eating stupid: scarfing down whatever was around the house out of boredom half the time. Once none of my clothes fit anymore I declared war. I would be damned if I was going to buy new clothes because I was getting fat. So with the new year I got regular at the gym and just stopped putting things in my mouth without a reason. My dieting could still use some cleaning up--I still go to the kitchen when I shouldn't sometimes--but I'm down to 235 and I feel like a more lot of that is muscle than it used to be.

One thing that I really hated was realizing that by habitually "proactively eating" I'd actually forgotten what it was to be hungry. That was a humiliating thought, especially looking around the world as a whole.

Eat less, sweat more. The only way.

JAM

May 30th, 2004, 03:47 PM	#52 (permalink)
jam Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Philly PA area Posts: 274	Psychological component You've all made terrific points, but I'd like to address tellypicker's: that of food addiction and the psychological component. Food is fuel. Somehow we Americans have lost sight of this fact and look to food for the good feelings we get from it. Sugars trigger some dopamine release in the brain or something and we've become addicted to it. The way we eat makes about as much sense, to hammer the fuel point into the ground, as spraying ten gallons of gas all over a filled-up car. Keep this in mind as you watch TV or listen to the radio. There are huge corporate entities out there spending millions of dollars to train you to consume their product. This is not an accident, or even a shot in the dark; it is carefully designed and crafted. McDonald's doesn't care about your health, beyond keeping you healthy enough to keep pumping your money into their machine. The thing to do is rehabituate yourself. If you feel the impulse to eat and it's not "official"--i.e., a mealtime, or in response to genuine hunger--do ten pushups or twenty-five situps. Get used to filling the void with small bursts of exercising instead of bursts of eating. Eventually you'll come to crave it: instead of "man, could I go for a Snickers", it'll be "man, I could go for a quick mile". I'm 6'0" and was creeping up on 260 at the end of last year. My lifestyle was 99% sedentary and I was just eating stupid: scarfing down whatever was around the house out of boredom half the time. Once none of my clothes fit anymore I declared war. I would be damned if I was going to buy new clothes because I was getting fat. So with the new year I got regular at the gym and just stopped putting things in my mouth without a reason. My dieting could still use some cleaning up--I still go to the kitchen when I shouldn't sometimes--but I'm down to 235 and I feel like a more lot of that is muscle than it used to be. One thing that I really hated was realizing that by habitually "proactively eating" I'd actually forgotten what it was to be hungry. That was a humiliating thought, especially looking around the world as a whole. Eat less, sweat more. The only way. JAM __________________ The price of wisdom is paid in agility.