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I've been eating more than I need lately, and I want to cut back to normal. The eating is emotional, i.e., I eat not because I'm hungry but because I'm unhappy or needing stimulation. I'll apply the Think, Try, Learn principle of simply measuring my weight each morning in underpants, then writing down what I eat each day. No calorie calculations. |
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I'll apply the "belt test" - when I'm at a comfortable weight, waistbands feel not too tight. If they feel good throughout the day, I'll call it a success. |
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I'll continue until I feel like my eating is back under control. |
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Enjoy feeling fit and healthy, eating healthy foods, noticing how simple tracking affects my behavior. |
Create an Experiment
Matthew Cornell
- Member Since
- 07/02/09
- About Lover of experimentation and leader of Think, Try, Learn, the scientific method for discovering happiness. Creator of Edison, the Think, Try, Learn experimenter's workbook. http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/ http://www.thinktrylearn.com/ http://www.matthewcornell.org/
- Web http://www.matthewcornell.org/
- Experiments 98
- Observations 1262
Comments & Observations
Matthew Cornell Start out day one. Noticing already that I'm making more conscious choices about what I eat - I'm thinking about it, such as "Do I really need to eat this?" Weight is 150 pounds, which is actually just about right. I'll stick with it, though.
Jun 21, 2010
Matthew Cornell Feeling a little uncomfortable - tried to stick to good things, but overdid chocolate, I suspect. Data!
Jun 21, 2010
Matthew Cornell I decided to mark on the food log (just an index card) when I'm feeling uncomfortably full - just a small circled "U".
Jun 22, 2010
Brock Tice I've been recalibrating my eating by (1) taking a smaller serving than I think I need, then (2) checking to see if I'm still hungry before taking more.
I discovered after a while that if I have to really think about whether I'm hungry, I'm not hungry. Been slowly dropping weight, although a variety of social events over the weekend helped me lose my discipline and gain a small amount back.
I'll be interested to see how your approach works -- good to have a 'portion control buddy'!
Jun 22, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm seeing the same thing, Brock. Forcing myself to think about what I'm eating naturally kicks off a hunger check-in. I'm trying to keep it light by not getting all up in my own face about it, but I do tend to moderate. Good thoughts - thanks.
Jun 23, 2010
Brock Tice One big benefit I've found of readjusting is that when I do 'binge', I don't have much room to fill, so it minimizes the impact.
Jun 23, 2010
Matthew Cornell Tracking helped today: Limited # hot chocolates, and informed my decision to buy a single scoop of ice cream instead of my usual point. (It also helped that I found a local place that serves scoops of my favorite local brand.) I feel a good amount of full tonight, so it's helping. This morning's weight was fine - 148.5 lbs. So I'm trying to connect feeling over full with a good weight - interesting...
Jun 23, 2010
Matthew Cornell Wow - actually feeling the sensation of hunger. Good!
Jun 24, 2010
Matthew Cornell This is definitely helping my feel better throughout the day. Interestingly, I need to remind myself to pay attention to my pain level because I'm so used to feeling more. [This is a great example of needing a remind/push feature for Edison.]
Jun 24, 2010
Matthew Cornell This continues to help. I've noticed I still eat when I don't feel hungry - emotional eating, I suppose. I'll keep with the exercise for a little while longer.
Jul 07, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm going to complete the experiment as it feels like the reset has happened. I will watch my eating during the coming vacation to see if I need to start up again. Overall, highly recommended!
Jul 09, 2010
Brock Tice Excellent! It's going pretty well for me too, although occasionally travel or other things will throw me off for a bit and require a reset. I almost feel like it requires a monthly exercise to make sure I'm on track.
Jul 21, 2010
Matthew Cornell Yes, Brock, I can see the value of regular resetting. I do it opportunistically, which is true for my Weekly Review, I'll admit. Whatever works, right? :-)
Jul 24, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm starting this one up again because the stress eating generously gave me seven new pounds. I don't feel like tracking, so I'll just try to increase my awareness whenever I eat something and try to inject some frickin' control.
Nov 08, 2010
Avrum Matthew - have you tried stickk.com? It provided enough of an incentive to keep me on track with my goal to put on tefillin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin - 6 days a week, for 8 weeks
Nov 08, 2010
Matthew Cornell stickk looks brilliant - the power of incentives. Thanks for the pointer. I'll be adding group experiments in early '11, and I'm excited about the accountability power of it. Tefillin: That's wild. I don't have any background in Judaism. Did you wear it on your forehead?
Nov 09, 2010
Matthew Cornell Here's a simple way to measure: I have a pair of pants that fits nicely when my weight is down, but that feel tight if it's up. I'll weigh each morning and look but not record, then check the pants during the day.
Nov 09, 2010
Matthew Cornell To the waistband test I'm going to track how many servings of drinking chocolate I take. Each one is 1/2 cup milk and 1 tablespoon of 70% chocolate ( http://www.matthewcornell.org/blog/2005/4/8/how-to-make-the-ultimate-cup-of-hot-chocolate.html ). I'll use YFD http://your.flowingdata.com/matthewcornell/page/1262/
Nov 16, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm closing this again. My eating isn't insane, and I want to focus on other experiments.
Nov 27, 2010