I’ve talked about it mental aspects of healthy eating in the past. I’ve been cutting back a bit from eating junk food lately, and when I went for my annual doctor’s checkup (a “wellness visit” in Medicare parlance), my weight had gone up a bit. I’ll be seeing her in August for a follow-up, so this is a good opportunity to be stricter for three months.
I had an interesting conversation with Gemini about things like mindful eating and what to do when the voice of temptation whispers sweetly in my ear. I shared the chat Here. I asked for reading suggestions and Gemini told me about the book “The Craving Mind” by Dr. Jud Brewer. Good tip, it was an excellent and fascinating book. This isn’t about food specifically, it’s about food cravings in general, but the neuroscience of different food cravings has a lot of overlap.
Dr. Brewer improved his own mental health and happiness by diligently practicing mindfulness and meditation exercises during medical school. This led him to make psychiatry his medical specialty. He has treated patients and conducted research using mindfulness techniques and cutting-edge technologies fmri since graduating and this book details his experiences.
An interesting topic is that BF Skinner’s old behavioral psychology ideas about rewards and learning are still valid when it comes to cravings. This reward system comes from a more primitive part of our brain that we share with many species, including, as Dr. Brewer emphasizes, and not too flatteringly for humans, the sea slug.
Traditional ideas about mindfulness find useful therapeutic applications in this area. The most fascinating aspect to me is the connection between food cravings and the area of
In addition to his research, Dr. Brewer has worked with patients with serious addictions such as smoking and drug abuse, as well as eating disorders. So he has good experience with what works. The bottom line is that mindfulness helps break the vicious cycle of adding. Additionally, insight into your desire thoughts is powerful. So when the little voice whispers, “Oh, come on, what harm could one more slice of pizza do?” if, instead of giving in, I can gain insight by trying to notice what’s going on in my body. This is actually a practical application of Buddhist insight meditation.
Between the book (and some free resources from Dr. Jud’s website) and the chat with Gemini, I have a few good tips to try out. So far so good, I’ve been able to significantly reduce my junk food consumption for seven days.
Share this:
Related
Published by
I am a mechanical engineer, born in 1953, Ph.D., Stanford, 1980. I have been working in the mechanical CAE field for decades. I also have a lifelong interest in outdoor activities and fitness. Due to a genetic condition, I had both hips and a heart valve replaced. This blog chronicles my adventures in staying active despite these bumps in the road.
View all posts by BionicOldGuy
Published
