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mindless eating

Do You Eat Because You Are Hungry?

August 13, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Coney Island Boardwalk, Brooklyn, NY

Are You Really Hungry?

It’s summertime and the living is easy.  Picnics, barbecues, a sandwich at the beach are often the order of the day. And what about the ice cream cone, the beer with the burger, the peach pie, and the toasted almond from the Good Humor truck?  Vacation often means sun, sand, and eating – whenever. Living is easy, unstructured, and calorically dangerous.
Vacations and free and easy summer days spawn classic scenarios for mindless versus mindful eating.  Mindless eating often happens when there is no “structure” and a lack planning – when you give into “head hunger” as opposed to actual physical hunger.  When you’re faced with groaning buffet tables, holiday spreads with food on every flat surface, and endless passed hors d’oeuvres at an outdoor wedding, do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped in your mouth?

Why Do You Mindlessly Eat?

Hunger doesn’t prompt most people to overeat. Instead, overeating situations are usually created by family, friends, plate size, packaging, lighting, candles, smells, distractions, environments, and feelings.  According to the Mindless Eating website, two studies show that the average person makes about 250 food decisions every day – like deciding between white or whole wheat; sandwich or salad; grilled chicken or tuna; half or whole; kitchen table or chair in front of the TV.  That’s about 250 daily opportunities to be mindful or mindless.

What’s Different About Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating means avoiding the shove it in your mouth, non-thinking kind of eating and encourages slower, more fully focused eating based on hunger and your body’s need for food.  Armed with a plan rather than attacking whatever is edible, you choose carefully, eat more slowly, and savor your food  — not gobbling it as part of multi-tasking, grab and go, or a race to the finish line.
Mindful eating doesn’t mean eating with your back straight, elbows off the table, using the correct fork.  It means being mindful:  conscious and aware of your choices and your food. You can eat anywhere and be mindful – mindfulness and a plan for what and how much you eat are not dependent on your kitchen table or a restaurant menu.  You can be mindful at the beach, at a street fair, and at the office, too.

Table Setting For Lunch, Tuscany, Italy

Stomach Versus Head Hunger

Mindless eating is often prompted by head hunger while mindful eating is largely associated with stomach hunger.
Head hunger is the compulsion to eat when your body isn’t physically hungry — often in response to a learned behavior:  i.e., it’s noontime so I have to eat, doesn’t matter how I feel or if I’m hungry. Head hunger comes on suddenly and often takes the form of cravings, eating when you’re not hungry, eating when you think you should be eating, and mindless snacking. It happens at any time, with no physical symptoms, and includes time cues and sensory triggers, like smell, taste, or texture.  Obsessing about food, habits (like watching TV, working on the computer, or driving), emotional or personal triggers, and cravings can make you think that you’re hungry when you’re really not.

Penn Station, NYC

Physical hunger, or stomach hunger, comes on slowly and usually happens two to four hours after you’ve last eaten. With true stomach hunger you may have an empty or grumbling stomach, lightheadedness, hand tremors, fatigue, or a headache.  It’s your body’s way of telling you that it needs fuel and that it’s time to eat.  You’re usually satisfied with almost anything – unlike the frequent cravings for sugar, salt, fat that occur with head hunger.

SocialDieter Tip:

Head hunger will eventually go away if you ignore it.  Your body is not telling you it needs food for sustenance, rather, your head is talking to you, sometimes quite loudly. With head hunger, try to put off grabbing some food by distracting yourself and ignore it until it goes away.  Often a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of water will do the trick as well as some distracting behavior. If your head hunger is screaming at you it may be tough to ignore.  If you need to eat something ask yourself when you last ate.  If it’s approaching three hours you might be physically hungry in which case you can’t ignore it and it won’t lessen with time. When you eat mindfully you are aware of stomach (physical) hunger versus head (emotional) hunger.  You tune into your body’s signals about what, when, and how much to eat, and when to stop eating because you are approaching full and not because your plate its empty.

Filed Under: Eating on the Job, Eating with Family and Friends, Entertaining, Buffets, Parties, Events, Manage Your Weight, Snacking, Noshing, Tasting Tagged With: eat out eat well, eating triggers, emotional eating, head hunger, hunger, mindful eating, mindless eating, weight management strategies

What Do You Eat With Your Movie?

