The End of Overeating

The title of this book caught my attention so I picked it up.  Although it's quite dry and his conclusions are somewhat obvious, there are a few good points I thought worth sharing.  Here is a watered down version of his explanation and cure to this dilemma.

When we eat foods that are high in SUGAR, SALT and FAT it triggers our brain to crave more.  Even if we aren't hungry, it still triggers our brain because it wants more pleasure. Although his conclusions seem quite elementary or obvious, sometimes we forget that's why we're craving so much.  We wonder why we can't stop eating and we don't stop to ask ourselves what we've been eating, which is usually the culprit.

His first suggestion to overcoming overeating is being AWARE.  That's basic enough for us I think.

The second  is to ENGAGE IN COMPETING BEHAVIORS.  For example, change your routine from going straight to the refrigerator after work or taking a different route to avoid a tempting fast-food restaurant that calls your name every time you drive by.  He says "the competing behavior needs to be planned before you encounter a cue."

The third explanation is to FORMULATE THOUGHTS TO COMPETE WITH.  So now that we've got the behavior down, we focus on the thoughts.  His example is instead of saying, "'That pint of ice cream looks really good to me; I'll just have a few bites,'" instead say, "'I know that I can't have one bite because it will lead to twenty.'"  Remind ourselves of our goals instead.

SUPPORT is his fourth suggestion.  You can take that how you want.

The author suggest setting RULES to "help us make the steps of habit reversal real."

Basically, we want to reverse our habits of overeating.  We can help ourselves accomplish this by being AWARE of the foods that trigger us that are very high in sugar, fat, and salt.  (Basically any junk food.)  We can AVOID our "bad" behavior and try to replace it with "good" behavior.  Next is to keep our THOUGHTS in check.  Don't let food be the highlight of your day.  Don't expect so much pleasure and satisfaction from it because then when you have it, it's almost never enough.  Of course I'm not saying don't enjoy food, but you know what I mean when we set such high expectations that if we eat this cookie or cake it will make us happy, or make our day.