weight and spoken thinking

[miriam_e]

I was chatting with an old friend last night. She was concerned about her weight. She tends to have meat at every meal and eats a lot of sweets. She knows my views on sweets so I left that alone, but instead suggested she go easy on the meat, perhaps cutting back to once a week. She replied that she'd heard meat doesn't put on weight; starch does. I thought for a moment and asked her where were all the overweight vegetarians and skinny butchers then?

Interesting. I'd never really thought about it till I said it. Isn't it weird that you can hold information in your head but never connect it till it escapes your mouth. Often I can resolve a problem simply by talking to someone about it. The other person doesn't even need to really listen; just the act of explaining it seems to make new connections in the brain. We are such strange creatures.

Comments

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I often think the same, with the second paragraph. I think it's why when I'm alone I speak aloud. The brain seems to string things together differently when we're thinking to speak instead of thinking within the confines of our minds. I'll often clarify things for myself just by speaking aloud, even without having anyone to question me.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it because we bring more circuits into play. We are effectively firing up a whole bunch of extra brain areas by formulating the speech, and then more areas if you listen to what you've just said. Talking to yourself definitely works, but I find that actually speaking to a living, breathing human being works even better and I've always been puzzled by that. As I said, the person doesn't even need to listen really; I simply need to speak my thoughts in a way that another person can understand. Perhaps you can do that without another person present. If so, I'm green with envy. I've tried and haven't got as good results yet.

I find rattling on about things on LiveJournal useful for similar reasons... though it has the added advantage that people can pick up my blind-spots and point them out to me -- something that, by definition, I can't do for myself. For instance, in my previous post dorjejaguar kept bringing me back to an error I was making in the way I was explaining myself -- a very useful thing. I might never have been able to correct my stupid mistake without help from her.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm lucky, then in getting my brain to formulate my speeches catering to the hope that another can understand! I don't need another person there. However, I am thrilled when someone else IS there, especially since I then get the same in return!

I'm sensitive and don't do quite as brilliantly with my blind spots pointed out online (text relationships can be painful for me), but if done so in a courteous way then I am well pleased. However given my entries are mainly personal affairs (I mainly keep my science off), I suppose it's a bit more personally painful to have a blind spot pointed out in the way in which someone runs her life rather than her science. Although there's a certain sting to the latter, as well, for those overly sensitive--especially to text statements!