[kisskisskill]

I don't think I am afraid to be hungry. I have starved myself in the past to lose weight(dummy, I know). My problem is mindless eating...not even thinking about if I am hungry or not. I stuff food in my face simply because it is there.

[Ufi]

I did an exercise on hunger that is supposed to put you more in touch with your body, have you feel what hunger really is. It was interesting. It's easier to tell the difference between "I want some fries" and "my body needs something." I can forget to eat sometimes, if I get really wrapped up in what I'm doing. If I go too long, then it does make it harder to make good choices because I want fast and high-cal.

[dcapulet]

i know that i am afraid of being hungry. I have been for years. When i was a child, we were DIRT poor. We often didn't have enough food, so when there was food, i needed to make sure i got some. My parents would eat what we had with little regard for me or my siblings, so i would eat more out of fear it would be gone later. it took me many years to realize that things are no longet like that for me, and that i have the money to go to the store and buy cookies or fruit or anything i wanted. (which is another problem for me). but that mentality hurt me for a long time; being hungry is a lousy experience, and i never want to feel it again in a negative, long term way.

i've learned how to stop when i'm full, although i am far from an expert at it. and being hungry for this meal doesn't mean i will be hungry forever (i'm working on that one too)

[Rosinante]

dcapulet, kudos on learning what 'full enough' feels like!
Your story is why I can never say I know what 'real hunger' feels like, because real hunger, in my mind, goes with the kind of fear and powerlessness you're talking about.

My food issues are childhood related - I was (for the times) a little under weight at birth and, apparently, not a good eater, so mother frantically stuffed me with anything she could get me to eat. I suppose feeling stuffed became normal.

Then my brother was born, and the story is told that I was very good with the new baby, unphased until I saw him being fed with what I took to be MY bottle. Apparently I cried - and was rewarded with food.

So the imprint in my consciousness, which I try very hard to erase but it never quite goes away, is of not being good enough or just enough somehow, so being replaced by someone I'm supposed to be nice to, and the consequent feelings to be dealt with through food. To this day, if I'm queueing for something and people mill around behind me, I get panic-stricken that they might push in past me, because I know I'm programmed not to object to being supplanted. (I'm OK once they join the queue.)

[TraceyElaine]

I am blessed with nausia as my hunger pain. I hate to feel like that. I know some people just feel the rumbley tummy. I feel like I will throw up. Has always been that way. So I try never to get too hungry. Wish it were different.

[rockinrobin]

Originally Posted by TraceyElaine

I am blessed with nausia as my hunger pain. I hate to feel like that. I know some people just feel the rumbley tummy. I feel like I will throw up. Has always been that way. So I try never to get too hungry. Wish it were different.

I am the same way, or at least similar. I get horribly shaky, headache-y, woozy, etc.. There are ways around it. One CAN lose weight and keep it off and STILL not be hungry. I eat very frequently and very nutritious, satiating and voluminous foods. You have to know yourself and do what's right for you. Certainly I'd prefer to not feel this way when hungry, but there's no use fighting it. You've got to work with what you've got - and what you haven't.

[Phenomenal Woman]

Ya know, I don't know whether or not I'd say I'm afraid of hunger. Hunger for me has always been kind of a burden more than anything else. Just like Kaplods, from the time I was about 6 or so, whenever I'd say I was hungry, my father would immediately answer, "Good! That means you're losing weight!" So, since then, whenever I've felt hunger pains it has always been a depressing sort of "oh no, here we go again" kind of feeling.

My dad hated that I was a chubby kid. He put me on an extremely low calorie diet. This didn't start til I was around 8, but from that point til I was about 16 I was only given very small portions of food, like two soy sausage links for breakfast, and half a sandwich and 6 potato chips for lunch, that kinda "small".

Anything else I ate was food that I sneaked when I was not being watched, which was where the "burden" part comes in. I was a really honest kid, and I hated lying or sneaking around or disobeying my dad. So, whenever I was hungry, I would get irritated because I felt like I had to do something dishonest and "bad" and that I'd have to jump through hoops to be sure that nobody saw me do it and that nobody would find out I was (ch)eating. (Which was never easy when eating lunch in the same cafeteria with two step sisters who were dying to catch me doing something wrong so they could tell on me! )

So even now, this kind of thought persists with me. I don't fear being hungry, but it really irritates me when my body bothers me for food. lol

Thank you very much for asking this question Kira, it succeeded with it's goal as a springboard for self reflection because until just now, I've never EVER thought about this pattern of mine consciously before. I never noticed that I get irritated by the thought of having to eat until I started writing this post, nor had I any clue why I would feel that way. lol! It's amazing the things you learn about yourself when you aren't expecting it!

This gives me a much better perspective on what I need to work on.

Thanks!! ... And thanks to all you beautiful women who have been responding to this thread too! It makes me feel so much better to know that I'm not the only one who was raised to have a "disorder" manner of thinking toward food!