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I don’t hate vegetables — at least not all of them. Broccoli is off-limits, and I don’t like the other members of the cruciferous family, but I find many vegetables quite tasty. Sometimes I have rules for them — no chunky tomatoes, but tomato products are okay — but mostly I just eat them.
But not by choice.
I almost never make myself a salad. If I’m going to choose my food, it’ll be pork and beans or frozen pizzas for dinner. I’ll snack on Hostess Sno-Balls. If Kris announces that we’re having salad for dinner, or she hands me a banana, I’ll eat these things, but I’ll never choose them for myself.
Why is this? I have no idea.
This really causes problems when my food reality confronts my frugal fantasies. I’ll purchase a bunch of fruit, or some yogurt, or some whole-grain snacks, fully intending to eat them. But ultimately this food is wasted. Instead of eating it, I pick around it in the fridge. Yogurt, nuts, cherries — aha! some left-over cake. I eat the left-over cake. Months later I find the bag of salad dated June 2nd and have to toss it out.
As I prepare to embark upon my quest for physical fitness, I’ve been thinking about this problem a lot. How can I stop this crazy behavior?
When I write about money, I often note how important it is for compulsive spenders (or people with debt problems) to avoid temptation. They shouldn’t even go to the mall. If they spend too much on music, they should stay away from iTunes and avoid record stores. The same is true with food.
If I can’t control myself around junk food — and I can’t — then I should remove it from my presence. (And myself from its presence.) I shouldn’t even bring the crap food home. I should keep only healthy options around. Then when I feel snacky, my only options are those that are healthy for me. In this way, I circumvent my own irrational impulses.
Likewise, it’s easier for me to just drive by the damn mini-mart than it is to resist the urge once I’m inside. I shouldn’t even stop. If I don’t want to give into the siren call of Hot Tamales, I shouldn’t enter the store.
I know this, of course, just as I know that I shouldn’t keep cold cereal on hand. But so far, I do these things anyhow. I have no self-control. When I’m given a choice, I always make the wrong choice. It’s like I’m powerless to stop.
I know I can change my thinking, however. These are the same thought patterns I used to have with money and debt. I’ve made a drastic turnaround in my financial life — now it’s time to make a similar change to my health and fitness.
Bring on the new year!
Mac
10 responses so far ↓
1 Don J // Dec 3, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I am SO with you on this one. One big challenge for me has been that I have had roommates for years, and we share groceries — which means I can’t always ensure that the less healthy choices aren’t available. That should be changing in a few months, though, and I’m hoping I will kickstart a new healthy habit!
2 monica // Dec 3, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Sigh, I can relate. My weaknesses are bread and whole milk.
Now, I am not comparing you to George Costanza in any way, but this really reminded me of The Opposite episode of Seinfeld, where George says “It became very clear to me sitting out there today, that every decision I’ve ever made, in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have, in every of life, be it something to wear, something to eat … It’s all been wrong.”
Don - I share an apartment with my boyfriend who’s much less strict about his diet. It’s surprisingly hard to change habits when lives are intertwined… it’s equally amazing how much FOOD plays into relationships. I know we’re supposed to be independent thinkers and all, but it’s not that simple. Alas!
3 Dave // Dec 3, 2007 at 2:29 pm
JD - I can definitely see myself in your post. If you hadn’t already snagged the idea, I could have started something called “Get Fit Really Slowly”. I’ve been training myself over time to change my eating habits - very hard, but it does seem to work. for instance, I never really liked bell peppers - but one day I said to myself “just put one or two pieces on your salad, and eat them!” I did, and it wasn’t so bad, so I continued to eat them. Now, I kind of like them. It’s all baby steps. For me, I’ve found that the hassle of preparing things - chopping lettuce, peppers, etc. - is enough that I avoid them, so in an un-frugal manner, I buy the pre-mixed, ready-to-go salads (this stuff: http://www.readypac.com/products/) All I have to do is open the bag, mix everything up a bit, and eat. If there are a couple of them in the fridge, it’s really hard to convince myself that it’d be easier to fry something up. It seems like a big part of the solution is to reduce the opportunity to cheat - empty the bad stuff out of the freezer and pantry and only stock the good options. If there isn’t any cake in the fridge, maybe you will eat that healthy apple instead.
