A Winding Road

Boy, this is much harder than I initially anticipated. Not eating in front of the TV is a challenge for a couple reasons

1. I am conditioned to do it
2. I get pleasure from zoning out while I eat- it's relaxing, an immediate gain
3. The cons are less immediate (excess eating, less taste pleasure from food)
4. My environment is set up to make it easy
5. My social support is not discouraging, but also not encouraging

These are all major barriers. However, I am happy to say that my eating in front of the TV has reduced dramatically. Before I began this on the 18th, I was eating most of my meals at the TV. Now, it's mostly just dinners and a snack here or there. If I had noted for 4 weeks how many times I ate in front of the TV before Oct 18 and then noted it each time for 4 weeks after Oct 18, I am confident that after running a t-test on the data, there would be a statistically significant difference.

I have also found that I do not respond well to pressured change, whether it be internal or external pressure. In this case, it was both. I do not feel good about changing when I feel like I have to. Instead, I respond much better to the flexibility of change. I can compare this to Intuitive Eating. For instance, if there is a food that I particularly like but it is energy dense and micronutrient poor and I am not hungry, I say to myself, "I can have this whenever I want it. I can have it now and/or later. However, since I can have it whenever I want it, I see that I do not really want it now." It's a way of empowering myself to make good decisions as an adult. I can apply this same principle to my TV challenge. "I can eat and watch TV whenever I want. I can do it for the entire 4 weeks if I want to. However, since I know I can, I don't have to do it all the time." With this approach I have been able to naturally and slowly get used to change.