virtual eating

Great story this morning on NPR about research into how visualizing eating something may actually help you reduce how much of it you "need" (i.e., binging, portion control, etc.).  It is a scientific study that starts to get at "head hunger" and phenoma like it.  VERY interesting and a technique that many of us can use, easily and for free, to potentially control urges.

(warning - there is a photo of a bowl of M&Ms... but it's part of the story, not "food porn")
www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/12/10/131931919/allison-s-m-ms -piece

Enjoy!
Karen

Karen –
I find this really interesting.
Last weekend I went out for my first steak dinner since surgery. For days before I talked about the restaurant, the menu, exactly what I was going to eat. I got there, waited 30 minutes for a table all the while thinking “This is going to be soooo good".
Sat down, skipped salad and bread – really wanted room for that steak - had about 4 bites and was over it. Completely over it. Nothing wrong with the steak and I wasn’t full, I was just done. I wonder if this feeling had something to do with how much I practically fantasized what I was going to eat.

I think it easily could have... after all, you had planned and demystified and to some extent de-glamorized the event, so had removed a lot of the emotionality out of it. 

K.