Weather affects appetite? Long, skip this if it bores you!

[Guest guest]

This is something I've given a great deal of thought to over my dieting years, and now I'm trying to relate it to IE. I wonder how much weather affects our eating patterns? I've watched my cats for years during the winters; they are more reliable weather predictors than any meteorologist. Ten days before falling temps, winter storms, they'll begin to gobble everything in site. I can pinpoint the arrival of spring temperatures because they start eating less and less and shedding pounds as well as fur. This despite the fact that they are totally indoors animals and always have been.

And I grew up in the muggy Midwest summers without air conditioning until I was in my mid-20s; I well recall how everyone had little appetite during the summers back then. It wasn't just that it was too hot to cook; we just didn't much feel like eating.

So then I thought about some of my mindless eating today while I wasn't hungry, and it struck me that most of the Midwest is currently battening down the hatches for a really bad winter blow--6 - 10 inches of snow, sleet, and icy rain. (That's the Indiana I know and love: tornadoes on Tuesday, blizzard on Thursday.) So, was my sudden attack of grazing not just prompted by old diet mentality, but also by some instinctive urge to "eat up before hibernating"? I guess I think there is still so much that we don't know about the human body and it's functioning that this is possible. So perhaps if I had already been really listening to my body, if I'd been on the IE path a long while, I'd just have eaten a tad more over the past week in unconscious readiness for our below-zero windchills and this coming storm, without even knowing (or questioning) why I wanted a bit more to eat. (Waiting on the bus these frigid days has had me harkening back to arcane knowledge about how many calories one burns while shivering!)

Then again, maybe I'm just also being too darned cerebral about the whole thing!

BeckettStart the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

[Guest guest]

I always think I'm boring and repetative about stuff like this - but I have

noticed this as well.

I've noticed how what I want to eat is influenced by season, stress, light and

darkness,

hormones, how much sleep I get - so many things people thought were just

matters of

'willpower' or lack thereof. People fight against nature - and lose - then think

they are

failures. But they aren't - there was never any way to 'win' - going *with*

nature is really

winning.

>

> This is something I've given a great deal of thought to over my dieting

> years, and now I'm trying to relate it to IE. I wonder how much weather

affects

> our eating patterns? I've watched my cats for years during the winters; they

> are more reliable wea

[Guest guest]

For sure we humans do not live in the conditions that our bodies

evolved for - hunter gathers. Plus we have pretty much human

'preferred' INdoor conditions most of the year too. This has to be

somewhat of a conflict in many (mini?) ways, but the bottom line for

me is that I do need to keep listening to the internal drives and

sorting out the body hunger from the emotional eating too.

Also I am so totally more inclined for hearty soups and warm, filling

eating in winter as well as crisp, fresh fruit and veggies come summer

too.

Keep up the insights Katcha

>

> This is something I've given a great deal of thought to over my

dieting

> years, and now I'm trying to relate it to IE. I wonder how much

weather affects

> our eating patterns? I've watched my cats for years during the

winters; they

> are more reliable weather predictors than any meteorologist. Ten days

> before falling temps, winter storms, they'll begin to gobble

everything in site.

> I can pinpoint the arrival of spring temperatures because they

start eating

> less and less and shedding pounds as well as fur. This despite the

fact that

> they are totally indoors animals and always have been.

>

> And I grew up in the muggy Midwest summers without air conditioning

until I

> was in my mid-20s; I well recall how everyone had little appetite

during the

> summers back then. It wasn't just that it was too hot to cook; we

just

> didn't much feel like eating.

>

> So then I thought about some of my mindless eating today while I

wasn't

> hungry, and it struck me that most of the Midwest is currently

battening down

> the hatches for a really bad winter blow--6 - 10 inches of snow,

sleet, and icy

> rain. (That's the Indiana I know and love: tornadoes on Tuesday,

blizzard

> on Thursday.) So, was my sudden attack of grazing not just

prompted by old

> diet mentality, but also by some instinctive urge to " eat up before

> hibernating " ? I guess I think there is still so much that we don't

know about the human

> body and it's functioning that this is possible. So perhaps if I had

> already been really listening to my body, if I'd been on the IE

path a long while,

> I'd just have eaten a tad more over the past week in unconscious

readiness

> for our below-zero windchills and this coming storm, without even

knowing (or

> questioning) why I wanted a bit more to eat. (Waiting on the bus

these frigid

> days has had me harkening back to arcane knowledge about how many

calories

> one burns while shivering!)

>

> Then again, maybe I'm just also being too darned cerebral about the

whole

> thing!

>

> Beckett

>

>

>

> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

>