Thursday, September 06, 2007

Mindless Eating


This is an intriguing book whether you have the slightest interest in losing weight or not. It's about the psychology of eating, how much stale popcorn people will eat, how to make bottomless bowls of soup, and what people taste when you dye lemon Jello red.

DOB wished he could have learned more about the tricks to get people to eat more without thinking about it, since he has the metabolism of a humming bird and hates eating. Majority interests being what they are, though, the book does focus more on how to eat less, not more. (Though some people are interested in tricking people into eating more: not fast food joints--who only care what you buy, not what you eat--but the military.)

I am finally interested in slowing down my eating a bit (which is hard when you eat with someone who eats a lot--see chapter 5). While pregnant and/or nursing, I had to force myself to eat a lot more than I wanted to, or I'd be passing out before I got the next meal made. Now I need to unlearn some of the habits I learned to trick myself into eating more. Especially reading while I eat. But it's so hard not to.

We've decided playing card games while we eat is a good compromise for both of us, though. It gives DOB an excuse to linger at the table and eat a little more, but it gives me something to do with my hands so I don't eat more just from watching him. So even though it seems quite barbaric and is hard on the cards, we carry on.

Speaking of weight, we were both astonished to find this Stupid Internet Quiz on How Much Do You Weigh? was in fact dead-on right for both of us. Especially since it never asks about your height. But we're not posting the results.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be rolling on the floor laughing if I wasn't in a semi-public place... I took the survey and its says I should weigh 151 pounds!

Since my 6'8" frame wasn't asked about, I guess I'll just chock this up to a completely inadequate survey.

I think if I died, removed all the flesh from my bones and let them dry out I might weigh in around 151#. But it'd be a close one.

Queen of Carrots said...

Yeah, I thought the exclusion of height was a bit odd. Probably it only works for people within average height ranges. We were just surprised it worked for us at all.

Wendy said...

Wow! That was interesting, I thought it would have more questions. Says I should be losing the baby weight soon... Hope so!

Carrie said...

Well, I'm very curious about the book. And I made J1 & another friend take the quiz because it was dead on for me. I, too, shall not be posting the results. I liked Wendy's comment!

Melissa Stover said...

i'm going to come back and take the survey later. that sounds like an interesting book. i used to not eat much, had to force myself to maintain weight, but having babies, being pregnant and having to make myself eat to keep from being nauseous or hungry, i picked up some new habits and the weight is piling up. i need to unlearn those habits now.