Self-Control: Add More Deprivation to Your Diet

January 28th, 2009

I was raised to hate wasting food. “Think of the starving children” my mother, once an impoverished child herself, implored. Guilt combined with a lack of willpower to make throwing away food a cardinal sin. Only recently have I been able to overcome the effects of my upbringing and bad habits to be able to say “enough” and put down the cheesecake. How did this happen? Thanks to deprivation.

Culture of Overconsumption

The truth is we’re awash in a culture of overconsumption. The bigger the portion the better and upsizing your fries is so cheap you feel stupid saying no. No less, being the descendants of hunter-gatherers we’re physiologically prone to thinking it’s better to be too full than too hungry. Deep in our genetic code we’re fearful an early winter will come with us ill-prepared for hibernation. These factors combine to push us to gorge ouselves. Optionally tie in an Italian-style mother (”Eat, eat. You’re skin and bones.”) and you’re fighting an epic uphill battle.

These factors skew our hungry/full perception, letting us believe a few more bites won’t hurt. In order for us to restore the proper balance we must go out of our comfort zone and - gulp - feel hungry. Not painfully hungry, just not stuffed. The body, being adaptive, will eventually define a new balance, recalibrating our “I’m full” sensor to go off a little earlier.

To balance overconsumption, use deprivation. Since we have an excess of food being brought before us and our bodies urge us to consume, the only successful way I found to restore a proper equilibrium is through what, at first, seems like deprivation.

Disclaimer: This article is written with controlled weight reduction in mind. It is paramount to know your healthy daily caloric intake and stick to that. Starvation isn’t the point, balance is.

Deprivation Strategies

The mind is an inertia-driven vehicle. If you’re eating well, you’re likely to continue eating well. If you exercised today, chances are you’ll exercise again soon. Likewise, if you pigged out today, you probably will tomorrow. On some level we all know this and are discouraged by it. If you’ve been bad you find yourself thinking “What’s the point of trying?”

Thankfully remorse is a strong emotion and can drive people to get the ball rolling in the right direction. The next time you pig out and hate yourself for it, take that motivation and try some of the following strategies:

1. Take all the junk food from your house and dump it in the garbage. Who care what your family will think. If they’re supportive of your goals they’ll understand. Pour that expired salad dressing on top just to make sure you don’t pull a George Costanza.
2. Recognize fullness and develop a knee-jerk reaction to it. At the very first instance of thinking “maybe I’ve had enough”, spring into action and find a garbage bin to dump the remains. Don’t wait for the second time because it will be too late by then. Where a garbage isn’t nearby, such as in a restaurant pour a prohibitive amount of salt on the leftovers or get them wrapped “to go” post-haste.
3. Eat before you shop for groceries or bring a motivated friend to police your purchases. Shopping for groceries when hungry is a disaster.


Flickr: EuroMagic

4. Got a box of chocolates as a gift? Don’t even put it down until you’ve decided how to get rid of them. Regift them, hand them out at work, throw them all out, or in a worst case scenario at least throw out half. If you eat one, you’ll probably eat them all and a whole box of chocolates is too much for anyone. Just look at the nutrition data and do the math to prove it.
5. When ordering in a restaurant, ask your server to wrap half you meal to go. This forces you to only eat half - which is almost always more than enough.
6. Don’t eat fast food. Just don’t. If you’re in a 24 situation where the only way to prevent a terrorist attack is to eat fast food then just order the item, not the combo.

You will find that if you eat well, you will eat well. In other words you get the ball rolling. Thoughts like “maybe I should pass on that chocolate chip muffin since I’ve been so good and don’t want to ruin it” come into your head. But beware when you think “I’ve been so good I should reward myself this one time”. That’s a recipe for disaster. Sugars and salts are dangerously addictive, just have some and you want more. The best way to reward yourself is NOT to have the pork rinds.

“Bet you can’t eat just one” - you’re right, I better not.

Regarding the Guilt of Wasting Food

Some readers may be unconcerned with the guilt aspect of throwing out food. But for some (such as myself) this is a significant consideration, and one I’ve put a lot of thought into.

Excessive portions: It’s important to realize we often don’t determine food portions. The companies that prepare the food do. While it’s a good idea to minimize waste, it’s not our fault if excess food is used and we shouldn’t punish with ourselves with obesity for living in a culture of overconsumption.

Garbage: Fortunately my municipality collects compost separate from garbage. This food goes right back into making more food. If you’re forced to throw out food with the garbage you can at least rest assured it will be the most biodegradable matter in the landfill.

Starving children: I’m saddened by the plight of the hungry as much as anyone. However the truth is that no starving child will be upset I threw out a half bag of Doritos. Most of the world’s starving children don’t even know what a Dorito is. Stuffing yourself silly doesn’t accomplish anything to help them. Give generously to a food drive and let your ill-founded guilt go.

Deprivation Just Feels That Way

In truth, deprivation is a misnomer. It’s more about recalibration; we just perceive it as deprivation since we’re used to too much. It took me a long time to decipher the physiological and psychological responses that govern my eating habits and I hope you will benefit from my findings. I recently dropped to 10% body fat from my high of 28% and this technique plays no small part in that change. Good luck and good eating!

Recommended Reading

• Daily Weight Loss Fluctuations: A Six Month Case Study: An easy-to-follow analysis of the weight loss process using data collected over six months.
• Building Discipline for the Unmotivated: Thoughts on how to make good habits easier and bad habits harder.