Presupposition
A lot of my recent thinking has been about conditioning. I've been thinking about it recently as a form of exercise. If you want your body to perform feats of strength you tell your body that it should by working out. If you want your habits to work in a certain way you do the same thing.
I've already spoken enough about conditioning yourself into doing certain things, but I've turned my focus recently into examining the things I'm already conditioned to do. This is what lead me to consider violently destroying our large Tupperware bowls. I used to regularly use them as eating dishes, and they're symbolic of a negative behavior that's been ingrained into me since childhood. The basic syntax of it is this:
I'm bigger then everyone else, so I eat more then them.
It's something I don't even think about. I would get more food then normal because it was an unspoken undiscussed assumption that I needed more food then normal. So, one of the things I've been doing every morning since this occurred to me (Yesterday) is eating an amount of cereal that is an appropriate size for one of our normal bowls. It ends up being around 1/2 of what I would've eaten from the tupperware bowls, and I still find that I'm satiated. Followup experiments with a 6" subway sub confirm earlier findings.
It's amazing to think about. How many years have I defaulted to ordering a large simply because I assumed that was what was appropriate?
It's fascinating to think about, and I wonder what else I may find. Amongst other things, maybe I should stop leaving an hour before class starts when I know it will only take me 20-30 minutes to get there?
I'll think about that later though, it's 9:27, and I have class at ten thirty, so I need to go.
I've already spoken enough about conditioning yourself into doing certain things, but I've turned my focus recently into examining the things I'm already conditioned to do. This is what lead me to consider violently destroying our large Tupperware bowls. I used to regularly use them as eating dishes, and they're symbolic of a negative behavior that's been ingrained into me since childhood. The basic syntax of it is this:
I'm bigger then everyone else, so I eat more then them.
It's something I don't even think about. I would get more food then normal because it was an unspoken undiscussed assumption that I needed more food then normal. So, one of the things I've been doing every morning since this occurred to me (Yesterday) is eating an amount of cereal that is an appropriate size for one of our normal bowls. It ends up being around 1/2 of what I would've eaten from the tupperware bowls, and I still find that I'm satiated. Followup experiments with a 6" subway sub confirm earlier findings.
It's amazing to think about. How many years have I defaulted to ordering a large simply because I assumed that was what was appropriate?
It's fascinating to think about, and I wonder what else I may find. Amongst other things, maybe I should stop leaving an hour before class starts when I know it will only take me 20-30 minutes to get there?
I'll think about that later though, it's 9:27, and I have class at ten thirty, so I need to go.
posted by Max at 9:15 AM
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