Doing one thing well

Leo (at Zen Habits) recently wrote a post entitled Do One Thing Well.  On his blog, he talks about simplicity and doing work you love.

He advice has the ring of truth to it, though, for us, as well.

Think of the weakest spot in your eating behaviors.  For many people, it is the time after dinner when they sit down to watch TV.  Pretty soon, they're in the kitchen scavenging for ice cream, salty or crunch snack and the snacking goes on until bedtime.

99.9% of the time, this is a boredom or habit driven behavior.  You may think you like it...and you really may...but could you make one small change (do something really well) and kick start your weight loss?

It has been my experience with clients, that what they enjoy in that snacking mode, is the behavior --- not the food.

If you're looking for the most bang for the least buck -- find a weak spot in your eating behaviors and alter it.  You don't have to do everything perfectly -- just do one thing well!

Mnmlism

The idea of minimalism intrigues me. I read a post the other day where the author wanted to live with less than 100 personal items. He listed out all of the things he owned (shared household items didn't count) and he came up with 90 items including his whole wardrobe! Now...maybe I wouldn't go that far but still....

Quite a few years ago, my beautiful younger cousin (who might be one of the smartest people I know -- even though I know that is not how she sees herself) told me "Anything you own, owns a piece of you". And it makes a ton of sense -- houses need repairs, if you have more than one pair of shoes -- it is easier to lose one and end up spending time looking for it, the more clothes you have, the more laundry you do, etc, etc.

A few years ago, I moved to a new house and vowed not to take anything that wasn't either functionally necessary or something I really loved. And when all was unpacked, the house looked pretty underfurnished. As the years have progressed, I have added meaningful pieces to the house and it is coming along nicely -- but to get to my point....

How would it work if you were a food minimalist? You could eat anything you want but it had to be delicious -- not just run of the mill ordinary. If you took the first bite of something and it didn't meet your expectations, you didn't finish it. Or...when you were full you put your fork down and didn't finish what was on your plate.

In exchange for you high standards -- there where no holds barred -- you could eat anything that appealed to you without thinking about whether or not it was "healthy" or "low-fat".

Can you feel the sense of freedom this would give you?

Do you feel the first buddings of hope?

Being a minimalist with your food works. But, just like me trying to furnish my house with only pieces I love, it takes time to decide what your style is. You have to put some thought into how a certain food makes you feel -- both as your eating and after (ever been to the ball park/county fair/hockey rink and had something that later you realized was giving you the stomach ache of your life? Then when you went to a similar event at some later date you ate the same thing, with the same results, and wondered why you did it...again?)

To maintain a healthy weight -- every bite you eat needs to be used by your body or your body stores it as fat.

To lose weight -- you need to eat fewer bites than your body needs so it pulls the extra calories to maintain itself from your fat stores.

It is true what brilliant little cousin told me ... every thing you own, owns a piece of you. How much are you willing to let the food in your life control your quality of life -- the way you see yourself, the way you look at what you can accomplish in this world???

Reducing Friction

More thoughts on Leo's post from yesterday's ZenHabits.

Reducing friction --

Yesterday we talked about Done. But how do we get to Done. Leo suggests reducing friction. Now...I have had some hours to think about this and this is what I have come up with.

Friction occurs when your desire to listen your hunger/fullness (H/F) signals is in conflict with the desire to eat a Big Bag of M&M's or potato chips or _________(insert food of choice).

How do we reduce (notice we didn't say eliminate) friction in this example?

Make the trigger foods inconvenient. If you can mindlessly down a whole bag of chips while watching Dancing with the Stars, get them out of your house. This doesn't mean you can't ever have them -- just make them harder to get. If you really want them, you have to be committed to driving to the store to get them -- fine -- you put the thought into it -- you really want them -- eat the whole bag -- but make a conscious decision and then put the work in to get them.

I have told this story before but for those of you that haven't heard it...
I realized some years ago that I am not disciplined enough, mature enough ... something, to have Girl Scout cookies in my house. I will eat them -- all of them -- lickety split. Stick them in the freezer, you say? Nope...just makes them better. Every time I move from one room to another, it is via the kitchen until the cookies are gone. Can't help it -- it is just the way I am. But...I can't eat 12 or 15 boxes of cookies like that and expect not to gain some weight. My solution? Buying the cookies (like normal)but then boxing them up and taking them to a friend's house. She stores them for me and doles them out in a reasonable fashion. Weird? Yes. But does it work? Yup. Makes me work harder for something I love to eat -- plus, it is embarrassing to go over there 4 times a day to ask for a new box.

Maybe you need to have your food of choice on hand, for some reason. Take, for instance, the holiday baking you do at Christmas time. You enjoy doing the baking. You have to have the baked goods on hand so you can bring them to parties and give them as gifts. But then what to do with them after they are done, before you can give them away, and while they are calling your name every minute you are home?

How about storing your tempting foods in the basement or garage? The key is to put them out of your normal path of vision. Trigger eating happens when we become aware the foods are there ... just waiting to be eaten. Either don't buy those foods or keep them out of sight. They will call to you less if you can't see them.

That is the whole point of the dieting tip of not going in the kitchen after dinner -- if you can't go into the kitchen, you can't see (or get to) the foods that trigger you.

