Breakfast like a princess … 42 spend at a meal eating slowly, the easier it is to eat less. But already, the average French mealtime has shortened from 82 minutes in 1978 to just 38 minutes at the time of writing. Depriving ourselves of deprivation As we saw when we discussed the What the Hell Effect and the Last Supper Effect, if we deprive ourselves of our favorite foods we begin a rebellion. It might start immediately as with the Last Supper Effect or it might take some time until some trigger comes along. The particular foods that most lead to this rebellion are different for each person. For one it might be chocolate, for another it might be rich cheeses, brownies or cakes. Often when we track our life stories back, our favorite forbidden foods are those that held some meaning for us as kids. One of my clients explained how she grew up in the country and the only time she ate chocolate was when she visited her grandmother. Her grandmother was particularly kind and loving. In particular she recalled a fight between her mother and grandmother over the chocolate. Her mother argued that the grandmother was indulging her too much. Anyway, grandmother won out – it was her house and she was its boss! To this day chocolate of course had a special place in her heart as a symbol not only of indulgence but of valor and true love. One of my favorite foods is chocolate chip cookies. I particularly like the premium variety – the ones that have a little bit of biscuit just to hold the chocolate chips together. I have two every day for morning tea – one of the strategic structures that I discussed earlier. So why do I have them for morning tea? Five reasons:
• Generally in the morning my appetite is less so I am less likely to over-eat.
• After a good breakfast my appetite is less again so I am even less likely to binge on them.