I ate a lot of food over the weekend. A LOT. Because the tacos from Torchy’s were especially tasty on Friday, I picked up some more yesterday. I didn’t stop with tacos, though. Torchy’s queso is amazing, so I got chips and queso as well. And, finally, because I’d never had their refried beans or Mexican rice, I got some of each. While I intended to eat some of the food for lunch and leave the rest for dinner, it didn’t quite work out that way. Despite feeling full before even diving into the tacos, it wasn’t too long before they were gone.

I have a problem with eating beyond capacity. There are stretch receptors in the stomach that signal to the brain when your belly is full, and, while mine function just fine, I typically ignore them if something tastes really good. The urge to continue indulging in something that gives me pleasure from its taste is simply stronger than the need to stop because I’m getting full. What you’re supposed to do is wait something like 20 minutes if you’ve started to feel full, and presumably that feeling grows (or becomes more present to your brain) until you realize that you should stop eating. I rarely have the willpower needed to wait 20 minutes if something is tasting really good, but it’s a trick that I should start practicing.

For the weekend, I gained 2.5 pounds. Between the pizza on Saturday and the tacos on Sunday, I consumed a lot of sodium, so some of that weight is likely water. However, I’m still kind of impressed that I only gained 2.5 pounds given all the calories and carbohydrates I consumed. And I’m still mystified by the 6-pound drop from Friday. I’m learning more about how cortisol affects weight because it seems to be more important than I realized, so it’s probably a factor that I should keep in mind given that my anxious brain probably stimulates the production of a lot of it.
One of the things that’s supposed to help lower cortisol levels is green tea (another is dark chocolate). In the past, I’ve tried green tea—and I’ve hated it. But what I’ve discovered recently is that I’ve been brewing it incorrectly. Green tea requires a temperature below the temperature of boiling water, and you’re only supposed to steep it for three minutes. So, today, I ordered an electric kettle with temperature control and will give green tea another shot when it arrives. The consumption of green tea is also associated with positive metabolic effects (see https://tinyurl.com/2s36jedf) beyond the cortisol connection, so I may be drinking a lot of it soon.