Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been increasingly conscious of what food I’m consuming, but also of the feelings I have when it comes time to eat. For a while I felt the only reason I didn’t eat more wasn’t because I couldn’t eat more. The consumption of larger quantities food was simply a physical adaptation that would come over time.
I don’t think that’s entirely true anymore.
Yes, put the same amount of food in front of me and an endomorph and I doubt I’d be able to eat more than them because of my physicality, but what I feel is common as an ectomorph is we simply don’t put any food in front of us. Our apathy towards eating is the real reason we’re skinny, not because we can’t physically consume enough calories.
And in many ways this makes the problem even more challenging, because we have to change our beliefs and behaviors rather than just the size of our stomach. But alas, I still have some ideas about how to make the preparation of food, and the act of eating more interesting and less overwhelming. Perhaps then you’ll be able to put more food in front of yourself and end up reaching your daily required calorie intake.
- Simplify, simplify, simplify. I nearly skipped breakfast this morning, and you should never skip breakfast – it creates an imbalance for the rest of the day. I was certainly hungry though, so that wasn’t the problem, but the effort of putting something together made the prospect of breakfast less appealing. As a skinny guy I’d at times rather go hungry than expend the effort to cook. If that weren’t the case I doubt I’d be so skinny. Therefore, never over-complicate meals. Breakfast for me ended up being two fried eggs and bacon with some bread. Nothing fancy. The eggs and bacon was a bit burnt, and I didn’t fuss with the aesthetics of the meal. Be minimalist with meal time.
- Take the easy route. Not feeling hungry? Why not just pour one or two glasses of milk? It may not contain as many calories as a full meal, but it’s better than nothing. There’s no need to make every consumption of food some huge event full of intricate delicacies. The moment you feel even a slight pang of hunger eat or drink anything that isn’t overwhelming or will encourage you to choose hunger over effort. Do whatever is better than nothing.
- Be near food. If you’re not in the vicinity of food it’s easy for the idea of eating to escape your mind. Do simple things like if you’re reading a book, read it in a room near your kitchen, or when talking with the family, sit around the kitchen table. Or, take food with you, such as bags of mixed nuts or apples if you don’t want to centralize your life around the location of the fridge.
Photo: josh.liba
