Reaching for a Zero Calorie "Aaah"
The cornerstone of our dependency was nicotine's ability to release dopamine and briefly end wanting. And yes, an extra mouthful of food also provides a short-lived burst of dopamine (see Chapter 1). But reflect on how many times and how long each day that you devoted to nicotine use.
What if, day after day, you started reaching for and eating extra food as often and long as you reached for and used nicotine? Clearly, consuming extra food as a compensation crutch for missing nicotine would be a "huge" mistake.
Most researchers classify increased eating as a symptom of nicotine withdrawal.[1] If so, it's clearly one within our ability to minimize.
Consider reaching for a non-fat "aaah" sensation. Take a slow deep breath. Do you feel the subtle "aaah" while exhaling? Drink a glass of cool and refreshing water when thirsty. Feel the "aaah" that arrives when satisfying thirst?
Give your favorite person a big, big hug. Feel it then, too? Take your normal walk, even if just around the yard but this time go a little further or a little quicker than normal. Do you feel accomplishment's "aaah"?
Dopamine "aaah" wanting relief sensations are the mind's way of motivating behavior. Lifetimes of living these built-in priorities lessons, we each have a hefty collection of durable "aaah" wanting relief memories.
Reach for the healthy zero calorie "aaah."
Picking mealtime
Nicotine no longer our spoon, increasing the frequency of meals while diminishing the amount of food eaten may be all that's needed to avoid adding hunger atop withdrawal.
Instead of eating large meals, consider eating little and often to enhance appetite control. One study found that eating more often resulted in 27% fewer calories being consumed.[2]
Consider fueling your body with small, healthy food portions at least five times daily during the first two weeks. Doing so should diminish blood-sugar swings and hunger, thus reducing the risk of binge eating.
Ending Mealtime
Many of us conditioned our minds to believe that eating was complete and mealtime was over by inhaling nicotine or tasting tobacco within our mouth. Now, without a new cue, there may be no clear signal to our brain that our meal has ended. It could result in reaching for extra food with zero leftovers.
Healthy meal completion cues may be as simple as pushing away or getting up from the table, standing and stretching, clearing the table, reaching for a toothpick, taking a slow deep breath, doing the dishes, giving a hug or kiss, stepping outside, brushing our teeth, a stick of sugar-free gum or a walk.
Diminishing body weight
A "diet" is a temporary program for losing weight, which by definition ends, hopefully when a weight loss goal is achieved.
A 2020 study review examined 121 weight loss studies involving 21,942 patients that participated in 14 named diets. It found that most diets "over six months result in modest weight loss and substantial improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, particularly blood pressure. At 12 months the effects on weight reduction and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors largely disappear."[3]
The key to sustained weight control isn't dieting. Instead of a weight loss goal, it's in committing to minor changes in our daily calorie intake or activity level that become a routine part of the fabric of daily life.
Involving the same brain dopamine pathways taken hostage by nicotine, relapse prevention mindfulness is as important to lasting weight change as it is to never taking another puff, but with a huge difference. An eating or activity lapse now and then doesn't all but guarantee relapse.
So then, how? How do we use the same mindfulness skills that helped free us of nicotine to alter activity or intake? First, let's look at how too much dedication can backfire.
If shedding a pound of body weight requires expenditure of 3,500 calories, attempting to burn all 3,500 during a single day is likely to leave us tired and sore. It's likely to discourage us from being active again tomorrow.
Instead, consider a small yet deliberate increase in today's level of physical activity over yesterday's, or if today's level seemed sufficient, maintaining that level tomorrow.
It can be exercise or a bit more of any physical activity that we enjoy, like, or love.
Consider gardening, walking your favorite path, visiting or caring for a neighbor, extra house or yard work, a lap around the block, a bike ride, or any other activity that expends energy.
Although a minor daily activity adjustment may seem insignificant, burning just 58 extra calories per day will cause our body weight to decline by half a pound per month (1,740 fewer monthly calories). What if we add a minor change in eating patterns to a minor activity adjustment?
