A few weeks ago I gave students in my
graduate weight management course an assignment. They were asked to keep a three-day diet log (really just a
decoy assignment) and then to analyze their daily food intake and identify a
food that they habitually – or at least regularly – consumed. Once these tasks were complete, I revealed
the real assignment. I asked them
to completely eliminate the food they had identified for one week and to write
about their experience.
The intent of this assignment was allow them
to “walk a mile” in the shoes of someone who is attempting to lose weight and
being given advice or instruction (usually by well-intentioned nutrition
professionals) on how to change their diet and which foods to eliminate. While the reasons for these
suggested changes are obvious to the professional with years of training,
experience and insight, they may appear arbitrary – and even punitive – to the
patient. Likewise,
dietary habits are just that, habits.
Habits are not easily changed and routines are not easily broken. Dietary changes, even for a highly motivated
individual, are extremely difficult and constantly thwarted by both
psychological and physiological cues and sensations, not to mention
environmental saboteurs (i.e., friends, family, food marketing and encounters
with highly palatable foods).
Here are a few quotes from my students’
reflections:
“I chose to restrict
chocolate since this is habitually consumed. Immediately after avoiding the
chocolate I felt a sense of frustration and increased preoccupation. I
continually thought about the chocolate and other similar (but allowable)
items. I didn’t want to be thinking about food, I was trying to let it go. The
more I tried to eliminate the thought the more my feelings of discomfort built
up.”
“I chose to go without all cheese for a week for this project. At
first it wasn’t difficult to think of food to eat without cheese but it became
a real struggle upon eating out. Basically it seems that cheese comes on
everything in restaurants, especially when you love cheese so much! When I
ordered a tuna sandwich at my favorite café I couldn’t bring myself to order it
without the pepper jack cheese, which was my first slip up. After I made that
slip up, a couple days later I succumbed to cheese pressure from my roommate
who would tell me to just eat it! Overall I probably made it a good four days
without eating any cheese at all... the experiment was a bit of a fail.”
“…I thought if I am going to expect other people to be able to
follow in my footsteps I need to prove that I am strong enough to do the
impossible. It was so hard. On day one my Dad brought home peanut
M&Ms, my favorite binge candy which I had to beg him to hide from me.”
“It is easy
to say “stop eating fast food” or “stop drinking soda”. But when you are so use
to eating or drinking something, it is immensely hard to cut it out of your
food. It also is not very sustainable. This is a good reminder that it is very
difficult for lifestyle changes to be made.”
“Needless to say, trying
not to eat pasta for a whole week was difficult, it was unpleasant, it was
impossible. My experience abstaining from pasta can be summed up thusly: ate
egg salad for three days, was still hungry, failed miserably. I can definitely
see how an environment such as the cafeteria at work can undermine the efforts
of anyone who is trying to lose weight, or even trying to eat healthier.”
“I hate to admit this but I found it
difficult to complete this assignment. My chosen food to give up for the week
was bread. On two days I forgot and was halfway through a sandwich before
remembering. Although I don’t usually have toast in the morning, toast seemed
to be what I wanted most.”
“It has been years since I’ve been on any type of diet or calorie
restriction and I was very happy once the week was over and I could eat
whatever I chose to. Although I’m careful with my eating, I never feel
restricted and the thought of having to watch everything I eat, as someone on a
diet would be doing, is an unpleasant idea.”
Admittedly, the requested changes for this
assignment were arbitrary. But it’s important to remember, that
for the average person trying to lose weight, that’s exactly how most expert
advice feels. And while most credible professionals
would never recommend total elimination of favorite foods, any dietary alteration is difficult and there are always forces
opposing the change, whether they’re physiological or environmental.
I think it’s interesting to note that even
though the students were only asked to give up their favorite food for a week,
and even though knew they were going to be held accountable, about half
admitted “cheating”. (And I
suspect a few more just didn’t want to admit it!). We would all do well to “walk a mile” in someone
else’s shoes and appreciate the uphill battle fought daily by overweight and
obese individuals attempting to make changes to improve their health.
~Sonya Hauser
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