Been observing my naturally thin roommate

My roommate is super skinny but she looks really healthy. She's about my height (4'11") with very little visible fat and some muscle tone. She is petite and slender and it's the kind of body I would love to have. I watch her eat mozzarella stick and french fries, gigantic restauraunt cheeseburgers, candy, ice cream, almost everything you're not supposed to eat and I've figured out how she does it. She only eats when she's hungry, and stops eating when she's full. It really IS that simple. I'm talking about a girl who will pick up a 90 cal special k bar, eat half, and then throw half away because she's full. She eats slowly and listens to her body. It's really impressive!

I'm trying to emulate her but do it with healthy foods. Like, I'll still continue to eat my grilled fish and pass up the high cal buffalo chicken but I'll try and employ the same will power and control as her. If I don't NEED another cookie, I won't eat one. Simple as that.

Does anyone else have any tips for training your body or learning to listen to cues?

I had a friend when I was growing up that was an annoyingly slow eater.  He said that his grandmother told him that you should chew each bite 30 times before you swallow and he followed her advice.  He, like you your roommate would often get full before finishing a meal or snack.  For example, when we went to the movies most of us would nearly have our popcorn finished before the movie started but this guy would bring home half a bag because he hadn't had time to finish it.  He wasn't skinny but he was always very lean.  He is now in his fifties and is still a very slow eater and he is still very lean.  It is clearly not what he eats or how much exercise he gets but how much he eats that has kept him lean all these years and it is because he eats slowly and stops when he is full.

Edit: Sorry to butt in on the YCC forum but I thought i share about the thorough chewing.

Yeah, I know some people like that as well.

Very recently, I've been employing a "don't eat unless you're hungry"/"don't eat just because you feel you should" rule with myself, and it's really helping. I'm one of those night eating people, so when I come home, I consider if I'm actually hungry or if its just habit. The days where I've gone over my calorie limit are always the ones where I feel bloated/overstuffed. I think there's a connection.

I've also been doing that the past week or so. Um, I'm trying to eat healthy things, but if I am hungry and what I really want to eat is french fries, then I am also listening to that message too. If I'm hungry and there are two cookies, I eat one and I'm full, I will stop. If I'm still hungry though, then I'll eat the other cookie too.

I think this only works if you really listen to EVERYTHING your body says. not just the messages you want to. Including that junk food desire sometimes. I am lucky though, when it boils down to it, I actually prefer relatively healthy food. Fruit etc is my favourite, over cookies any day. I have found that actually if you really listen, there isn't much will power required. especially if you really give yourself permission to eat anything WHEN you ARE hungry. It isn't that I am NEVER going to eat that whatever, but that I am saving it for when I am hungry. That makes it much easier.

Tactics I have been trying to use include:

Taking slow bites of everything. Whether it is a banana or a piece of pizza, eating half, stopping, waiting a bit and then keeping on going.

Chewing things properly.

Stopping when full, whether it is somthing low cal I am eating or something high cal.

Trying to eat the things I really want to eat, so I don't eat them later because I'm still not satisfied.

Yep...both my housemates are like that.  I'm trying to pick up that habit too.  I was always raised to 'clear my plate' because it's wasteful otherwise.  So I still do that now.  If there is food in front of me, I will eat it.  That's all there is to it and I can make myself feel really unwell in the process!  How stupid is that?!  Recently though I have really been trying to just eat when I'm hungry and to take regular pauses when I'm eating.  Usually when I eat you'd think that I'd been given a 30 second time limit before my plate is going to be whisked away again, I eat so fast!  Not only is that bad for your digestion, but you can't taste or enjoy the food as much that way and you ALWAYS eat more than you need to.  Slow eating is definitely the way forward, along with only eating when hungry.

I also find that having a small glass of water if I'm feeling hungry sometimes helps.  If you're dehydrated then your brain can sometimes interpret this as hungry rather than thirst.  If it turns out you really are hungry and not just thirsty, you still won't eat too much because you have already got some liquid in your stomach.

I've started chewing every single bite I put into my mouth 50 times.

Everything. I'll even "chew" some liquidity stuff like yogurt, or milk.

And the smallest of foods will make me feel STUFFED after I'm done. Dx

Takes me over 15 minutes to eat a small meal, though. Roughly takes me 30-45 minutes to eat something.

It's really a helpful tactic, but sometimes I find myself later on in the day realizing I didn't eat enough calories. >:( I need to adjust my calories during the day. -sigh-

I've also found that "drink some water before you eat to see if you're really hungry" tactic works too. D: I wish I had tried it earlier!

I've always wanted to survey kiddos that are underweight or just "naturally skinny" to see how many times they chewed. Chewing your food is a lovely thing, and listening to yourself is equally as lovely.

I very rarely ever feel hungry.

Before I get hunger pangs, I get unbelievably tired, extremely irritable, and light headed. So I always eat before I feel hungry for the sake of how my body will feel if I don't....and for the sake of my room mates! I can seriously turn into super bitch.

Although there is some really great advice in here about eating slowly and only when you're hungry, that's not the only thing you have to remember. Your roommate might also have a much higher metabolism so she burns fat/calories quicker, but do you ever wonder what all those unhealthy foods are doing to her insides?? Her cholesterol, her heart? You can be rail thin and still be unhealthy.

