I have a confession – I overate at lunch on Friday. It’s not something I do often, and afterward, I remembered why. Here are my 3 biggest reasons for disliking overeating. Back in Old Patterns I used to overeat all the time, although I didn’t usually recognize it, since I was in the mindless eating phase. I was also very out of touch with my body, so it was much harder to tell if I was eating too much. I don’t enjoy going back into those old patterns of not recognizing my hunger and fullness cues. Although in this case, if I’m being honest, I knew I was overeating and did it anyway. Not that choosing to overeat is bad, per se, but I did it without thinking much about the consequences. And t
I recently read The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates, and even though she didn’t talk about weight discrimination as a form of oppression, I couldn’t help thinking about it. If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s about Melinda Gates’s experiences of gender equality – or usually inequality – in her personal life but mostly in her work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The book focuses on the importance of education for girls, knowledge of family planning, and access to contraception, all with the goal of finding ways to lift women up. Why girls and women? Why the focus on women? “Understanding [the link] between women’s empowerment and the
Did you know that having the option of nutritious foods at a fast food restaurant can make it more likely for you to get fries and a burger? Or that you’re likely to underestimate the number of calories in a meal or snack if you think some part of it is healthy or good? Like if the Oreos are organic, or the lasagna comes with a salad? I didn’t know any of that until reading The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal. And it all comes down to something called moral licensing. What is moral licensing? Moral licensing comes with placing judgment on activities or things by saying they’re good or bad. Then you think of
It’s easy to think that if a little of something is good, then more of it must be better. But the reality is, too much of anything can have negative effects – including self-control. As Kelly McGonigal writes in The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It: “Because self-control also demands high levels of energy, some scientists speculate that chronic self-control – like chronic stress – can increase your chances of getting sick by diverting resources from the immune system.” (p. 48) Even more, too much self-control can actually lead to willpower failures. This initially surprised me, but it made sense the more I thought about it. Wha
