Using MealEnders to Curb Overeating

Storytime! My nicknames include “Black Hole,” “Food Receptacle,” and most recently, “Hollow Leg.” (As in, when I went back to Lewisburg for Valentine’s Day weekend, Scott called Linda to invite her out for Valentine’s Day lunch, and told her to “bring the hollow leg too.” [Thanks, Scott!])

I can eat a lot, and I’ve scared off many a waiter on family cruises because I’ll order 3 appetizers, 3 main courses, and 3 desserts…and I will finish everything.

Note the intensity of my gaze towards my next victim.

Sushi buffets have been known to randomly close up shop on my birthday, and my mom likes to tease that I’m going to be forever alone because I’ll likely scare everyone away with the sheer quantities that I can scarf down.

…Suffice to say, portion control is not exactly my strong suit. If food is in front of me, it will disappear. In med school, we all had a tendency to diagnose ourselves with things that we were learning about.

My two self-diagnoses are…(1) narcolepsy, and (2) compulsive eating disorder.

Over the years, I’ve had to come up with techniques to curb that eating frenzy, at least kindasorta.

When I first heard about MealEnders…to be quite honest, I was pretty skeptical. I was worried that it was going to be one of those magical shortcut pills that claim to help you lose 2398 lbs in 2 weeks with no effort/exercise/dieting involved. (Aka the bane of my existence.) However, I looked into it and found out they were essentially just like…flavored cough drops!

They are:

• Kosher
• Gluten-free
• Free of drugs, herbs, stimulants, MSG or high fructose corn syrup

MealEnders have a sweet, outer “reward” layer that provides a measured dose of “dessert” (which is usually associated with the end of a meal), and the inner layer is somewhat minty, with long-lasting cooling/tingling sensations that cue the end of eating and clear the palate.

Since it keeps your mouth/mind occupied for up to 20 minutes, which is known as the “overeating zone” (that point in time where you’re full, but continue to eat anyway), MealEnders transition you away from the desire to overindulge, and gives your brain a chance to register that you are in fact full.

(Images from mealenders.com!)

MealEnders come in 4 different flavors in 25-piece pouches:

1. Cinnamon
2. Citrus
3. Mocha
4. Chocolate Mint

I like cinnamon as a spice, but have never enjoyed cinnamon candies. Weirdly enough, however, I actually didn’t mind these! (My favorite was the citrus though!)

They could not not have arrived at a better time. I got them at the beginning of my psych rotation, which consists of 11-12 hour days where I usually spend at least 5-6 hours sitting in a corner, or more recently, in the hallway when I get exiled by patients who want privacy. I usually spend this time studying and/or draining my phone battery by doing practice questions, and I’ve also taken to attending group therapy sessions to pass the time.

Remember that possible narcolepsy that I mentioned? I can’t sit for long without falling asleep, so for the first couple days, I would eat to stay awake. Once these entered the picture, they actually helped me to stop with the mindless snacking throughout the day! :O

As an added + possibly-unintended benefit, I pretty much have the adult equivalent of RSV, and it refuses to leave. These have been soothing my super-irritated throat (thanks a lot, congestion) so that the patients won’t think I have tuberculosis from all the coughing/hacking.

…I’m including a random anatomy lesson for you, because I’m in medical school and anatomy happens to be one of my favorite subjects! I used to tutor it and do review sessions for fellow classmates + the class below me! :] One of the TA’s started calling me Dr. Lee. (For the record, my last name is not Lee.)

If your doctor has ever asked you to close your eyes while s/he brushed your forehead, cheeks, chin, and/or asked you to clench your teeth, s/he was testing your trigeminal nerve, which is your fifth cranial nerve (CN V)! (You have 12 cranial nerves. <- I made a chart of em’ for the first years, but you can check it out if you’re interested in learning more about them!)

The trigeminal nerve has both motor and sensory properties, and innervates the muscles of mastication (otherwise known as the muscles that help you to chew food–hence, the teeth-clenching), and has three branches (ophthalmic, maxillary + mandibular) that are responsible for sensation of the face (hence, the poking at your face).

The mandibular branch (V3) has a branch called the lingual nerve, and while it doesn’t help with taste (that’s CN VII and CN IX’s jobs), it returns sensory and taste information from the anterior (front) 2/3 of your tongue. That’s what MealEnders is alerting! :]

Check out MealEnders on their site, or connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

I’m giving away 4 packs of MealEnders (one of each flavor) to one lucky winner in the US! Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below! Ends at midnight EST on March 15th!

Disclaimer: I received free samples in exchange for an honest review. As always, all thoughts & opinions are mine and mine alone!

• Make sure you enter my other giveaway for 1 bag of Hemp Hearts!
• Visit Erica or Smitha for even more chances to win all sorts of cool things!