Skip to main content

The Pause

For much of my life, I have had a really large appetite. I never really intended for this to happen, but it just did. In fact, people around me would occasionally notice the amount of food that I ate, and there would inevitably be some good-natured ribbing about it. It was just one of those random tidbits that was true about me, sort of like the color of my hair or which of my hands is my dominant hand.

However, that started to change as I got older. I'm not geriatric, but I wrote over a decade ago that my appetite was starting to look more like the average person's (also, it's more than a little crazy to me that I can reference something I wrote 10+ years ago. That seems like a lifetime ago). Time and age have definitely changed that particular fact about me.

What's more, as it's become more of the norm for me to eat less, I have started to feel uncomfortable if I eat too much. It's not even a matter of comparing how much I eat now versus what I used to eat; whatever the absolute amount of food I can consume, I now feel the consequences of trying to stray past that limit. I feel actual discomfort if I try to eat more than my stomach requires, and I've noticed the feeling more prominently as the years have gone by.

Well, as I am wont to say, pain is a great teacher. I simply don't want to feel uncomfortable like that, so I try to avoid overeating. There are still occasions when I'm hungry and I eat a lot, but when I feel full, I stop eating. It's not about the actual amount I eat, it's about knowing when to stop.

However, this brings up a new, secondary dilemma. What if the first portion I serve myself isn't enough food? Am I still actually hungry? How much more should I serve myself? I don't want to go hungry, but I also don't want to feel uncomfortable because I ate too much. There's definitely a Goldilocks zone of how much more I can eat, and the trick is making sure to find it.

In an effort to make sure I stay within this zone, I have taken to pausing for five minutes or so after that first serving. I have read that sometimes your stomach doesn't provide the signals to your brain quickly enough (and/or that you ate too quickly), so my solution is to try inject an artificial pause to ensure that I'm not in this situation. If I'm still hungry after that quick break, I should continue to eat. If I find that I'm "suddenly" full, then I can stop eating.

Interestingly enough, I find that most of the time, I am, indeed, still hungry after the pause, but there have been a few times where it's saved me from myself. So, even though I'm mostly certain that I should grab a second serving, I'm going to keep doing this to make sure I do avoid that discomfort where possible. If anything, I find that it also helps calibrate the size of my second serving. All in all, I think it's been helpful.

Still, even though it's really useful, I can't help but laugh at myself. It's like a longer, self-imposed version of the five second rule (courtesy of this useful post). I've definitely chuckled at my own expense during the pause, and I'm not sure it's going to stop anytime soon.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...
1 comment
Read more

Moment of Truth

I forget where I first heard it (I think it might have been Descartes), but I have long been a fan of the notion that certain things just have a " ring of truth " to them. If you've never heard the idiom before, the basic idea is that some things are super-true. They are not just true, but they are so obviously true, that as soon as you hear them, you recognize the truthiness inherent in them. I usually get excited when I hear one of these, since it means that I am a tiny bit less ignorant from that moment forward. For the first time in memory, though, I experienced the ring of truth. First, let me paint the scene with a little bit of background. I'd made plans to have dinner with my friend, but we'd agreed to play it by ear. The end result was that we ended up settling on a pretty late dinner in a local spot. That worked out just fine, since we weren't shooting for gourmet, we just wanted to grab some food and catch up in the process. So, we headed out to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...
Post a Comment
Read more