Basic Pursuits

Last week I wrote a post on a study that essentially said that most people are fine if they simply drink when they are thirsty. You don't need to force yourself to drink some arbitrary amount, like a gallon a day.

At the end of the article, the author of the study mentioned that it might be interesting to pursue the idea that water can make you feel full. It might make you feel full to the extent that you would cut back on eating. I've been thinking about that ever since.

In my experience, nothing can really fool the body. I've never been able to trick my body into thinking that it's getting plenty of calories when it's not. Believe me, I've tried every trick from filling up on water to eating pickled jalapina peppers to shooting straight vinegar, all gulped down in the attempt to make me less hungry. It might work for half hour or so, but then my body starts making demands for more calories and sends me signals in the form of nagging hunger.

I think my body gets used to a certain amount of food and then fights like a pit bull to keep me consuming that amount of food. No amount of trickery like drinking excessive amounts of water or plain vinegar is going to change that. Even if I managed to fight off the pit bull of hunger for a few weeks to lose weight, the old dog simply waits until my guard is down and then compels me to eat like a horse. And I regain the weight.

So how do I deal with the pit bull of hunger? By not working against him. What he hates is sudden change. He will accommodate gradual change. If I'm eating 2800 calories a day and I cut back to 2700, the old pit bull barely notices. If I then cut back to 2700 or 2600, and I maintain that level for several weeks, he doesn't bother me. He just hates sudden changes. He seems willing to work with me with gradual changes.

In order to make gradual changes, I have to have good information. That's why I measure the food that I eat for calories and for nutrition. In the jungle of junk that is the Americana food supply, there is no other way.

There is an added bonus to gradual changes. They tend to stick. The changes become a way of life and not a "diet." As we all know, 90 percent of diets fail.

Eating well simply means eating well and eating the right amounts. No amount of water can change that.

Photo by Rick Takagi