How to Get Enough Water and Snack Less
Here’s a simple diet / health trick worth trying: Every time something tries to wend its way down your gullet (um, specifically for purposes of ingestion–!) — ask yourself,
“Was the last thing that I ingested water?”
If the answer is no, drink water first. I’ve been doing this since Friday and the results are startling. By taking a few large swallows (at least) of water in-between everything else I eat or drink, I estimate that my intake has at least tripled (it needed to), and my food intake, especially of snacks, is down a lot, and I don’t feel at all hungry. (In fact, I almost got sick last night trying to eat a normal amount of a snack…it’s not that I don’t eat the snacks, but I end up eating a LOT less.)
The reason I’m trying this is that I have a small problem with eating…with a nasty oral fetish, and having quit smoking and (mostly) quit biting my nails, I tend to snack compulsively. I’ve done well with switching to mostly “good” snacks, though I know that if I push it too hard, I’ll fall off the wagon, so my answer was to ban *cheap* junk food, which cut my intake of sugar by a lot but didn’t stop me from eating too much in general. (And hey, the only known thing that definitely leads to longer lifespan is reduced calorie intake.)
The water thing helps a lot more, both by filling me up a little and by removing dehydration, one of the major reasons people eat too much — being mildly dehydrated feels like being hungry, believe it or not. Probably 4 times out of ten, if I reach for a snack now, remember that I’m due a drink of water, and drink the water, I realize I didn’t really want the snack.
I’ll be darned.
Oh, a caveat — Especially if you’re chronically dehydrated (many people are) and/or your diet sucks, suddenly getting enough water can mess with your system for a few days. This is a good thing overall (what healers call a “healing crisis”), but it can suck a bit at first. It’s not uncommon to temporarily feel bloated (if your body is dehydrated, it will initially absorb all the water it can, until it realizes that there’ll be more), to have a short bout of diarrhea (as the ol’ intestines get flushed out), or other symptoms. They shouldn’t be icky for more than a day or two, though, and should be gone in a week, two if you were *really* screwed up.
-PD
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