003. Boredom Eating

Poking around the many blogs on this worldwide web has me thinking. I'm sitting here reading, not really doing much of anything (though, admittedly, I totally should be doing homework), and I feel hungry. Hungry? I know what you're thinking: Really Jill, it's 2:50 AM and you're hungry? Well, to be honest, I'm really not. I'm bored. And there are SO many of us that eat when we're bored. Why do we do this?

Here's my little theory. It's not exactly scientific, and it hasn't been cited in the great medical journals of our time, but it's mine and noone else's [to my knowledge]. People like to talk (*ahem*), therefore their mouths are always moving. When they talk, they don't think about eating, because their mouths are moving as if they are eating, even though they're not. When the mouth isn't moving, it feels like it should be moving, and sends signals to the brain that it's hungry.

...I told you it wasn't expert, what were you expecting?!

But here's how I combat this whole boredom eating debacle in my life. There are a few solid alternatives to not eating when my mouth just wants to munch.

My favorite is this one: drink water. 90% of the time your body feels like it's hungry, it's dehydrated. And by dehydrated I mean 2/3 dehydrated--so we're talkin' BIG TIME here. Drinking ice cold water not only re-hydrates you, but it also fills you up and helps you burn some calories! (When the body has to heat up the cold water, it helps speed up your metabolism. See, you learn something new every day!) As an added perk, it helps your skin look great, and you almost automatically gain more energy from that faster metabolism.

Another favorite: "What I Want More." This one simple phrase helps me through many a tough time at 1 AM when I'm writing a paper and just want to snack. It truly puts things into perspective: "What do I want more, a body I'm proud of and a healthy life, or a few cookies?" Admittedly, I sometimes pick the cookies. BUT, it's not necessarily a setback, it's just a bump. Life's all about the bumps in the road, taking the good with the bad, etc--and cookies are my bumps ;)

This is definitely going to be one of those "To Be Continued..." entries, but for now I think I've exhausted my brain cells for the day so I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, everybody!

<3 Jillian

"To the world, you may be one person; to one person, you may be the world." ~Unknown