August 6, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

I went to the movies Saturday night.  It was a long, long day and I was tired – so my guard was down.  As I walked into the theater the first thing that hit me was the wafting and delicious smell of freshly popped (and it was freshly popped in this theater) popcorn. I could have had a label plastered across my forehead:  sucker coming around the corner, start filling the popcorn bag!  Elbow in my husband’s ribs:  buy some!

It was the first time I’ve had movie theater popcorn in about two years.  Not that I don’t love it – I do.  I also know a little bit about it.  Thing is, after writing another post about popcorn I even asked the guy behind the concession stand several months ago what they pop their popcorn in.  “Oh, I think it’s some combination of coconut oil and other stuff.”  Fat gram numbers spiraled and multiplied in my head. Yet, the siren call of freshly popped popcorn was too strong to overcome.

I Don’t Care, I’m Going To Have It Anyway

I had set myself up for a “I don’t care, I’m going to have it anyway” caloric splurge.  Why?  I was hungry, tired,  and it was the tail end of a very busy week.  And, two other important factors:  our friends had already bought their popcorn (ever sit next to someone who is eating something you really like and that smells delicious?) and I really love popcorn.

SocialDieter Tip:

I’m not suggesting that you – or I – should never have movie theater popcorn. What I am suggesting is that If you are going to have popcorn it should be figured into your overall caloric balance.  Popcorn today – lots of fruit and veggies the next day – or maybe earlier in the day.  The same thing is true if your weakness is that box of Raisinets – or Goobers – or Milk Duds.

Not the greatest foods in the world, but if you are going to have them as an occasional splurge build the splurge into your day – or weekly – food plan. If you’re going to eat the stuff, at least do it mindfully.  Oh – you could also not eat anything during the movie, it is only about two hours – or, you could bring some healthy snacks like a lower calorie protein bar or trail mix with you (a crunchy apple doesn’t lend itself to quiet eating).  And ditch the soda for plain old water.

FYI: Some Popular Movie Theater Snacks – And Their Calorie Counts

(Note the serving sizes, movie theater boxes of candy are often huge and may be double or triple the size shown below.)

Popcorn, Nachos, Soft Pretzel

  • Buttered popcorn, small, 5 cups:  470 calories, 35g fat
  • Buttered popcorn, large, 20 cups:  1640 calories, 126g fat
  • Cheese nachos, large (4 oz):  1100 calories, 60g fat
  • Soft pretzel, large (5 oz):  480 calories, 5g fat

Soda and Lemonade

  • Coke, small (18 oz:218 calories, 0g fat
  • Coke, large (44 oz):  534 calories, 0g fat
  • Minute Maid Lemonade (18 oz):  248 calories, 0g fat
  • Minute Maid Lemonade (44 oz):  605 calories, 0g fat

Candy

  • Junior Mints, 3 0z box:  360 calories, 7g fat
  • Sno Caps, 3.1 oz box:  300 calories, 15g fat
  • Milk Duds, 3oz box:  370 calories, 12g fat
  • Raisinets, 3.5 oz bag:  400 calories, 16g fat
  • Goobers, 3.5 oz box:  500 calories, 35g fat
  • Twizzlers, 6oz bag:  570 calories, 4g fat
  • M&Ms, 5.3oz bag:  750 calories, 32g fat
  • Peanut M&Ms, 5.3 oz bag:  790 calories, 40g fat
  • Reese’s Pieces, 8oz bag:  1160 calories, 60g fat

Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Manage Your Weight, Snacking, Noshing, Tasting, Takeout, Prepared Food, Junk Food Tagged With: calories, candy, eat out eat well, fat, food facts, mindful eating, mindless eating, movie theater, popcorn, snacks, weight management strategies

Is Multi-Tasking Sabotaging Your Weight?

July 13, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

What Else Do You Do When You Eat?

Where do you have your breakfast?  In the car or train while you’re going to work?  Maybe while you’re walking down the street juggling that cup of joe, a muffin, and your books, papers, and tote.

How about lunch.  Do you eat at your desk?  Standing in front of the kitchen sink?  In front of the computer?

A poll of more than 1500 people (Wansink, Mindless Eating), found that:

  • 91% usually watch TV when eating meals at home alone
  • 62% are frequently too busy to sit down and eat
  • 35% eat lunch at their desk
  • 26% often eat while they drive

Multi-Tasking = Distraction = Mindless Eating

When you multi-task you are distracted.  Distraction is the enemy of weight management.  Any kind of distraction will make you eat, or forget what or how much you are eating, or even why you are eating.  When you’re distracted your focus is certainly not on your food the classic recipe for mindless eating.

