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February 03, 2005
context switching
I've been giving this issue of moderation a lot of thought the last few days, and just now i had a sudden realization.
The other day at work, d. said, "I've been context switching like crazy and it's just... AUUUGH!"
By context switching, he meant going back and forth between two very different, conceptually different, tasks.
I have to do this in my job, too, and i just hate it, because each time I switch, I have to "ramp up". When I switch to coding XSL templates, I have to remember how my XSL coding environment works (it's kind of complex), and I have to remember XSL code itself (I haven't used it much, so it doesn't come back instantly the way other coding languages do). There's a lot of overhead involved in switching contexts, especially when you have to do a little re-learning each time.
So, how does this apply to dieting? Remember when I said that "all the way on and all the way off are easy, moderation is difficult"? (or something like that.) Well, moderation is basically an act of constant context switching. I switch from my high carb way of eating to my low carb way of eating from meal to meal, or try to. The more I try to do it, the more muddled things get; the more difficult they seem. It's easier to just land on one and stay there, because there's pain involved in each switch.
I think this also helps explain why social situations cause me such problems sometimes when I am trying to stick with a low carb diet. The social situation exerts pressure to switch contexts to the prevailing one that I am in. ie, everyone else is drinking wine and eating potato chips... it takes a lot of extra energy for me to remain in my own little context and not join the one that everyone around me seems to be enjoying so much.
I was thinking yesterday that it might be worthwhile to identify a set of skills that would help me maintain over the long run (or remain in a weight loss mode over a long period of time). For instance, the ability to have one high-carb meal, then immediately switch back to low carb at the next meal. If I think ahead to what that next meal will be and already have it planned... "ok, i'm going to char-grill for lunch and i'm going to go for it! fries, a pie, everything! so for dinner, i'll get that chicken out of the freezer and i'd better stop at whole foods on the way home for some fresh broccoli. it'll be a pain but i HAVE to." maybe that would reduce the overhead involved in context switching. and if i practice this over and over, and the habit wears a little groove that i can fall back into with ease, i might be better able to achieve moderation.
this is not to say that i'm going to go to char-grill every day, however :)
Posted by lisa at February 03, 2005 03:32 PM | TrackBack
Comments
As someone who has gained and lost more weight than anyone I know....I would be very glad to learn some way to context-switch at the maintenance phase. Because I still have a very black and white definition of being "good" or "bad" and once things slip a little...they seem to slip all the way, taking me right back to square one. Which sucks so much ass I can't even tell you.
Posted by: pinky on February 4, 2005 02:06 PM
Hmmm, you've got me thinking. The "when everyone else is drinking wine and eating potato chips." Would it be possible to notice something that not everyone was doing, and shift that to the food pattern? Ex: if you poke around long enough, you'll notice, say, that only one person is wearing tennis shoes. But there's no dissonance about her still being "of the group." By extension, could you be the only person in the group (and still "of the group") eating all-carbs? This is a very unrefined theory -- that's just hit me now, so please feel free to ignore it.
Oh and by the way -- last night I had four dreams about gathering yummy food. A rare occurrence.
Posted by: Phil on February 8, 2005 01:23 AM
unfortunately, a lot of times other people want to discuss what i will and will not consume in those situations; once it becomes a topic of discussion, it would be very difficult for me to feel as if i am part of the group, no matter how well-meaning the inquiries are.
i know that people on diets will often make the diet a topic of discussion, probably because it's high in their mind (it has to be, to keep from going on autopilot and grabbing a handful of chips). i try to restrain myself as much as i can in that regard, currently, although i didn't always.
Posted by: lisa on February 8, 2005 08:10 AM
"a lot of times other people want to discuss what i will and will not consume in those situations."
WTF?! Can you ask them not to? Or just revel in it, if they insist? Or change meal-mates?
Just wondering. I know it's not always simple.
Posted by: Phil on February 10, 2005 12:37 AM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.