Another thing you might want to look into is an organisation called TOPS (www.tops.org) I’m not in it, but my wife is. There are 3 things I like about them:
1) dues are cheap (like $24/year. IIRC);
2) they don’t advocate any particular plan, they focus more on helping you decide how to reach your goals, so they’ll talk about South Beach, Weight Watchers, becoming vegetarian, etc., but it’s more about educating, finding what works for you, and support
3) they aren’t selling anything - no meals, no subscription, etc.
4 Dave // Dec 3, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Of course you want to make healthy food choices, J.D., but also keep in mind that when the American Institute for Cancer Research asked over one thousand Americans, “Which do you think is more important in maintaining or losing weight, the amount of food you eat or what kind of food you eat?” almost 80% percent answered, “The kind of food you eat,” which is WRONG. So you must watch your portion sizes, my friend. I mean, a serving of meat for dinner should be about the same size as a deck of cards. A serving of cheese looks like 4 dice. The problem is restaurants have warped our brains re: portion sizes … if you order a bowl of oatmeal at a hotel or family restaurant or whatever, they’ll bring you a bowl w/ about 3-4 servings in it. So you’re gonna have to un-warp your mind soon. Start w/ the SuperFoods books.
5 Susan // Dec 3, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Oh, I hear you! I love a good piece of leftover cake myself…but I have to say I also like salads with tons of fresh vegetables!
A few thoughts, out of a dozen more, you can take or leave:
1) Continue eating the junk, but have healthy foods with it. Gradually decrease the junk foods and increase the healthy foods over time.
2) You have to train your taste buds, and entire body for that matter, to prefer the healthy stuff over the refined/fried/salty/sugary/greasy stuff. That takes time. (See #1)
3) Try grilling vegetables. You might like them that way. Add a little bit of olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and a touch of salt or different seasonings….Delicious!!!
4) And yes, try not to buy any of the junk foods. It’s much more difficult to eat junk food if it’s not in the house!
I hope you write about your progress in the future! Good luck!
6 Lauren Muney // Dec 4, 2007 at 6:32 am
Yes, JD, it’s all in the decisions! You are NOT powerless to stop… except in the first bits of starting a new eating program. In that first amount of time (the length of which varies for everyone), it’s like an alcoholic or smoker or drug-user (or shopper) who can only think of his “drug-of-choice”. If you’ve ever helped an alcoholic get sober, for example, if he/she is honest, the person will describe what his/her brain thinks about while going through the withdrawal process. It’s HUGELY complicated what the brain will try to trick the body (and emotions) into doing.
YES, sometimes the only way is to leave the non-beneficial stuff out of the house and workplace, and YES, sometimes it’s better not to visit those stores which carry the tempting foods. It may be a long process (weeks or months) until your body and mind can start making quality rational decisions about food when confronted with choices. So sometimes the BEST DECISION is to remove the choice: keep the stuff out of your hands and your sight. It IS possible.
Please also know that “willpower” doesn’t always work. I don’t even believe in willpower. I believe in ‘tricks’ (like keeping junk food out of the house) and I believe in having a ‘long talking to’ myself when confronted by temptation. And the last bit is that —after a while– your mind just starts remembering how terrible it feels to have an over-full tummy, feel that sickening-sweetness in the mouth after eating too many sweets, the mental frustration after eating foods which derail — and sometimes the brain just gives up, rolls over, and tries to make peace with true rationality.
This takes time. It takes patience. It takes pulling out all the ‘tricks’ you can create (like having Kris hand you a banana, if you can’t think of it on your own). Mostly it takes getting through the rough few months of FORCING yourself at mental-gunpoint to know that “this addiction will end”, and trying your best to get through the rough early-sober parts. And that’s exactly what it is. YOU CAN DO IT.
Best wishes,
Lauren
7 Don M // Dec 9, 2007 at 10:19 am
To add a slightly different perspective, I found that once I started doing some exercise, I no longer wanted the junk food. My food preferences tended towards anything fried or sugary (if I could get both simultaneously, that was a bonus). Vegetables? I avoided them at all costs; even if they were put in front of me, I didn’t eat them. I found myself at 242 lbs. on a 5′8″frame.
