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Dieting Mindsets on Cravings…. Hawkin’s Cheezies, etc… I am reflecting on a quote that StomachMonkey’s posted today (included below). I have a lot of respect for the mindset he has towards what he eats, and how adaptive he has been to what he has learned! Everyone should tour his well documented food journals. I am kind of partial to mindsets, but many people don’t realize that they are the key to changing our undesirable behaviours. This long article (sorry) applies as much to cigarettes, as it does to unhealthy eating habits. They are not dissimilar! It is my mindset to treat them with the same respect, because each of them causes no less long-term damage to our otherwise beautiful lives.. I am going to start off strong here, so, please don’t be discouraged by “my mindset”. It is not without experience. I don’t do anything half way! I am all in, or I am out until I figure out a better plan! I never quit. I know a thing or two about addictions. They are inherent, and a constant struggle within ADHD. Unhealthy eating is very similar, if not identical to addictive behaviour. Don’t kid yourself. These habits can be as deep-seated as a drug. Your mind is not really in control of your actions anymore. The craving feeling rules out any latitude for making the right choices. You want it, and you want it as soon as possible. You know it’s a problem, and you do it anyways. Your “unhealthy mindset” tells you: “it’s just junk food!!!” I said that about every junk food, and a lot of drugs before it I lost control of them. I tell you it is not that different. In fact, it is so similar, it sends shivers through me! If you can accept that mindset, then you are already beat the odds! If you feel that cravings are causing your diet a lot of problems, then to overcome them, you have to take them seriously. You can’t just say I will stop. Junk food in particular is textbook addictive behaviour. The big difference is, food cravings don’t hang on after you quit, like drugs do. Still, it takes a month to lay waste to a mental habit, and a year to prove it to yourself. With food, and some drugs, the mental habit is harder to break that the physical one. By mental, I mean those recurring cravings that keep telling you should cave, and that is where the new mindset gives you that fighting chance. I create such powerful mindsets that they repulse me from ever submitting to that craving again. It is the only thing that I know works for most people. So much so, that it is a primary behavioural tool in psychotherapy. Most of us don’t need therapy to quit habitual eating, but we do need a mental deterrent, and a healthy alternative that is always available. If we are not evolving healthy dieting mindsets to replace the bad ones, then we are not working in our own best interests to reach our goals. I think it is the main reason we struggle with old habits. Not all of us, but most of us are here because of unhealthy eating habits - it is all relative. If they are not unhealthy, then maybe unbalanced. If you realized that every one of those eating habits are fostered by unhealthy mindsets, then all you would have to do is replace the unhealthy mindset with a healthy one. I will get to that… The simplest examples are junk food. Why do we eat it? We know it is not good for us, but we cave to the salt, the sugar, and the intense artificial flavour fix. Fast foods are synonymous with junk food. If we are honest with our recorded daily foods, FatSecret seems to animate that understanding by showing us where our calories and nutrients are coming from, leaving us feeling both good and bad at the same time. This shows us both the deterrent and the alternative the same time. How good is that, if you are up to the challenge that brought you here? Calorie counting in FatSecret is a real eye opener for me. I made some uninformed changes to my diet before I started out here, but I didn’t change a lot of things because I did not know what they were. I thought I was starting off strong, but where I am is, at the beginning! FatSecret, in the very first week, itemizes and displays your weak areas and sticks them in your face, where only those of us in denial could ignore the simple truth. I know we are all different, but if you are here counting calories, the nutrition numbers are where those calories are coming from, and the meals we are eating are linked to every one of those calories. The beauty of the program is in its simplicity — “Watch your foods”! So, how do you change a behaviour like the coveted 80gram bag of Hawkin’s Cheezies with 430 calories, 26grams of fat, and 700mg sodium!!! What was I thinking? What a mindless bag of those things will do to my days numbers is a real travesty. And if I have two of those bags in a week, it drives those numbers, to the number one position of that week’s calorie chart for a single food product. That’s where I am starting — I thought I liked them - it was just a snack, right? But now when I see them in perspective of their real value, I am repulsed. Still, they taste pretty damned good! What am I going to do when I get a craving? I can’t just say that “I won’t”, and think that is good enough. I had to take some time. I create new mindsets through writing, but do whatever it takes, you need a new healthy mindset to replace the old one. Well, I already figured out the deterrent, and I have a fridge & cupboard full of healthy snacks and drinks that will take the edge off of anything. Some are higher in calories and nutrients than others, but none of them a bad for me. It is not going to give me the same instant gratification, but that craving feeling is never going to last. I have successfully turned my back on a lot of addictions. I know that feeling! So, what’s left of my argument? Meh! That’s my only argument and the new mindset —> deterrent, healthy alternative, pat yourself on the back. I will waffle for a while, because that is what addictive behaviours do. After a week or two it will not be as distracting. In a month, the feeling is all but gone. You’re not done, but your on the home stretch. The rest is establishing the new habit. I think that FatSecret is a pretty darned good program if you don’t mind crunching the numbers that mean the most to you. I love being able to see what I did well and what I could have done better last week. That is the source of your new mindsets. Explore the program. Find out what works for you. Soon, I will be able to anticipate changes, in next weeks menus. StomachMonkey’s has it right! Do your exercises, keep it simple and focus on the foods and food behaviours. Don’t worry about how many calories the app says you are burning. If you are in control of your food, and your not making progress, drop your calorie intake or exercise more. If you choose the former, don’t worry about feeling hungry all the time, your stomach will shrink… It’s all in our heads - success I mean… attitude & MindSets — be well
Diet Calendar Entries for 04 April 2023:
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1481 kcal
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Fat: 66.71g | Prot: 110.38g | Carb: 125.92g.
