Yes, I have the "I'm full" sensor. I've just been ignoring it for most of my life. When I actually stop and pay attention, I can tell when I'm full ("satisfied" is the real word for me. I don't like eating until I'm "full").
My food addiction doesn't like this ability.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flashfacts
One of my problems before was that I always assumed that there was a full 'feeling' that I was just missing or overlooking, when in fact I've learned that it more a lack of feeling. When I'm full, its like my stomach disappears, and I can't really physically recognize that the organ is in my abdomen anymore. When I'm hungry, there is a hole there, or a feeling of emptiness, where as when I overate, I would feel a pressure pushing my abdomen out.
Yes, that's it. It pretty much feels like nothing. The hunger is gone and I just feel...nothing. Overeating has a feeling and I was always eating to *that* point.
I've always thought that 'full response' was broken on me. Only recently have I been able to feel fullness and even stop eating everything on my plate. (that doesn't happen very often, however)
The only time I remotely feel full is when I eat very, very slowly actually swallowing each bite down to the tummy and feeling it there. It was a new concept. But, it has been helping.
I really have to plan my daily food because I can never reley on my stomach telling me if I am full.
Last edited by Beverlyjoy; 10-27-2010 at 07:09 PM.
That's one of the things I'm struggling with. I'm either starving, or "meh". "Meh", for me, apparently includes "not hungry". Unless I'm super hungry, to the point where I'm nauseous, light headed, and have a pounding headache, I'm "meh". I don't have a "getting kinda hungry", or a "I should eat soon" feeling. If I do, I don't know what it feels like.
I don't remember ever having a fullness sensor growing up or for the first two years of my weight loss, but lately I've found that if I eat slowly and stay mindful of how my body feels, I don't have to count calories or measure anything. That doesn't mean that I no longer have an appetite for larger portions... I still feel tempted on occasion to have an extra helping of potatoes or a second bowl of cereal, but in general I now feel a sense of satiety after eating reasonable portions of food that I never felt before.
As for eating small portions of sweets, that's a skill that took me a lot of time and hard work to acquire. For many months I deliberately stopped eating every meal while there was still food on my plate. I also had practice sessions where I would eat one or two bites of dessert and stop. At first those practices were few and far between because they were so darn hard (and not always successful), but they eventually became easier and easier. I now feel comfortable around any food and can eat reasonable amounts without overdoing it.
I should also mention that after reading some of the research on the effects of artificial sweeteners on weight regulation (Terry Davidson at Purdue has done a lot of work on this) I stopped using splenda, aspartame, etc. Perhaps my body's regulatory mechanisms are recovering? I don't know for sure, but either way, diet coke is now out of the picture.
I'm not sure I have the "I'm full" response quite yet, but I have noticed I don't have the desire to eat as much or the kinds of foods I would normally LOVE to indulge in! For now I mostly rely on my brain to tell me "that's enough", but I think I'm getting there! I'm certainly more conscious of what and how much is going in my mouth.
