Is your brain still trying to tell you that the holidays aren’t over? Have you gotten into a habit of looking for the gift cookies, candy, and so on?  Have other people gotten the same idea that you had – take it to the office to get it out of the house? Now you’re in the office too. Yikes! You want to escape from the goodies. You just want to go back to your pre-holiday thinking. You want your stomach to just shrink back to October 15th, the official beginning of the holiday eating marathon.

When I was studying nutrition at UCLA, we were taught that the stomach is an elastic organ; and that the size of our stomach places only a broad limit of how much food we are able to eat (barring surgery to make it very small). Although there have been studies that have shown that stomach capacity actually can be reduced, don’t expect a lap band effect because you’re eating less.

On the other hand, an empty stomach does not demand overeating. Although reducing food intake does seem to reduce stomach capacity, few of us are over-eating because our stomachs are empty. Does it really matter very much if there is some reduction of maximum capacity (which of course is significant)? Think of our ancient ancestors who had to eat huge amounts of food when they were lucky enough to have killed a mammoth. But as I sit at my computer (as in, only moving my fingers) I think, “I don’t care if my stomach can hold 2 quarts or a gallon; the two or three cups that I regularly send there is doing a fine job of giving me plenty of nutrients and calories.

I think there is considerable research that supports appetite’s relationship with habit; so I encourage you to find ways to redesign your habits during this year, if you desire to have better health. I don’t recommend focusing on shrinking your stomach as your strategy. Starving yourself is counter productive in designing long term weight management and health.

Have you seen the Twenty Thoughts on Weight-related Goals in the Library section? How are you doing? Let me know, if you like; maybe I can give you a hint or two.

• Are the cookies, chips, juices, sugar-sweetened drinks, and other tempting things out of the house?
• Have you been shopping, and victoriously brought home some veggies and fruit?
• Have you begun stocking up on whole grain products?
• Are you trying to rehearse how you will handle your identified problems?
• Are you trying to ask yourself if you’re really hungry before eating?
• If you’re not hungry, can you put it off? Distract yourself? Get a drink of water or no-calorie iced or hot tea?

Sharing my goal: It is to learn more about seasonings and spices.  I hope it will be a benefit to you. Because I believe that Good Health Can Be Yummy™ I know that we like to eat foods that are delicious, and want them to be healthy and fairly easy to prepare. So I hope that my goal of learning more about the use of spices and flavors, will help support your goals of lower fat, calories, sodium and sugar. Keep an eye out for posts in the coming weeks.

Sending my best to each of you in your individual quests,

Joyce

My dear 88-year old friend, Honey, sent me these bulbs for Christmas; they're such a rich metaphor for new beginnings and goals. Notice how small two of the shoots are; however, I have great hopes for all three south African Amaryllis.