Wednesday, February 22, 2012

appetite still down

The scale read 3/4 pounds lower AGAIN today -- not that i'm complaining!  :-)   I DO find it exceptionally interesting.

It has occurred to me recently, how artificial are our eating cues these days.  If a paleo/primal outlook should do anything, it's to bring to our attention what natural human behavior really is, and how we have perverted it.  Not only is WHAT we're eating out-of-phase with the natural:  HOW we're eating is just plain WARPED.

     "I'll eat when i'm hungry, i'll drink when i'm dry,
         and if the moonshine don't kill me, i'll live till i die!"

:-D

Except ... we DON'T.  We eat by the clock, and we eat what is lying around handy, and we try to eat as much as we can get away with.  WHY?  Why do we feel compelled to eat when we're not hungry?  If a certain foodstuff is labelled "healthy," why do we feel like we have to consume it, even if we don't have an urge to do so?

The ancient peoples whose health and fitness we want to duplicate would not feel inclined to find something to eat if they were already satisfied, unless it were stuffing on fruit in autumn, to put on weight to last the winter (which is apparent from our disinclination to stop eating glucose-supplying foods when we once start).  The other day, when i was overfilling myself on meat, this was a prominent thought.  As an experiment, this behavior might be interesting and instructive, but as an everyday occurrence, i can only believe that it undermines health. 

Now, here's where someone with decades of experience has a breadth of understanding that young "obesity experts" may never obtain!  I clearly remember being constantly unsatisfied on a low-fat regimen, and the bliss of Atkins lay in the ability to eat to appetite and still lose weight.  Perhaps this is why some "new" low-carbers overdo (and fail ultimately) -- they are so hungry from before, and their bodies react so gratefully to consuming animal fats, they lose track of their natural appetites when they have permission to eat these traditional foods. 

That, and all the low-carb treats which seduce one into thinking one CAN eat one's cake and have it, too -- quite literally.  [shaking head]  superfluous foods -- junk calories -- are something to avoid no matter what they're made of.

Appetite is something we need to listen to very carefully.  You have to be able to distinguish belly-hunger from mouth /imagination-hunger.  If we ignore it and restrain our eating to save calories, we set ourselves up for mistakes later -- i think this applies to pretty much everybody!  Beyond that, i believe one has to know one's body very well indeed, because they DON'T always perform predictably.  THIS is the problem with the medical business' "one size fits all" prescriptions.

If you're belly-hungry, EAT (that is, eat something which YOU have found truly nourishes YOU).  If you're not, DON'T.  I'm going to eat within Donaldson's guidelines, but not more than appetite allows -- that should improve the program.  I'll let you know....

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