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.

Speight's Birthday Brewery Tour

Jeez Louise!  How did I forget to write about my birthday brewery tour?  Back in June, I organized an adventure to Speight's Brewery, right here in Dunedin.  What more could a girl ask for besides beer and quality time with friends?

The cost was $20/person because we had enough people for a private tour.  Our guide was a perky woman who lead us around and eventually set us free in the tap room to pour our own beers.

The first bit of educational-ness that we encountered was a display on the history of beer.  Thank you, Egyptians, for your contributions! 

I decided to pose for a picture with Mr. Speight. 

Unfortunately, a fair amount of time has passed and I've been busy doing this, that, and the other thing, so I don't remember much about the tour.  Plus, my camera was being dodgy, so there aren't any pictures to wow you with. Sorry. 

Basically, you've got some stuff to make the beer... 

Then stuff happens here... and then it becomes beer.

And, when it becomes beer, this is one place where you can go and consume it: the tap room!

But, alas, all good things must come to an end.  Eventually, the tap was turned off and we were escorted out.  I was a wee bit sad about this.  In my defense, would you blame me? I was the birthday girl, after all, and I wanted more beer.

If you're a beer drinker and you'll be in Dunedin then definitely check out this tour!  We had loads of fun.  Even non-beer drinkers can have a good time.  The folks in our party that fit in this category enjoyed their history lesson and the walk around the buildings.  A tip for the beer drinkers: strategy is key!  I believe they had six beers on tap (one of them was a cider, actually) and so I had to delicately balance enjoying each beer and quickly moving on to the next one to taste in the 30 minutes we were allotted in the tap room.  Bottoms up!