Don't unfriend the scale

that's my little bamboo number lurking

The scale is a tricky thing. Some people are bff's with the scale, get together daily and enjoy its feedback. Others are highly sensitive to the scale's information, it has the power to ruin a day, or even a week. I'm "bi-scaleual" I've had times when I pop on each morning and others where I don't feel its necessary. I know this will fly in the face of intuitive eating but I think you can benefit from the scale, to some degree.
Our clients have us weigh them (facing away from the numbers) so we can track their numbers. I have friends who have personal trainers to monitor things. These are solutions to weighing without fixating on the number. I know you may be thinking jeans don't lie but they can fib. Your jeans may be a little different without you noticing. Do a little experiment, try on your "reference clothing" and see what you think, up, down or the same. Then, pop on the scale and see it it's in sync with your prediction. Anyone want to partner on a scale that simply has an up arrow or a down arrow?
On a personal note, my weight is fairly stable. I will tell you that my first visit with bamboo (see above) was mildly shocking. I was up four from my typical number. I remedied that (doesn't hurt that we're test driving our September Squeeze recipes). A long distance Foodstalking client summed it up yesterday, On our Monday food log we say "starting weight if you're a weigher." This client emailed me her Monday weight and said "and I have to weigh myself. Remember when I stopped? That is when it started coming on because I thought I was lighter than I was." I suggest taking a weekly weight or at least a monthly check in.

If the scale will send you over the edge, ignore what I'm saying. But if your behaviors have been a little off and you're open to it, see what the scale says. Oh and it's not broken.

Cheese is like crack and salad leads us to cheese

Last week I received multiple emails entitled “cheese is crack” referring to an LA Times article.  Yeah, yeah I thought as I clicked through, I could’ve told you that. Cheese is my dietary kryptonite. What I didn’t know was this:

“Casomorphins attach to the brain’s opiate receptors to cause a calming effect in much the same way heroin and morphine do," said Barnard. And since cheese has a concentrated content of casomorphins, Barnard suggested it may be called dairy crack.

While many associate sugar with a drug-like or addictive response, I thought cheese lovers were simply eating cheese because it’s the most delicious food in the universe. I am not sure if this notion of “calming cheese” makes me want to eat more or less of it but it makes sense to me. When cheese is in my life or kitchen, it’s hard to see it in my refrigerator drawer and pass it up. Fortunately, having not been to the Farmer’s market this week, I am cheese free. Fingers crossed no casomorph withdrawal.

Note: casomorphins come from casein (milk protein), all cheese has casein even though some cheeses are lactose free.

In other nutrition news, the NY TimesSunday Review highlighted “just the idea that we can have salad leads us toillicit treats”. The article explains something called the licensing effect. The licensing effect refers to our tendency to make an unhealthy choice following a healthy one. This can be the typical “I worked out so therefore…” or in supermarket studies research shows “drop a bunch of kale into your cart and you’re more likely to head to the ice cream or beer section.” There are some ways to get around this. First, the article mentions that we all have a concept of how healthy or unhealthy we are. When we stray too far from our norm, we’re more likely to compensate. I would say the more you tend to follow a positive decision with a negative one, the more you should opt for gradual, manageable changes versus rash ones. Second, focus on the behavior and not the scale. This licensing effect can encourage us to gain weight after we’ve lost it if the focus is numerical.

So the answer isn’t to skip the kale and head directly for the cheese plate but rather something along the lines of a kale Caesar salad. We need a place for cheese and other treats, crack-like or not, so that we don’t give ourselves license to binge.

Are you a cheese addict? Or what’s your dietary kryptonite? How have you seen yourself “licensing” unhealthy choices?