I've noticed something odd in the last couple of weeks - I've developed a voracious appetite for food related television. I'll watch anything on the Food Network (except for Alton Brown - I don't care why fried chicken gets crispy in oil, I just care that it tastes like a party in my mouth). I watch Hells Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey (the Fox version doesn't compare to the original on BBC). I watch No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain and my Tivo is chocked full of all three seasons of Top Chef. I can't get enough.
At first I thought it was just a natural reaction to my healthier lifestyle. When stuffed to the gills, the last thing I want to do is watch someone cooking and eating more food. Now that I'm "less stuffed," I don't mind Rachel Ray's chipper abbreviations or Andrew Zimmerman's cockroach cocktails. But I think it goes a little deeper than that.
I think I'm addicted to food porn.
The fresh and often times, exotic ingredients. The sizzle of a pan you can almost smell! The colorful, vibrant dishes, plated just so. They make it look so inviting and so deliciously tasty and so.... I should probably stop now.
So the big question is this: is my addiction to food porn detrimental to my weight loss goals? Or can it, in some strange way, actually benefit me on my quest for a healthier lifestyle?
The way I see it is this: a skinny person will tell you the key to losing weight is never to let yourself get hungry. Had this skinny person ever actually been more than 10 pounds overweight, he or she would understand - fat people are hungry ALL THE TIME! If you're used to consuming 4,000 calories and 200 grams of fat a day, no amount of "small, manageable meals throughout the day" are going to keep you from being hungry (unless said meals add up to 4,000 calories and 200 grams of fat).
No, the key to a FAT person losing weight is learning how to embrace hunger. Getting to know the sensation for the first time in a long time and coming to some level of peace with it. Facing the beast head on and learning how to manage it.
Oddly enough, food porn helps me do that. Yes, I get pangs in my stomach after watching some of these shows. But its different than a hunger for Cheetos or Kit Kats. While many of these shows don't highlight particularly healthy options (damn you Paula Deen and your Krispy Kreme bread pudding), almost all are using fresh ingredients and cooking REAL food. Not the overly-processed and boxed crap I've been stuffing my face with for twenty years.
So yes, food porn makes me hungry. But its a hunger for real food using fresh ingredients that's actually "cooked" - not zapped in the microwave or picked up in the drive-thru. Hopefully that translates into eating better instead of eating more.
I've got to go now - Iron Chef is starting...
2 comments:
That was a very insightful post. Over the past 5 years I have lost 45 pounds, but the last 15 pounds were very very hard to loose because I was so worried about being hungry. One day I just decided that I would fast for just one day [don't worry as a food addict I could never be anorexic] But I was amazed about how my body adjusted to the hunger. I med it head on and it felt so good to be able to know that I not my stomach was in control. Also- the next morning, I didn't have huge cravings or a large appetite all day. So now I am a big fan of a 1 day fast once or twice a month or so. It's actually very healthy for your body and it is how our bodies evolved. It helps to bring blood sugar and insulin levels back to baseline (all greatly affect cravings, hunger and appetite)
again, well-written post!
LOL, food porn. I'm obsessed with it, myself. Of course, I've also lost 40 lbs in five months, so... Maybe it's good for something?
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