See oddly effective weight loss ideas backed by science.
And okay, oddly effective yes, but also weird and sounding a lot like disordered eating to me.
We’ve written about that whole eating in front of the mirror thing, see Mirror, mirror, on the wall.
I’ve written before about using blue dishes. Apparently they prompt you to eat less.
The list has other doozies on it too, like if you’re a woman (a straight woman? It didn’t say) eat with men. Then you’ll eat less. Eat in a tidy house. It’s less stressful. Also you’ll have a better view of the mirror. Also, eat in a dimly lit room. But how will I know if my dishes are blue?
It started to remind me of the Weight Watchers meeting I went to where people actually got into a discussion about how many points you had to count if you put part of a muffin in your mouth, chewed it, read the calorie count on the label and then spit it out. Chewing and spitting out seems a bit close to bulemia to me.
So I’m all for eating hacks to help you reach the goals you’ve chosen and finding things that make it easier. See Hack your nutrition. But some things, like the vibrating fork (see Chewdaism and vibrating forks) that tells you when you’ve had enough to eat seem too judgey to me and too close to disordered eating patterns. Other things like meal planning and tracking feel more like useful decision making and feedback tools.
But I know different people draw the line in different places. Maybe one’s person scary disordered eating habit just is another person’s healthy habit hack.
How about you? What’s helpful? What’s emotionally not so healthy for you? Where do you draw the line between habits and hacks on the one hand, and disordered eating on the other?
