So today I read this article from RealAge (that's the Dr. Mehmet Oz's, for the unfamiliar) that had a Gauge Your Appetite scale which I thought was pretty good. I think most of those appetite-gauging scales from other articles are sort of vague, and this one's so much clearer. I've hyperlinked the URL to the full article, so I'm just putting the scale here since that's the jist of it.
GAUGE YOUR APPETITE
0 Tank = Hungry
1/2 Tank = Edge is off
3/4 Tank = Satisfied and not hungry
Full Tank = Full and comfortable
Overflow Level S = Stuffed
Overflow Level OS = Overstuffed
Overflow Level BP = Button Pop/Exploding
Aim to stay in the 3/4 to Full Tank range -- satisfied at all times. You'll get there by eating regularly throughout the day. After applying the gauge for 2 weeks, you'll start to know instinctively why you're eating and, better yet, you'll train yourself to eat simply to keep your stomach -- not your emotions -- satisfied.
And then, more of my ramblings...
A few minutes in deep thought resulted in the realization that I'm almost always at "Full Tank". That's 24x7, with the exception of the hours that I'm asleep, of course. Mostly because I live by those fitness rules of eating every 3-4 hours, lean protein plus complex carbs. (Lately I've been guilty of having simple carbs like non-wholewheat waffles at work, ugh... crap food, I know, I know. I seriously need to stop putting crap into my system. Yuck. But that's another story.)
Thing is, I sometimes wonder if being almost always at "Full Tank" is a good or a bad thing. Probably because there's always those so-called-tips-of-a so-called-proper-diet which repeat like a mantra the phrase, "Eat when you're hungry (and not if you ain't)."
Ahh, enough of the trains of thought. I'm just gonna stick to my "eat every 3-4 hours". I need to get back to cracking my skull to think of ways to pack proper snacks to work instead. So I can ditch the office crap-food for good.
