Enjoying food more: a case study in third options

I'm going to say that this advice doesn't work for everyone.

Some people are taste-motivated and some people are fullness-motivated.

My whole family is taste-motivated. They have specific foods that they love; fine food is very important to them; to them, "dieting" means eating smaller quantities, because giving up their favorite foods altogether is out of the question. I'm the one who horrifies my mother by eating beef jerky. It's fairly healthy, it satisfies my hunger, and it tastes good to me, the way all food does. Seriously, all food tastes good to me, with few exceptions. Sometimes I crave fat or protein or sugar, but I never crave a specific food. What's really important to me is feeling full -- I hate being hungry.

So I actually hate that "savoring" business. I'm starving! I want to be not-starving! That's the point of food! Savoring it is just prolonging the period when I'm starving. And the "want" vs. "like" confuses me -- I understand the notion, but I can't apply it to food in my case. I like (almost) everything! (Sure, I desire things I shouldn't eat, like desserts, but it's not a want/like thing -- I both want and like them.)

Where this logic actually makes sense to me is recreation. Intense fun -- going out with friends to have a new, exciting, transcendently wonderful experience -- is actually remarkably easy. It's just that most people spend their free time budget on mild fun -- TV, movies, internet. One of the things I'm trying to do is to focus more of my fun budget on intense fun.

Here is what works for me, it's a set of behaviors and strict and loose rules. Hopefully this helps somebody, and perhaps someone can use this as a data point or extrapolate this into useful patterns.

Strict Rules:

1) Never be hungry. If I am hungry, I may overeat or find it hard to resist unhealthful food. Therefore, I snack constantly. 2) Eat some protein many times a day. This maintains muscles, which burn calories 24/7.

Loose rules:

1) Avoid corn syrup as much as possible. 2) Don't drink calories. No soda, no coffee, only straight green tea, no milk, no sugar. There are two exceptions: 1% fat milk and low sodium vegetable (not fruit!) juice. I drink a ton of it. I cheat by drinking beer, which is why it is "loose". 3) Severely restrict simple carbohydrate and grain intake, especially processed. This is a loose rule because it is impossible to abstain from simple sugar and probably not desirable. My snack bars have only somewhat more sugar than protein, as does milk. 4) Drink water, tea or milk before eating. Sometimes thirst feels like hunger. I am not strict enough about this. 5) Restrict unfermented soy to moderation; soy is the quickest and easiest way to get cheap protein but it resembles estrogen to your body.

Behaviors:

1) Be self confident. Other people gorge at mealtimes. If you spend all day snacking, you have "ruined you dinner" as my mother would put it. I don't eat just because everyone else is. On the other hand, if it's impolite to eat where you are, pull out a healthy snack bar and eat anyway. 2) Buy distinguished portions as self control. When I got a 32 oz. jug of real maple syrup, it lasted a couple days, likewise when I bought 5 pounds of honey. However, usually, for me, one package=one meal if it is a delicious food. One chocolate bar of any size=one serving. That's how I am. 3) Buy food easy to eat. If I buy whole carrots, I will not peel it. That's just reality. I spring for the more expensive "baby" carrots. If I buy regular spinach, I will probably eat it without washing it thoroughly enough, so I get pre-washed.

Recipes:

1) Microwaved yams. Me and my dog share one or more of these a day. 3-5 min. depending on size. I eat the skin, these are a good portable snack. $1/pound. No butter, etc. 2) Microwaved liver. I would eat this every day, but it has too much cholesterol and vitamin A. Don't get the store-prepared stuff, which has sugar in it. Covered, it cooks in its own juices in a few minutes. Share with dog. $2-3/pound. 3) Microwaved and raw tomatoes. Who decided that apples can be eaten whole as a snack, but not tomatoes? $1-3/pound depending on season and if from farmer's market. Tomatoes are bad for dogs-too acidic. 4) Sprouted whole multi grain bread, Much denser and cheaper than other bread. $3 for 1.5 pounds in NYC, $1 less than a one pound loaf of other bread. Put ground almonds on it, $6-7/pound. Add honey, $4/pound. Share with dog, but dog gets $2/pound mass produced peanut butter instead and no honey. 5) Tofu and tempeh. $2-3/pound. Share with dog. 6) Microwaved spinach can be easily compacted into a small space. Even if you don't like it, a pound well-cooked isn't many bites. $3/pound. Share with dog, but not too much. 7) These food bars, which make one really thirsty for milk and are cost effective for a soy free protein bar. Milk is cheap. Everyone knows chocolate is bad for dogs, right?

