From the annals of simple anti-gluttony* systems:
Remember the No-S diet? It isn’t what I do, but it has always impressed me with its simplicity, and it makes a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn to eat less.
(Its rules are: no snacks, no sweets, no seconds, except on days that start with S. There is also a caveat along the lines of don’t be an idiot on S days, but it only comes up in hard cases.)
I know I have mentioned No-S as a viable, simple way of checking one’s overeating, but I may have just found something simpler. I came across a testimonial post at the Everyday Systems website, home of No-S, where the writer mentioned that she had modified her No-S approach by including “bite counting.”
Curious, I followed a link to the testimonial writer’s blog. Yep, she means what she says: count your bites.
What was needed was a simple, less stressful method to enable the patient to reduce his intake of food, and give him short term goals that would mark his progress visibly and also offer encouragement….Count bites, not calories.
It consists simple of using a tally register… to check off every bite or swallow you take, keeping a register of your weight and the number of bites taken every day, and establishing a baseline for the number of bites that lets you lose weight at the rate you find comfortable.
Some measure was necessary to control the quantity of food intake, not necessarily the type of food intake, which is more controlled by the individuals lifelong eating habits. A simple convenient method was to measure actual intake, not by portion, but by bites, as people will always revert to their standard size bite, no matter how much they might attempt to take extra large or extra small bites at the beginning. Attempts to cheat are inevitable, but not lasting. The individual relapses quickly enough to his normal bite pattern…
No Matter what you eat, if your chart shows no weight loss, you simply have to take fewer bites.
Here’s what about this that strikes me, the data addict, as genius: it’s one easily-measured number. So anyone can do the experiment on themselves: can count bites, and observe weight patterns, and see if there is a correlation between the two. It would be straightforward to use as the x-axis of a plot.
Here’s what about this that strikes me, the foodie, as genius: you wouldn’t have to consciously change what you eat unless you find you want to.
Here’s what about this that strikes me, the slacker, as genius: no preplanning or measuring required. There is a little work involved: tallying bites (the author suggests keeping one of those handhed push-button counters discreetly in your lap as you eat), keeping track of the daily number, and evaluating the results to see if the number of bites should be adjusted up or down.
I’m not going to be trying this one out, but I did think it interesting enough to note.
Posted with Blogsy[Editing note. Years and years later, I wish I’d done a better job distinguishing gluttony from other problems with food, like clinical eating disorders and other kinds of compulsiveness.
I want to emphasize that, whereas I identified some behaviors in myself that probably qualified as self-centered gluttony in the technical sense, I am not and never have been qualified to make that distinction for anyone else.
I hope to add some commentary to all the posts that have this problem as I find the time to review them. Here’s a more recent post where I acknowledge some of the problematic material I wrote and set new ground rules for myself going forward.]
(Also, looking back on the idea that sparked this post, it no longer appears “interesting enough to note,” but now completely insane. Just thought I would add that.)
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