Feb 28 2009
Eating and Thinking
I have been thinking a lot lately about thinking.
I am taking a class that deals with ethics and rationality. The thrust of the class is that to be happy, we must be rational and conscious. We must honor our emotions and our instincts, but not them run our lives. We get our best results when our conscious minds are in control.
My classmates apply this philosophy to their jobs, their relationships with their relatives and friends, and their positions on politics and religion. I apply it to eating.
When my diet goes awry, it is because I have lost conscious control. I eat emotionally. I eat to feel good, to be comfortable, to have fun, or to regulate my mood. When I lose consciousness about food, I gain weight.
And it is difficult to get this control back. It takes a lot more conscious thought than simply remembering how many calories are in a bowl of cereal for me to gain some control. It is not one decision I make, such as, “From now on I won’t eat big bowls of cereal.” Instead it is a habit I have to cultivate, constantly and iteratively, because it is too easily, and so frequently, lost.
But this is just me. I know other people who think about everything they eat, and even keep a food journal and count POINTS. But they still struggle with weight or general health. Even Oprah, with Bob Greene, Dr. Phil, and all the wisdom amassed by the authors of her Book Club books, has not–I venture to say–mastered her mind.
I wish I could be like Grammar Girl, or Hungry Girl, or the Nutrition Diva, and broadcast quick and dirty tips on how to become conscious about eating. But it would be more like psychology, or even philosophy–like my class. And the resulting tips wouldn’t just apply to weight loss or maintenance, but to any goal.