Just Thinking About Food Is Bad

I have a good friend that is in the fitness profession.  She is a constant encouragement to me to be healthy.  I love that!  She’s not annoying or harpy, just helpful.  Awhile back she sent me an article that evidenced research showing that certain people are prone to gain weight by just thinking about food.  Ugh!!  Are you kidding me?!  I’m positive I’m one of those people.  That, in and of itself, must be why I can’t lose weight.  Because thinking about weight-loss foods makes me fat too!

The research showed that prolonged thought about food would actually increase the size of someone’s fat cells when that person is already overweight, thus making them even heavier.  Crazy.  And disheartening.  Just another case of when the fat get fatter!  (Similar to the rich getting richer / poor getting poorer.  You get the idea.)

This kind of situation is not ideal for me, as thinking about food is how I spend my spare time (i.e. blogging). 

However, just yesterday I heard on the radio a snippet about a study showing that if you think about a certain food you’re craving for a long time, you’ll eat less of it.  That directly contradicts my life experience, though I’d love to believe it’s true.  (Seems one study is contradicting the other, too.)  But if I’m really craving something, it’s usually something I don’t have in my house, and thus it takes quite a lot of time for me to fulfill that craving.  Sometimes days.  (Usually these cravings are for sushi, Mexican or Chinese food.  Sometimes it’s ice cream.  All of which require extra non-budgeted spending cash.  I guess my new budget is helping me be healthier in even unexpected ways.)  So at that point I’ve been thinking about it a lot in the period of prolonged time it takes me to satisfy said craving.  (And thus, according to study #1, getting fatter the whole time just thinking about that particular food!)  When I actually indulge in the craving, I’m usually to the point where I feel the need to cram it all in my mouth at once, like I’ll never have another meal – especially not one as satisfying as that one – again!!  I can’t think of a time when I actually ate LESS of it because I’d been craving it for so long.

Boy, I’m exhausted just thinking about it all.  Probably because my fat cells have increased exponentially at the thought, thus slowing my body down and making me tired.

Oh, and of course I don’t have that article my friend sent me.  I’m sure I ate it just to get rid of the horrifying evidence.