Life is like a box of chocolates...

I'm not being a mindful eater at the moment - I'm actually being a completely mindless eater.  It's lunch time and I'm devouring mushroom falafel balls and researching Acceptance & Commitment Therapy randomized control trials.  Guess this is a do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do moment.

Anyway, this particular article caught my eye (probably because it involves chocolate).

Comparing thought suppression and acceptance as coping techniques for food cravings

Hooper, N., Sandoz, K, E., Ashton, J., Clarke, A., & McHugh, L. Eating Behaviors (2011), doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2011.10.002

Here's the abstract:

Handling food cravings seems to play a major role in weight management. Many try to simply avoid cravings. However, avoidance based techniques like thought suppression can make attempts to deal with cravings more difficult. Recent research suggests that acceptance based techniques, such as defusion, may be a plausible alternative. The current study aimed to compare these two techniques. Participants were instructed in either a thought suppression or defusion technique at the beginning of a week-long period of attempted chocolate abstinence. A control group was given no instruction. It was predicted that the participants given the defusion intervention would eat less chocolate during six days and during a final taste test. It was found that participants in the defusion group ate significantly less chocolate during the taste test than other groups. However, no difference was found in the amount of chocolate eaten throughout the duration of the experiment.

Since I'm supposed to be doing "work" at the moment, I'll just leave you to ponder how you handle your own cravings.