This past summer, I got roped into doing a charity bike ride. Once I finished that, my wife and I decided to keep biking. A few weeks later, she didn’t want to get up early to ride, so I started on the Couch to 5k program at coolrunning.com. As I began to exercise more, I found that I actually craved salads and more healthful foods. I still enjoy the same old foods, but I just don’t eat them as often, and I don’t eat as much of them as I used to. I also took a look at the Volumetrics eating plan, which has provided a good framework for thinking about food.
I’ve lost a bunch of weight this way, and I feel a lot better than I did. All I did was start exercising, and the food habits practically changed on their own. Just my experience.
Good luck, JD!
Don
8 m // Dec 9, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Unlike issues of personal finance, healthy eating and fitness are areas I feel more successful in. Actually that’s not true, I should give myself credit in the pf department too, I don’t blame myself for being sick and having much of our money turned over to med. bills, ins. and the like. But anyway, the point is I feel compelled to comment on a lot more on this site already than on GRS,–maybe I’m more passionate on the subject or feel more successful in this area or whatever, I don’t know.
The way I deal with the issues you wrote about here:
1) menu planning. letting yourself decide when you’ll snack on salad and yogurt and so on is a plan for waste and failure if you ask me, okay at least for me it is. we plan our meals, and eat accordingly. salad is part of dinner 5 or 6 if not 7 nights of the week. it is prepared and comes to the dinner (okay, coffee) table and we eat it.
You can even plan dessert and snacks, though we don’t do so with snacks, but if I was having eating issues I maybe would. I’d definitely include fruit or other healthy snack/dessert in the meal plan, for that time in the evening when dinner is digested and one is hungry for a snack. You could have plain fruit, or cook up some apples in cinnamon or have fruit salad or whatever. The point is plan ahead (similar to personal finance, right?) and you will 1) eat what you bought and planned to eat and 2) won’t eat a bunch of crap bc it won’t be in your menu. and bc, see number two below.
2) Don’t keep items you are trying to or should be trying to stay away from in your home. Cake? Buy a slice to split with your wife when you crave it and have (just like with spending again) planned for it (or just really have to have it or you’ll go crazy and eat even worse) enough to satisfy your craving or sweet tooth. Don’t keep an entire cake at home, or box of chocolates, or bag of chips of whatever is your weakness(es).
This won’t work if you don’t 3) buy alternate, healthy snacks to substitute the ones you are eliminating. Dried fruit, fresh fruit, nuts, fruit salad, regular salad, rice/corn cakes–fresh, whole foods are ideal, but just look for healthier ways to meet cravings and snacking urges. If you dont’ have anything on hand chances are you’ll find or buy the one thing you shouldn’t be eating just then.
This is getting so long I think I’ll turn it (and add some more to it there) into a post on one of my blogs (prob. M’s Blog or maybe my pf one).
The point/summary is, be prepared, plan ahead, stick to your plan. Hey, it’s just like a budget! I wish you all the luck in the world, JD.
9 daisyhead // Dec 9, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Did you know that tasting bitterness in brussel sprouts or other cruciferous vegetables is an inherited trait? You may be one with this particular polymorphism of your DNA so I’d avoid those vegetables. Fortunately, there are many others to choose from. I’m a fan of the ready to steam in the bag veggies, both fresh and frozen. While the frozen variety may not be the most cost effective, they’re cheaper than cake, ice-cream, cookies, potato chips and other foods on another level.
10 TosaJen // Dec 10, 2007 at 12:01 pm
DH and I split cooking, and we’re both blessed with efficient metabolisms. So, we wear what we eat. A few observations:
1. Buy the best produce possible, in season, and local (and sometimes organic) when feasible.
This might be slightly counter to the GRS credo, but if paying a few more dollars for good, fresh, delicious, produce will make us eat better, we do it.
2. You said it, Dr. Phil said it, and I agree — you make most of your significant food choices at the grocery store. If it doesn’t make it home, you aren’t likely to make it from scratch or go out to get it. If it’s sitting on the counter, in the fridge/freezer, or on the pantry shelf, you’re more likely to eat it. Go shopping with a list at a time when you’re in a hurry to get it done (no looking around!).
Eh, I’m still 15 lbs overweight right now, even though I exercise, so I’m not practicing what I preach very well.
Love the blog. I’ll be here!
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