Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Full Disclosure: I overeat and I’m not totally sure why I keep doing it when I know it’s a bad habit.  I shared this yesterday when I made the argument for a case when gaining 5 pounds is a success story.

Luckily I’ve been able to maintain a fairly healthy weight since I became a runner. However, I do realize that this is something that could become a long term problem if I don’t nip in the but while I’m still young.

As a result, I’m writing this post to catalogue the top reasons that could cause someone to overeat.  My thinking is that if we acknowledge the reasons why we overeat, it’s possible to develop a strategy to stop this bad habit.  Please share in the comments if you have something to add to the list.

1. I think the food taste so good and I want more

2. I don’t feel satisfied until I’m stuffed

3. I want to clean my plate

4. I don’t want to waste food

5. I want to taste everything

6. I’m bored

7. I’m stressed

8. I eat too fast

I gained 5 pounds over the last week more or less due to my annual Thanksgiving binge.  Normally, there would be no way I could describe this as a success story. This year, however, is not normal.

A few weeks ago I shared that I was going to start treating each year of life like a football game. Now my goal is to behave as if the New Year is kicking off the first quarter of the game, while Thanksgiving and Christmas close out the year in the 4th quarter.

In doing this, I’m now on a mission to no longer end the year by gaining weight and deferring goals.

Thanksgiving is one of the major obstacles to this. It’s a major family tradition and I just have to deal with it until I figure out how to break the cycle of overeating. So just like any other obstacle, I came up with a workaround.

I already know that I’m going to put on 5 pounds around the time of Thanksgiving.  I do it every year. The “food” is just too good. Sometimes I even let that 5 pounds turn to 7 or 8 or 10 by the New Year.  So instead of just letting this happen, this year I planned for it.  I ran 4 miles nearly every other day during the month of November and lost 7 pounds by Thanksgiving day.  So even though I gained 5 pounds over the last week, I still lost a net 2 pound over the last 30 days.

This is why gaining 5 pounds is a legitimate success story for me. I recognized an obstacle to my goal, then implemented a plan to workaround it.  Next, I need to figure out how not to eat until I’m stuffed four days straight. Any ideas?

Today I came across a gem of a time management tip. It came from a blog post titled My Best Tip For Time Strategy.

The tip is in response to the question:

“What’s your best tip for being effective . . . having more time . . . getting more sh*t done?”

The answer… Designate one goal each day as the MOST IMPORTANT, or as the author calls it CRUCIAL.

This is a solid tip that I often use when I’m in a time management rut.  However, in this particular blog post the author failed to provide evidence on why identifying a “crucial” goal each day makes you more effective and helps you get more sh*t done.

I’m no time management expert, but my personal experience with this strategy may provide you some insight into why this works.

As I stated in a previous post, to-do list create stress.  For me, it seems like the more items I have on the list, the less I get done.  But when I circle the one item that’s the “crucial” item of the day, it has the opposite effect.  I get more done.

I get more done because I feel as if the pressure is off.  No matter what happens from that point forward, the day is now a productive day.  On top of that, I now have real momentum.  I just successfully completed a “crucial” task and that momentum carries me through the day.

In short, this strategy is more of a momentum placebo than some magical time management pill.  Each of our brain’s work differently.  In my case, a momentum placebo is just what the doctor ordered.

What do you think?  Have you ever tried this time management strategy?  Did it work for you?