Change One Habit: Sit to Eat

I remember previously blogging about committing to one habit change, but I can't find that post. Maybe I deleted the blog where I posted that comment. However, I remember committing to eat only when sitting, most often at a table or counter (breakfast nook). However that doesn't exclude eating lunch while watching a movie or eating dinner while sitting in the living room watching netflix. Nevertheless, I realize how eating standing up influences my overeating and even bingeing.

When I feel overwhelmed and confused (as I currently feel about my eating habits), I need a simple solution. I don't want to change my whole life style. Furthermore, I have fairly intuitive eating habits most of the time. I eat when hungry, foods I love, focus on the tastes and textures when I eat, and stop when I feel moderately full MOST OF THE TIME.

However, I eat standing up usually when I feel emotional, not physical, hunger. Also I'm influenced by environmental cues, like free food in grocery stores, a specific corner of my kitchen counter, food I'm preparing for a meal, the food in my refrigerator, and even food in my freezer. When I'm not in the kitchen, I never think about eating unless I 'm physically hungry. However, when I only feel slight hunger, entering the kitchen triggers extreme cravings to eat anything tasty and convenient while I prepare the meal. I suspect I developed, 'Pavlovian' response to food samples in stores, preparing food in my kitchen and even opening the refrigerator or freezer. I practiced eating in response to those cues so many times that I believe I'm hungry when I see those stimuli.

Previously I practiced only eating when sitting and experienced fantastic results. I enjoyed the food more when I sat to eat. I felt satisfied by what and how much I ate so that I didn't want more when I finished. I stopped feeling 'hungry' when I prepared food. I resisted all those 'Pavlovian' habit responses long enough to differentiate true physical hunger from environmentally cued cravings. So how, when and why did I resume eating standing up, while preparing food or other times when I responded to environmental cues? I rationalized that:

Normal people don't restrict where they eat.

I'm thin. I can eat anytime and anywhere I want.

Relying on my internal cues of hunger and fullness should limit when, what and how much I eat, without worrying about where I eat.

I can't taste my soups, casseroles, etc. if I won't let myself eat standing up.

I will starve between meals if I can't snack standing up.

I will overeat at my meals if I don't let myself snack standing up between meals.

Here's how I challenge those rationalizations:

My recent bingeing habits were not 'normal eating'. I never binge while sitting down. I almost always binge while standing at the kitchen counter. In order to overcome my 'Pavlovian response' to the kitchen counter, my open refrigerator, etc., I need to practice doing those things there without eating. So choosing to eat sitting down creates a new habit to replace my old stand and binge habit.

I may still be thin. However, I gained 4 pounds, one for each binge, during the past 2 months. When I eat whatever I want without bingeing, I don't gain weight.

Many IE gurus recommend sitting to focus while eating. External cues for eating from my kitchen, refrigerator, meal preparation often seem stronger than my internal hunger/fullness sensations. I'm not limiting where I eat. I'm creating space between urges to eat and actually eating, so I can consider whether I'm actually hungry. Sitting lets me to relax, enjoy eating and focus my stomach cues without distractions of meal preparation or other standing activities.

I can ask my husband to taste what I prepare. Also I can take a small spoonful and sit at the breakfast nook on the other side of the stove while I taste my creation. Walking over to a chair creates enough effort that I won't want to continue tasting many times after I season the food 'to taste'.

When I previously limited eating to meals, I was always surprised at how long meals stayed with me, especially when I ignored external cues to eat.

When I sit, I can eat slowly and focus on how the food tastes, how my stomach feels and whether I feel satisfied. Usually when I focus on all that, I feel bored with eating before I feel moderately full and want to stop eating when I feel full.

So far today I ate 2 sitting meals and resisted tastes and snacks between meals. I enjoyed the food much more because I was actually hungry when I sat to eat. I also felt less environmental cues to eat the longer I resisted tastes and snacks before meals. Rather than lick my fingers or the utensils, I washed the food off my hands and utensils, just as I would do if I were to prepare an allergen.

After writing this post, I realize I'll need to watch my self talk and challenge rationalizations if I want to keep this commitment long enough to extinguish environmental stimuli to eat when I'm not hungry. However, I observed from today's and previous attempts that I did feel less pull from those cues the longer I ignored them and only ate while sitting.