So this weekend: take a look in your cupboards and pantry. See if your trigger foods are right at eye level -- sitting there calling your name. Move them to a higher shelf, move them to a cupboard or closet that you normally get into. Or (and I am a big fan of this one) clear them out of your house all together -- you can have them...just make yourself work for them.

Done

“If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.” - Dale Carnegie

Today in ZenHabits, Leo is talking about the power of Done. I am a huge advocate of Done -- push through, create, achieve an end point, Done, Hurray!!! Look what I've done!!!

ZenHabits was my inspiration for culling down the philosophy of Eating Coach to:

Omit needless calories. (Simple concept, don't you think?) Done.

But Done in the realm of weight management is a tricky thing. When can you be Done with Mindful Eating?

Is it when you reach your goal weight?

Is it when you have achieved your goal weight and maintained it for one year, two years, five years?

What about when you are just beginning to learn to eat mindfully -- doesn't Done (when you have just mindlessly finished a whole bag of Frito's) seem like it is very far off?

Let's take the Done of mindful eating down a notch. Mindful Eating (by definition) is a practice -- which means you will always be practicing. The Done comes at the end of a meal when you make a conscious decision to stop (even though the food is super-delicious) before the plate is clean and when you have just noticed the very first sensations of something filling your stomach. That definitely gets a Done.

Done is at the end of the day when you realize you didn't have your 3pm snack because you weren't hungry. Done is when you accept that you are really hungry (even though you don't know why) and you eat to satisfy that physical sensation.

But with this definition of Done, it means you keep picking up the ball and striving for "Mindful Dones" at every opportunity.

It is the completion of lots of little Dones that will get you where you want to go and keep you there.

Work as Play

Leo, at Zen Habits, was talking about how he has turned his work into play. How it has transformed his world because he shifted how he looked at what he did.

When I teach classes, I try to emphasize the importance of curiosity in exploring eating habits. If you are curious about your behaviors, you create an environment of learning -- any kinder garden teacher will tell you that.

If you are judgmental of your behaviors, if you label eating ice cream "BAD!" -- it is not going to stop you from eating ice cream but it will stop you from looking at why you eat ice cream. Judgment shuts down the creative part of the brain.

How would your eating behaviors change if you viewed them through the lens of exploration? Looking forward to meals as an opportunity to learn something new about yourself.

Remember: Your goal for eating Mindfully is to maximize your enjoyment of the things you eat AND lose weight by eating 9 bites per day less than you do now.

So where are you going to find those 9 bites? Which 9 bites do you enjoy least? Which ones are the ones that leave you feeling guilty, too full, or uncomfortable? Wouldn't it be great to get rid of those (bites and feelings)? If you get rid of those bites, you would be left with feeling comfortable physically and mentally.

To find those 9 bites, put on your Explorer's Hat and get curious about yourself. Don't judge your behaviors -- just write them down. The 9 least enjoyable bites will be right there in black and white. Once you understand which ones they are, you can make a plan to leave them uneaten.

On loan from the Divine

"It’s like the Sufis say. Everything we have is not truly ours. It’s simply on loan to us from the Divine. We’re not the owners or the controllers, we’re the stewards. It’s up to us to make the most of what we’ve been given." --Pace

The above was a comment in response to a post on the blog Zen Habits. The whole post was great and I think the 2 questions Glen asked are worth asking ourselves -- the first one is:

If someone had a video tape of your typical day, what would they see?


And the second:

Based on your current actions and behaviours, where would you expect to be in five years? (please note the author makes the destinction between where you expect to be based on projecting your current actions vs. where you would like to be -- based on changes you might make. -- we are talking about projecting your current actions out 5 years.)

Many times, when working with a client, I stress that being non-judgmental is necessary to be able to acknowledge behaviors that are not serving you well. I will stress it here again -- don't judge your behaviors!!! I want you to just look them over in your mind's eye and see what you are doing. This is why I encourage you to keep your food journal -- it gives you a tool to examine your behaviors. Creates a habit of awareness about what you are doing so you can look back on what you ate and see if the behaviors are serving you well.

If you look at what you're doing and see that it is not serving you well -- that is the first step. The second step is to find a place to start.

If you are taking to long view of weight management, if you are done with the quick weight loss and then gaining it all back, then which small behavior change (notice behavior change is not plural -- just one) do you think you can make and sustain?

"Okay", you say,"but that change is not going to make all the difference in my losing 50 pounds -- just doing that will not get me to my goal!"

True.

But as you become aware of some of the decisions you are making that consistantly move you away from your goal -- you can make another small change you can live with. People average 250 food decisions daily. Start making one or two differently and the calories will add up.

For example: Let's say you drink two softdrinks a day (real sugar -- not diet). If you reduce your intake to one per day you would save 65700 calories in a year (almost 19 pounds) -- and this is just the calories for a CAN of soda -- not a 20 oz. bottle! So... this one change would get you almost half way to your goal of losing 50 pounds. Yup, it would take a whole year to achieve BUT...it's only a 1 can of soda change.

And how much better of a steward of what you have been given (a body that gets you from place to place, a body that lets you feel hugs from the people you love, a body that gives you the ability to make others smile) would you be by making just this one small change?