Lifestyle:

1) Get a dog, then you have to take him/her out. Once you are out, a major obstacle to running around the block is removed, and your dog will want to go. Also, dogs are wonderful. 2) Be self confident. Do pull-ups on the subway and on construction scaffolding during a lunch break. It does not matter what other people think. 3) Sprint up real stairs for exercise. This 1) builds muscle better than other running programs, and so will give you flesh that will eat calories 24/7, 2) burns calories faster than other running, 3) will not be subject to the weather, 4) works your arms. Rest from taking steps two at a time by taking them one at a time or using your arms more.

Also, pay attention to how you feel after eating. If you associate feeling tired, energized, dehydrated, clear-headed, whatever with the taste of your previous meal, you will naturally want healthy food, and unhealthy food will be unappetizing, with no will power required.

I heartily endorse eating better food, including making trade-offs with time and/or money to do so. There can be little doubt that there's a trade-off between long term health and hedonic value of food as well, but certainly most of us are not at the frontier.

I would recommend also:

Step four: Be willing to throw food away.

A lot of people attach strong negative emotions to throwing away food, even if the food is no longer worth eating. Some of it is pure sunk costs, but often it goes beyond that and many people look upon it as a moral issue, or that it means somehow taking food away from someone else who needs it. It isn't one, and you're not.

One crucial observation is that without conscious self-discipline, most people will end up consuming far more calories than their bodies actually spend; the surplus energy will likely be the equivalent of gaining several pounds a month. (The only exceptions are people with unusually low appetite and those who are extremely fit and athletic.) However, in most cases, not nearly all of these extra calories will be turned into extra weight. It's as if your body has a certain threshold weight, so that if you are below that, any extra calorie will be stored as fat, but if your weight is above that, it will remain stable or creep upward only very slowly.

The trouble is, it's still a total mystery what exactly determines this threshold, and what, if anything, one could do to push it downwards. I ate and drank liberally until my late twenties and nevertheless remained around my ideal weight, even though my total superfluous energy intake through the years was probably enough to double my weight if stored at full efficiency. But then at one point I suddenly realized that every extra calorie is starting to stick with frightening efficiency. (I have no desire to find out what my new threshold is, but based on the experiences from the time I realized it, it went up by at least ~15 pounds.) I wonder if this is an irreversible and unavoidable symptom of aging.

Re: footnote 4:

Perhaps you are thinking of the post Are wireheads happy?.

As long as I'm contemplating updating my food blog again (having been so insistently nudged), is there anything specific people would like to see there?

I experienced that enjoying food for me also has to do with how much time I spent actually making the food, not only how long it takes me to consume it. Cooking meals myself makes me value them much more than only eating them, because I exactly know cooking that food was work.

It is, to a certain degree, similar to the joy caused by problem solving: I am happy about having found a solution myself, in long, hard work. If someone else hands me the solution or if the problem is too easy, I won't be happy looking at that solution, I just say, "well, umm, fine. Let's continue with our original task" without any emotion arising.

This seems to be very closely related to Not for the Sake of Happiness (Alone), the process is part of the goal. This insight, that going the way is part of its destination (if I may say it that way), might also be a key step to enjoying food more.

I wonder if avoiding the food that you merely "want" and eating something you'll "like" will always be sufficient for ridding yourself of the original desire. Suppose I finish that slice of cheesecake, but my cheeto craving remains unfulfilled? Perhaps it would be helpful to give into our desires in very small amounts, like eating 4 cheetos instead of the bag, so as to not carry around a bunch of unrealized desires all the time.

This is only moderately relevant, but I suspect that most people who find this post interesting will also like it.

Hmm, I have some tips along these lines as well, although mine are[s] more numerous and[/s] less insight/reliable/long. Actually, lets make each a different comment to give some ranking to them by the karma system, like a poll.

Edit; err, or not. that was an embarrassing failure of introspection.

Hmm, I have some tips along these lines as well, although mine are more numerous and less insight/reliable/long. Actually, lets make each a different comment to give some ranking to them by the karma system, like a poll.

Eat better food includes buying better ingredients if you cook.

Hooray! An economist who uses the budget function to think, instead of to deny reality. Upvoted.