SocialDieter Tip:

Everyone is busy.  Everyone eats.  Putting the two together can lead to mindless eating and poor weight management.  How about making some rules for yourself?  I won’t, without guilt, recommend eating without doing other things.  That’s the classic recommendation – but I would be two-faced to utter it because I frequently eat while I work.  However, if you are like me, perhaps set a rule that you are going to serve yourself a certain portion and that’s all you will eat.  Or, maybe you want to turn over a new leaf and solely concentrate on your meal.  The choice is yours.  Just make it a mindful one.

Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Eating on the Job, Manage Your Weight, Snacking, Noshing, Tasting, Takeout, Prepared Food, Junk Food, Travel, On Vacation, In the Car Tagged With: dashboard dining, distraction, mindless eating, multi-tasking, weight management strategies, workplace eating

Why Do You Still Eat More . . . Even When You’re Stuffed?

July 6, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

You’ve been eating all day.  Eating everything – a bagel for breakfast, a chesse Danish for a midmorning snack, lunch with some friends.  This is followed by  a latte in the afternoon – and why not a cute cupcake to go with – or perhaps it’s a workday and you amble down to the hall to the vending machine or the snack room.  Oh, and it’s someone’s birthday so there’s that delicious birthday cake sitting in the middle of the table.  A little nibble of some cheese around six.  Uh oh.  Dinner plans that night – how can you eat more?

Somehow There Always Seems To Be Room

Into the restaurant.  A darn good one.  Good company, too.  How can you not go for it?  The food is supposed to be phenomenal.  You’re not hungry, but you eat, and eat.  Appetizer, entrée, bread, salad, and then it’s time for dessert. But dessert sounds appealing. And the chocolate whatchamacallit is what this restaurant is known for. You order it and eat it – every last fork full.

What Gives (certainly not your waistband)?

Amazingly, the signal to stop eating is usually not because your stomach is full (except in some extreme cases), but, according to Brian Wansink, PhD, author of the book, Mindless Eating,  a combination of things like how much you taste, chew, swallow, how much you think about the food you are eating, and how long you’ve been eating.

Incredibly, the faster most people eat, the more they eat. Eating quickly doesn’t give your brain the chance to get the message that you’re not hungry any more.  Research shows that it takes up to 20 minutes for your body and brain to get the message — a satiation signal — and realize that you’re full.  Think how much you can eat in that time span of 20 minutes – a burger, fries, pie, pizza, ice cream.  This calorie fest is all in added time — the time after your stomach is full but your brain hasn’t gotten the message yet.

Twenty Minutes Or Less

Research has shown that Americans start and finish their meals — and clear the table — in less than 20 minutes.  A study published in the journal Appetite, found that people eating lunch by themselves in a fast food restaurant  finish in 11 minutes, they finish in13 minutes in a workplace cafeteria, and in 28 minutes at a moderately priced restaurant.  Eating with three other people takes about twice as long – which ends up still being a really short chunk of time.

SocialDieter Tip:

Slow down when you eat.  Give your brain a chance to catch up.  How many times have you devoured what you’ve made or bought for lunch and then, almost immediately, decided that you’re still hungry?  So, you eat a whole bunch more – once again in a short period of time.  Then, about half an hour later, as your belly feels like it’s going to explode and you can’t unbutton any more buttons on your pants – you realize that you should have stopped before the seconds.  With slower eating (and maybe as some research suggerst, more chewing) and better pacing, your brain has a chance to synch its signals with the messages generated by putting food in your stomach.  You can even make yourself get up from the table and do something else – and promise yourself if you’re still hungry in 20 minutes you can have more.  If you’re in a restaurant, it’s the perfect time to excuse yourself and go to the rest room.  In most cases, after the 20 or so minutes, your belly and brain are both happy and you won’t want more to eat. Calories and uncomfortably expanding stomach saved!

Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Eating on the Job, Eating with Family and Friends, Entertaining, Buffets, Parties, Events, Manage Your Weight, Restaurants, Diners, Fast Food, Travel, On Vacation, In the Car Tagged With: calorie tips, eating, eating cues, eating environment, eating triggers, hunger, mindless eating

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