Breakfast: Banana, Liberte 5% Greek Yogurt, Fresh Fruit Salad, Soft Boiled Egg, Becel Margarine, Dimpflmeier Light Rye Bread. Lunch: Bulk Barn Vanilla Whey Protein Isolate, Dimpflmeier Light Rye Bread, Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise, Liberte Greek Yogurt 0%, Chicken Breast (Skin Not Eaten), Margarine, Fresh Fruit Salad. Snacks/Other: Cheddar Cheese. more...
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 Comments
Aww…I feel all warm and fuzzy now. Glad you could pull something of value form my ramblings and posts. 😎
04 Apr 23 by member: StomachMonkeys
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Thank you Margatyna, for chiming in (and reading that long article - I eventually made my point)… It’s a tough topic. The kind of thing that, if one has not thought about it before, they might be more inclined to dismiss it… I googled your dopamine detoxification topic… it is like a recovery handbook for addictive behaviours. Thanks for dropping that :)
Right now, the snacks that I am replacing the old habits with, I don’t really need to eat at all. It is anxiety. I have a habit of evening snacks, but nothing during the day. The big difference between food and drugs, is that you can’t quit food. You have to change what you think, and how you behave. In time, all these things will make dramatic changes.
As it stands, in the last 2 months, my BP has dropped 40 points systolic and 20 points diastolic and I have stopped taking one of my BP medications, will probably reduce another in a month? Take care. DV
04 Apr 23 by member: DrewsyVugs
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Ciggies we’re one of my earliest positive health mindset changes in this ever-evolving noggin of mine...
04 Apr 23 by member: StomachMonkeys
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I get that StomachMonkey’s! For four decades, I couldn’t get past the next drink without a cig. I resented the smoking so much that I ended up quitting both, drinking first… six months to the day and on my b’day, I quit smoking. That was 20 years ago… As Margatyna pointed out… for me the drinking triggered my dopamine levels in a huge way. That the ADHD at work. Both of them deeply seated addictions. Both of them unseated by very determined mindsets… Dopamine and ADHD are bonded at the hip.
