[Palestrina]

I recently started a thread about dealing with hunger and wanted to bring it to the Chicks in Control forum since it's all about control. Here is the original thread. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/gene...hout-food.html

Basically I have been trying to face my hunger head on rather than running away from it. I feel like I've been scared of hunger, that every diet promises to keep you full, that hunger is this bad scary thing we need to curb. Hunger can make us do crazy things, it can keep us from reaching our goals, it can sabotage our success. But I don't think running from it is the answer. For this reason I've decided to meet my fear face to face and battle it out with hunger.

Making peace with my enemy cannot happen by avoiding it. It can only happen by sitting with it in a quiet room, challenging it and letting it challenge me. These days I'm eating a relatively clean diet, no gluten and low carb and focusing mostly on raw vegetables and lean proteins. I'm not counting calories intentionally but years of having been a calorie counter make me aware that I'm eating possibly less than 1200 calories per day on some days. But it's ok, I don't plan on doing this for a long period, just long enough so that I can deal with some issues about hunger. No matter what diet plan anyone follows, hunger will be a part of it for sure.

So coming head to head with hunger has taught me alot. First, I don't know what real hunger is. Years of binging, years of eating processed food has had a physiological effect on my mind and body, making real hunger less obvious as I chase around my insatiable cravings. And because now I'm starting to discover what real hunger feels like it seems like hunger is my friend and not an enemy. Hunger isn't so scary. Hunger is different from cravings after all.

Secondly, cravings are artificial. I don't want to generalize, but this is true for me because most of my cravings are about potato chips or pasta, or cookies. They're calling for sugar, fat and salt not real nutrients. If I can get rid of cravings then hunger isn't so scary.

Thirdly, hunger brings out anger in me. I'm not generally an angry person, but when I start to feel hunger I start to lash out on anyone and anything that was angering me. I know this sounds like a bad thing but it's actually not bad. Because that anger is not something I allow myself to feel normally, I usually bury it down with potato chips and make all the stress go inward and thus ignore it. Anger sounds bad, the first few days were the worst of it but now I realize that eating makes me ignore my feelings. All my emotions were redirected towards food, now they are directed towards addressing my emotions.

Lastly, I can go hungry for a long time without dying. I can live peacefully with a rumble in my tummy. I am human and I deserve to feel connected with my stomach, at least now I'm listening to it rather than keeping it full and gagged. Hunger isn't so bad. Hunger is not an emergency. Hunger does not make me do crazy things. I appreciate hunger, I am grateful that I finally get to experience it.

Sorry for the long post, had to get that out.