Enjoyment: How to eat whatever you want, whenever you want...

I believe that you can be healthy and in shape and eat whatever you want. No willpower or restraint is needed.

A lot of people would object to that statement with something like:

"That's impossible. I would just eat piles of chocolate/ice cream/pizza/<insert whatever food you like>."

This is the problem.

A lot of what people eat is not "what they want". It's mindless, unintentional food that is eaten because of flawed narratives that they've picked up and never chosen to question.

What is actually going on?

We eat food for a number of reasons - only two are intentional - as fuel for life or for enjoyment. I cover this in more detail here.

Fuel is quite straightforward - protein builds muscle, essential fats are needed for hormone function, etc, we need carbohydrates for explosive bursts of energy, etc.

Enjoyment is a bit more tricky.

What we perceive as enjoyment is not that enjoyable when we actually stop to think about it. Often it is simply a mindless habit. It feels good to do what we've always done.

Sometimes, what we perceive as enjoyment is often actually just an uncomfortable emotion (or existential dread) that we are distracting ourselves from with food. This a classic example of cheap dopamine.

Removing that feeling feels better than feeling it. And that feels good, right? Well, at least it doesn't feel as bad.

What is enjoyment?

Enjoyment is the pleasure we get from food - this is fine - food IS enjoyable but to re-iterate, overeating is never enjoyable. It is always down to something underlying.

So, if we're eating for enjoyment (vs. for fuel) how do we maximize it?

1. Intentionally identify the foods you want to enjoy.

2. To fully enjoy them aim to be present and not distracted.

3. Take in the full experience of the food - eat it somewhere nice, look at it, smell it, savor it.

4. Take a piece/ spoon full, place it in your mouth, and put the rest/spoon down.

5. Chew it slowly, take your time. You're supposed to be enjoying it right? There is no benefit to smashing a whole dessert in 10 seconds vs 10 minutes right? Logic dictates a 10-minute experience is more net enjoyment than a 10-second one.

6. Rate the experience of that first bite out of 10. If it's 7/10 or less it's not worth it. This is supposed to be enjoyable. Stop eating. You're better than that.

7. If it's 8 or more, go for the second bite. Again, savor it. And again, rate it. You might find that the second bite is less of a flavor explosion compared to the first (this is called flavor fatigue).

8. Keep going but as soon as the rating is 7 or less, you stop.

9. To maximize enjoyment you would wait and then eat it again tomorrow because by then the flavor would be 10/10 again.

This may seem extreme and this is certainly a high ideal to aim for if you struggle with it. However, you can see the logic right?

Even just having a rating system is a good starting point - I've bitten countless brownies or cookies that have immediately been 7/10 or less. I immediately throw them out. Balls to that. It's not worth it.

If I'm eating something junky it's clearly not for its nutritional value - and if I don't even enjoy it then wtf am I doing?!  

At the very least note that I am using it as a drug to soothe an emotion rather than for intentional enjoyment. I label the event. I take ownership of it.

Even if I don't stop in the moment, I may be able to reflect on this the next day for example, and look to improve next time.

So, how can you eat whatever you want whenever you want?