I think it's great that you're going to eat only when hungry (I have the same problem - I see food and I want it) but just keep in mind that you can't eat whatever you want and be healthy inside and out...

It's a good policy to follow. However, I always feel guilty. Food is so expensive these days and I hate to waste anything. That guilt forces me to finish my food even if I'm not hungry. That and the guilt of knowing I haven't gotten all of my calories in me before the day is too late. :/

Yeah, well I've known this for a long time that naturally lean women stop eating when full and eat more frequently during the day. I think it's better not to have set meal times. For me... I wing it... sometimes I eat breakfast at 9 am and sometimes I don't eat breakfast until 11 or 12... have a set meal time is not atainable for me. I eat when Im hungry not when the clock says I should. Though Im not lean.... because I used to over eat... Im trying to control all that now with CC. I think once I reach my goals I will start to get a little less picky with what I eat. I still love my fruits and other good stuff... but I don't trust myself yet to be strictly on a plan like that yet.

Original Post by silentdeadlyrose:

It's a good policy to follow. However, I always feel guilty. Food is so expensive these days and I hate to waste anything. That guilt forces me to finish my food even if I'm not hungry. That and the guilt of knowing I haven't gotten all of my calories in me before the day is too late. :/

 Does no one here like leftovers? I eat almost anything the next day. You don't have to waste food... just put it in the fridge or take it home. No biggy.

Leftovers! I love leftovers! You can turn them into new meals : )

I have the clean plate guilt too...I've been told I eat quickly. The only solution I've found is to make or take less food (the former for me, since I cook all my own stuff like a lonely single person). Which is difficult. Also, keeping hydrated and slowing down to eat and remembering food is supposed to be nourishment, not a daily allotment. I keep reminding myself, if I'm still hungry there's more in the kitchen. For the past two days, its been working great. 

My sister, who is slim average, sometimes forgets to eat at conventional times because she's just not hungry. I suppose food became a habit for me rather than a need, hence why I'm overweight.

 

Totally agree.

I eat ridiculously fast, and I always eat everything on my plate, even if I am full or if I don't even like it, because that is the way I was bought up. My boyfriend on the other hand will not touch food he doesn't like, has about three 5-10 minute pauses during a meal, drinks heaps of water and almost never clears his plate. Although both of us are in fairly good shape I think it would be a good habit to pick up. Its just so hard because I hate to waste anything! 'Kids are starving in Africa' has stuck with me :P

I forget where I heard this, but it made me laugh a lot: "...even if I eat this, the kids in Africa will still be hungry."

Original Post by raediant:

 Does no one here like leftovers? I eat almost anything the next day. You don't have to waste food... just put it in the fridge or take it home. No biggy.

 

Leftovers! Eee~. I love 'em! <3 They're so great. I save practically everything. In baggies, in containers.. I sometimes get in trouble for saving weird things and never returning to eat them (or getting someone else to eat 'em). Dx

@icutoffmyhair - Haha! Oh man, I should remember that next time I feel bad for not finishing something. Thank you for sharing that! <3

it's true about Africa, but you should still respect food. Thats half the reason I wanted to start eating more healthy. Its a slap in the face that they strive to have nurition, we have it but put constant junk in our bodies when we could be eating real nutritous food. Its like education, we may not enjoy it, but respect it because not everyone gets to go to school.

   Yeah, you're defiantly raediant. In my personal experience, I honor my food because the entire cosmos came together to produce that food. (If you think about it.) In the same way, I honor my body because the generations before you in your family came together in my gene pool to give you.. well, my body!

:D

That's where chewing throughly comes in handy. When you stop and chew, you'll digest things better, and you'll truely experience the food.

Original Post by icutoffmyhair:

I forget where I heard this, but it made me laugh a lot: "...even if I eat this, the kids in Africa will still be hungry."

I need to tell my friends this; they always eat everything on their plate, even if they're stuffed, because of the children in Africa. Being glutinous is even worse than throwing away food, and more insulting to starving children. 

 

I've been trying to eat slower and chew more. When I was in Europe I was really good and was always last to finish my meal, but since I've been back it's gotten bad again. 

That's EXACTLY how my older sister is! She can eat anything she wants, but stops herself when she's full [she's about 5'3", 95-100-ish pounds]. She eats enough, too--about 1800 calories a day [I've counted, lol]. By watching her eating habits I learned to eat similarly during my recovery from anorexia and it really helped out a lot (:

Original Post by revolution3:

That's EXACTLY how my older sister is! She can eat anything she wants, but stops herself when she's full [she's about 5'3", 95-100-ish pounds]. She eats enough, too--about 1800 calories a day [I've counted, lol]. By watching her eating habits I learned to eat similarly during my recovery from anorexia and it really helped out a lot (:

 Thats a really good idea!!!! My sister is naturally thin, I totally need to be her shadow for a day and count her calories! lol

i wish i could naturally listen to my bodies hunger cues. i rarely am actually hungry. i don't know if its the affect of my starvation diet, though it was two years ago. but either way i would probably eat once or twice a day max and it'd be something small. otherwise i'll whither away to nothing. hence the calorie counting.