September 10, 2008
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Why I Overeat
It’s not a secret that I love food. I described it once in my new product development class as this: I love eating because it brings people together. There are so many great memories that I have enjoying a meal with family, friends, and strangers. You can always talk about the food, and enjoy each others’ company at the same time.
That was paraphrasing it. I’m too lazy to look up what I actually wrote right now.
The problem with this is that I tend to overeat. I enjoy food a little too much. Not to the point where I’m getting obese. But as my twenties fade and I approach my thirties (next June!), I don’t process food as quickly as I used to. The pounds do add on, and I have to be more conscious about it.
So that got me to thinking why I always eat. And this expanded to why people overeat. My conclusion is that it’s based off two things: instinct and greed. The example I’m going to take is from summer internship at Qualcomm. Qualcomm’s a busy place, especially in the QCT division. Because of this, there are work lunches 5 days a week. And for a large company, that means there are catered lunches 5 days a week. Multiply that by the number of conference rooms on a floor, and you get a lot of leftovers. So come around 1-2 PM every day, there will be leftovers that appear in our break room.
So the problem that occurs is that I’ve eaten lunch, but there’s free food. And anyone that knows me (everyone who reads this), knows I love free food. I used to get calls from Geoff at Claim Jumper when they couldn’t finish everything to help, “clean up.” I’ve matured past that stage of my life, but if you walk by the break room, there’s often something that looks delicious. Lasagna, spinach salad, pizza, hummus. There’s a plethora of food. So it’s hard to pass up. My thought process is this:
Instinctually, humans don’t know when they’re next meal is. So any time there is food, you should gorge so that you can survive the “harsh winter.” In reality, food is now plentiful and you can get it anytime of day. To achieve that discipline to not eat even when you’re not hungry or even hungry is a hard task. Something many people struggle with.
Greed plays the second part in this equation. Free is always hard to pass up. Free cars; free swag, free food. We love it. So when you walk by food that you know the value of, it’s hard to walk away. I would be a whale if there was free shrimp cocktail in the break room all day.
I don’t think this is something that applies to me only. I’ve heard about the “Google 15″ that new employees put on because of the abundance of free food at Google. But how do we curb and control this?
Comments (2)
For me, I overeat in groups (not so much by myself) because it’s such a social activity. The way a lot of meals are served at home… you share dishes, eat off the same plates, it’s such a communal activity. So, when I’m out with other people, it feels antisocial to not eat.
hehehe… I’m one of those evil people who “share” my treats when others when I only want a small piece.
I workout regularly now and it actually increases my appetite, so I keep healthy snacks around. It also helps to eat yogurt before a fatty meal, so you’ll feel satisfied with just enough — or else the beached whale feeling will have me moaning and groaning.
Another way I don’t overeat fattening restaurant food is to bring home a doggie bag — that works wonders plus no cooking the next day. Saves money on lunch too. (I’m frugal.)