A Week of Eating Consciously, Parameters and Day 1

After writing a post about how I want to really put conscious eating to the test, I decided to follow the lead of many fellow bloggers and really try to chronicle the process.

First, here is what I WON'T be tracking:

• The actual foods I eat. With rare exceptions (i.e. fruit snack), I will not mention whether I ate eggs, bread, cake, chocolate, cheese, etc. etc.
• The amount I ate, i.e. one apple, 3/4 of a sandwich.
• I am not weighing myself at the beginning of this experiment. I'm not yet sure when I'll weigh myself next, possibly in the middle of next week since that will be two weeks since my recent bout of scale bingeing.
  

Here is what I WILL be tracking:

• My hunger level as I start eating.
• The speed at which I ate.
• Did I eat everything that I'd served myself?
  
• My physical satisfaction at the end of the meal (stuffed, full, still hungry??).
• My psychological satisfaction at the end of the meal (I've had enough, I want more, and if so, what do I want, how long does the psychological disastisfaction last?).
• How I felt while eating (bored, satisfied, antsy).

By tracking my feelings about my eating, I'm hoping to get a better handle on the whole issue of satisfaction and see if I can guide myself towards greater satisfaction while eating in a way that's healthy for me.

DAY 1:

Breakfast: I hadn't yet decided to do this experiment so there's no use talking about breakfast.

Lunch: around 11:45

• quite hungry
• tried to eat more slowly, but feel that I still ate quite quickly
• did not eat everything I'd put on my plate
• felt physically satisfied (not too much, not too little to eat)
• felt really bored while eating; desperately wanted to read the paper
  
• felt psychologically totally disatisfied; wanted more but couldn't really identify what I wanted; felt the struggle between physical and psychological satisfaction/disatisfaction
• disatisfaction lasted at least an hour
• went for a long walk
  

Snack: around 2:30 p.m.

• realized I no longer felt disatisfied, just a bit hungry
• eating speed still high, but how to stretch out eating a very small portion?
• ate the whole snack
• felt physically satisfied
• felt bored while eating (where's the paper??!!!)
• felt only mildly disatisfied (two glasses of water, one before, one after really filled me up)

Snack: around 4:15 p.m.

• tiny bit peckish, somewhat bored
• ate snack moderately, went back to pantry for another small snack, ate it at the table
• felt physically satisfied, but also tired
• felt bored while eating
• felt psychologically tired too, missing hubby who had to go into work (it's Saturday)

Snack: around 5:30 p.m.

• felt very hungry
• ate small, extremely healthy snack, but ate quickly while watching video with hubby
• enjoyed snack immensely but regretted not having eaten the whole bag with hubby (it was a VERY healthy snack)

Supper: around 6:30 p.m.

• really hungry but tried to eat at a moderate pace
• ate at table, talking to hubby and son (unfortunately, they were half reading paper/half talking to me)
• ate full portion but did not go back for more since I wanted a (relatively healthy) dessert
• finished dessert...but didn't lick the bowl!
• felt quite full and emotionally satisfied
• 15 minutes later felt slightly overly full

Snack: around 10:30 p.m.

• felt peckish
• ate snack standing in kitchen, concentrated on food though standing, ate quickish
• felt physically satisfied but a bit sheepish about time and nature of snack

We'll see what tomorrow brings!