I say I create them when I am writing. Writing triggers my dopamine levels too, again ADHD, but, for the most part, in a good way. I am deep in hyper focus when I write. This is the only time I can convince myself that the mindset is good enough to do the job. There are some that say I should not be doing that… that I should suppress that behaviour because it elevates my dopamine levels. I say, that at 67, it is too late for me, but who knows??? It is my only concise form of communication. If it were not for writing, I could not think clearly. Not even with the meds. The focal point of my recovery, and therefore my therapy is writing. I send in over 50 pages a week. None of it negative :) Sorry, I’m rambling for the shameless sake of education… be well and thanks for dropping by DV
04 Apr 23 by member: DrewsyVugs
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I say I am 67, it is too late for me… what I meant by that, is I was only just diagnosed with the ADHD 2 months ago, but I have suspected for nearly a year. I have not stopped researching & writing about it since…
04 Apr 23 by member: DrewsyVugs
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Saw this today and thought it might appeal to you:
https://hubermanlab.com/leverage-dopamine-to-overcome-procrastination-and-optimize-effort/
“ In this episode, I explain how dopamine dynamics — meaning changes and interactions between our baseline and peak levels of dopamine drive our cravings and sense of motivation. I also explain how to leverage dopamine dynamics to overcome procrastination. I cover behavioral, cognitive, nutrition-based and supplementation-based tools to optimize baseline and peak dopamine levels to ensure a persistently motivated state. I also discuss how to boost motivation when you are in a rut, why you might not want to stack behaviors/substances that spike dopamine and how to build and maintain a “growth mindset” for pursuing goals of any kind. Dopamine is an incredibly powerful neuromodulator involved in basic functions (e.g., hunger, romantic attraction, etc.) and feats of cognitive and physical performance; by understanding the dynamics of dopamine, listeners ought to be better positioned to overcome procrastination, maintain motivation, and improve confidence”
05 Apr 23 by member: StomachMonkeys
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Keeping up with just following you StomachMonkey’s, is a full time job. I ever so appreciate your thoughtfulness. I saw your progress photos the other day. Well done. It is true that a persons kindness shows through their eyes… I will follow up on that link and who knows? Maybe there’s another story…
StomachMonkey’s: I have to ask - do you fair from down under? I have a dear friend from Sydney, rest his soul, who was the spitting image of you - if I can use that turn of phrase :) Be Well DV
05 Apr 23 by member: DrewsyVugs
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Nope. Canadian born and raised! Just a prairie boy who’s been transplanted to the west coast. 😎
05 Apr 23 by member: StomachMonkeys
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Hey StomachMonkey’s: I watched the first hour of that podcast with great interest. Thank you very much! But, haha, I have to point out that the “A” in ADHD stands for attention deficit, and he lost me in the second hour with his exercises to maintain and increase your dopamine levels. That I don’t need :) :) :) The theory is, that for ADHD I am supposed to avoid those things that trigger my levels. I suppose this is to control addictions, including foods. For me, that would result in disaster. I would have to give up writing, which would mean I could NOT create a MindSet worth a pinch of curry (and I survive by my MindSets), and I would have to give up therapy, because writing is my only clear form of communication for my thoughts and feelings… I have absolutely no access to them outside of this keyboard. It is this keyboard that gives me focus on a single thought stream. Otherwise, I am thinking about ten things at a time.
I was a problem solver for technical industries, not just computers, but the sciences. They send me a well defined forward thinking problem in writing, and give me as much time as I need to process it, sometimes years, and I bounce chaotically off of well researched ideas until I come up with answers. When I return to the real world, which I do frequently, I feel empowered, as if from meditation or yoga, and not exhausted. I work on ten of those problems at a time, because that is what it takes to make function and feel “normal”. I am not particularly brilliant, I am just tenacious. All else, when not challenged, my mind is a total waste of time. I can’t keep a job cleaning floors and there have been times I have had to try.
It is interesting that he says dopamine peaks don’t last more than an hour? I can’t argue with his measurements, In contrast, I can remain hyper-motivated in hyper focus for months on end… I work on these problems in my sleep and it is more common than not that I will wake up with a Eureka answer and head straight to work on proving it… I intentionally sleep on my most taxing problems…
By his every description, it has to be dopamine that is motivating me. And it is quite possible, given his explanations, that the mere fluke of my life has cultivated the perfect dopamine storm, in other words, have I naturally exercised the elevation to the point that I can trigger what I need at will, without restriction. It sure seems that way? Something keeps me in the zone that I don’t understand, and probably never will.
Whatever it is, it is the only meaningful part of my life. I feel like I am without bounds because of it, and I have achieved things beyond my dreams. Although my therapist’s scratch their heads, they look at my progress in the last ten weeks and they can see that it is all because of writing. I have become, my last, and greatest problem to solve - so I hope you don’t mind that I share my discoveries with all of you? Be well, DV
07 Apr 23 by member: DrewsyVugs
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That’s a long comment…tried to read while on my spin bike, but too tough at the moment…I’ll have to come back to it when I’m not breathing quite as heavy 😅🥵
07 Apr 23 by member: StomachMonkeys
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Yeah, sorry about that… I write these things offline. They don’t seem so long, and they are in multiple paragraphs before I paste them in here… I seem to have rambled on for some reason… no filters :(
07 Apr 23 by member: DrewsyVugs
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No worries. Write away. It was just tough to see on a phone screen while I was peddling my ass off 😜
As with everything health and fitness related, take what makes sense to you, and don’t sweat too much about the rest of the details. This is an ever evolving science, after all. And the nice thing about podcasts is you can break them down to manageable chunks. Joe Rogan has one of the most listened to podcasts, but most of them are somewhere around the 3 hour mark. I doubt the majority are catching that in one sitting, but I could be wrong…🤷🏼♂️
07 Apr 23 by member: StomachMonkeys
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