Eat when you're hungryHabits

unbry

Eat when you're hungry

A short book about eating because you're bored, sad or stressed, and finding the feeling still there afterwards

23 chapters11,885 wordsAbout 54 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit. Something happens, or nothing happens, and you find yourself in…2 min
1Wednesday, ten to fourIt's ten to four on a Wednesday afternoon. You're working at the kitchen table, as you do two days a week, and an email has come in from a client. It's…3 min
2Why eating the feeling seems sensibleI don't want to start by telling you that food isn't the answer. You know that, and you've told yourself so on every visit for years. It hasn't helped…2 min
3"I'm an emotional eater"You may have a name for yourself. You're an emotional eater. You've done the online quiz, or a friend has said it, or you've said it about yourself with a…2 min
4"Food calms me down"The plainest defence of the visit is that it works. You were wound up, you ate, and you felt better. If it does that, what's the objection? Let me take…2 min
5"I'm stressed, I need something"Stress is the visit's most respectable reason. You've had a day. The client email, two meetings that overran, a child's form due tomorrow. By ten to four…2 min
6"I'm just bored"Half past nine, the sofa, nothing on, and the crisps. There's no email here and no phone call. You'd struggle to name a feeling at all. You're just bored…2 min
7"It's the only comfort I've got"On Sunday, after the call with your mother, the toast and peanut butter was something else. It wasn't stress and it wasn't boredom. You felt small and sad…2 min
8"But I really am hungry"Sometimes the pull arrives dressed as hunger, and you can't tell them apart. It's ten to four. You had lunch at one. Perhaps you are hungry. Perhaps…2 min
9"It's the only break I get"Here's an objection I think is fair. You're at the kitchen table from half past eight until six, with a screen in front of you. Nobody would blink at you…2 min
10"I can't just sit there feeling it"This is the belief that the whole habit rests on, and I'd like to spend some time on it. It says that the feeling is unbearable, or at least unpleasant…2 min
11"Well, the day's ruined now"The after has a sentence in it, and the sentence causes more visits than any feeling does. It's ten to four, you've had the crackers, and you think…2 min
12"I'll be good from Monday"Every few weeks the after builds up into a resolution. From Monday, no snacks. Nothing between meals. Perhaps a proper diet this time, one with a name.…2 min
13"The kitchen's right there"Some visits have no feeling in them worth naming. It's half past nine, the crisps are in the cupboard, and the cupboard is on the way from the sofa to the…2 min
14What the visits costYou may think the habit costs a few hundred calories a day and some mild self-reproach. I think it costs more, and most of this chapter is my own…2 min
15Naming the feelingThe first practical step is the ask. It goes in the gap between the pull and the visit, and it takes about ten seconds. Everything in this chapter is my…2 min
16Answering the feelingOnce the feeling has a name, it can be answered, and the answer depends on the name. That's the whole point of naming. Food is one answer to everything…3 min
17The ten minutesHere's the piece that makes the rest possible. When the pull arrives and you're not hungry, you give it ten minutes before you decide anything. Not ten…2 min
18Eating when you are hungryThis book has spent a lot of pages on not eating, and I'd like to correct the balance, because the other half of the rule is the more important one. When…2 min
19The decisionThis chapter asks you to decide something. It comes late because at the start it would have sounded like the advice you've always been given, which is to…3 min
20Evenings, hormones, offers and the times it's out of controlWhen it's the evening, after everyone's in bed. This is the commonest time and the hardest, because the feeling is usually a mixture of tired, flat and…3 min
21Wednesday againIt's ten to four on a Wednesday afternoon, some months on. You're at the kitchen table, and an email has come in from a client. It's polite and it's…2 min
·NotesThis book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical or dietary advice, and it's no substitute for a doctor or a dietitian who…4 min