If we also consumed 58 fewer calories per day we would experience a total monthly decline of roughly 3,500 calories and the loss of one pound per month. Learning to sustain these minor lifestyle adjustments could mean 12 fewer pounds (5.44 kilograms) within a year!
How do we lose 12 pounds? Baby steps ... another moment of activity, a few less calories, just one ounce at a time!
Small adjustments can be made anytime. We can focus upon, savor and chew each bite longer, take just one less bite, get comfortable leaving something on our plate, use a tad less butter, choose baked over fried, make plants the foundation of every meal, better portion control, use a smaller plate, cook less food, eat one cookie (50 calories) instead of two, stop eating after a certain hour (7 pm), plan tomorrow's meals today, eliminate evening snacks, or trade empty carbohydrates for longer-lasting ones.[4]
Get excited about climbing from the deep ditch in which our addiction kept us. Savor the richness and flavor of life beyond. Be brave. Explore the world that obedience to our dependency's wanting has kept hidden from view.
If already impaired or disabled by smoking, your physician should be able to help in developing an increased activity or exercise plan tailored to your abilities, even if done while on oxygen, in a wheelchair, or in bed.
Should you find yourself gaining extra pounds during recovery, don't beat yourself up. Your breathing and circulation will improve with each passing day. Whether realized or not, your endurance potential is slowly on the rise.
In a way, we are turning back the clock to a time when we had greater ability to engage in prolonged vigorous physical activity. As smokers, most of us lacked the ability to build cardiovascular endurance. Not anymore!
Aging gracefully does not require "dieting." Our slowing metabolism simply requires a minor calorie or activity adjustment now and then, which over time results in the desired body weight.
What if it doesn't work?
But what if your dopamine pathways seemingly refuse such simplicity when it comes to activity and food?
I could close by saying that I'd rather be slightly bigger and alive, than a tad smaller but dead. While true, let me suggest mindfulness training that may aid in pulling back and looking behind the weight-control curtain.
Like the hum of a well-working engine or the purr of a kitten, what if you could train yourself to sense and have a good idea of your blood sugar level (glucose reading) when feeling your best or most productive, or just prior to feeling hungry, or before over-eating?
First, you need to involve your family doctor in this suggestion as everyone's health and blood glucose histories differ, including 30 million in the U.S. with diabetes, with 8 million as yet undiagnosed.
As the American Diabetes Association (ADA) teaches, "It’s important for blood glucose levels to stay in a healthy range. If glucose levels get too low, we can lose the ability to think and function normally. If they get too high and stay high, it can cause damage or complications to the body over the course of many years."
Blood sugar or glucose meters and test strips are cheaper than cigarettes or e-juice and available to all over-the-counter.
Does it make sense to eat when the meter says that our blood is already overloaded with glucose?
Is the urge you're feeling to eat the result of a true need for food? Does your body need breakfast right now or will you eat out of habit? How does your walk or bike ride affect your blood glucose? Which foods spike your blood sugar and which are longest lasting in helping keep it most stable?
What if you were able to share with your doctor a 30-day journal of your glucose readings upon waking each morning, before a meal, after eating, before exercise, after exercise, and before bed?
What if your journal also documented the types and amounts of food you consumed, the times you'd eaten, your body weight each morning or before bed, and your energy level and thinking clarity?
Armed with such insights, imagine the quality of the feedback your doctor could provide.
Growing sensitivity and awareness of what true calorie need feels like, and which foods serve you best, I suspect that it won't be long before you're able to predict the reading on tomorrow's bathroom scales.
Again, the goal is mindfulness and awareness which aids in making lasting change, not yo-yo dieting.
References:
2. Speechly DP, et al, Greater appetite control associated with an increased frequency of eating in lean males, Appetite, December 1999, Volume 33(3), Pages 285-297.
3. Ge L, et al, Comparison of dietary macronutrient patterns of 14 popular named dietary programmes for weight and cardiovascular risk factor reduction in adults: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised trials, British Medical Journal, April 2020, 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m696
4. The Glycemic Index, glycemicindex.com, University of Sidney, 2002, website accessed August 9, 2008.
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