Measure Me Take 2

With the new year just behind us, most people are eagerly working on maintaining their new year resolution. I myself have tried time and again to set a new year goal and stick with it. After years of unsuccessful new year resolutions, when 2022 chimed in, I refused to set myself up for yet another failed attempt. But when this assignment was assigned, I thought it was a sign I give this year another shot and maybe have a new approach that I can see through. And thus I present to you: Measure Me - Munchy.

A habit I have noticed with myself but have not addressed thus far is my unhealthy eating habit, more specifically my random snacking on a bag of chips or my unconscious munching on junk food when doing work. I recognize a pattern for when I do them but have not delved deep into how this unconscious act has impacted the other parts of my life.

Rather than going cold turkey and protesting to quit this habit (which, as we are all probably aware of, is not sustainable), I wanted to take notice of this habit, jot down when I start doing it, and simply do it consciously.

I measured myself starting Friday evening and throughout the weekend. Every time my fingers found themselves digging through a bag of bbq chips or unwrapping a Fruit Roll-Ups, I paused and wrote down what I was doing, how I was feeling in the moment, and why I was snacking. Was I bored? Stressed? Was I doing work? With friends or alone? Where was I? etc.

At the end of the weekend, I went through my notes and jotted down the most common things I noted. I then made the following connection circle using these words and identified the relationship between them.

Snacking Connection Circle:

Snacking Fishbone:

An interesting thing to note here is

Takeaway

What I noticed during this process is that a lot of the time I’m snacking, I am doing so unconsciously. My conscious eating habit usually consists of getting actual meals from the dining hall. Furthermore, I am a lot less likely to munch on junk food/snacks if I am not distracted by, say, a show/movie, work, or my phone. And usually, when I am enjoying a meal with a friend, I am much more in-tune with my hunger and satiation cues as opposed to when I’m snacking alone.

Another important observation is that snacking throws off my regular eating schedule and creates this perpetual cycle of unconscious snacking. Because I have snacked, I am not hungry when mealtime comes about, so I skip. This then leads me to snack again later in the day when dining halls are closed but my hunger cue is back up. This is a habit I need to get out of.

As a next step, I would like to swap my snack options for much healthier options and see if this habit holds up. Slow, conscious choices are the recipe for sustainable habits.