Hi All
Well, this is one that I've been working on for a long time. I had, 13 years ago, lost 30 pounds by only eating when I was hungry. It felt great! The problem was, that I thought then that I was immune and would never have a weight problem again. Away went the scales. Then, of course, life stress and trauma and etc. -- **** happens, as they say -- and I fell back on old habits, food-wise, without going back to the monitoring (scale) habit. And when I looked up againg I had gained 60 pounds (if not more). I'm at about 50 pounds up now and trying to get 60 off to goal.
So... I guess I feel like training myself to eat for hunger is really important, but I have to continue to monitor, because I can fool myself much much too easily.
If I only ate when I was hungry:
1) I would not be overweight. Eating for reasons other than hunger is what keeps the (considerable!) flesh on my bones.
2) I would address my real needs with appropriate responses, instead of trying to deal with everything through food. One thing that I continue to come back to is that: I have needs that are not being met. Because they are not being met, I turn to food --because it is so available, and an ingrained habit. If I ensure that my needs are met in the first place -- rest, entertainment, spiritual aspects, and etc. -- this would not be a factor. I am in such a pattern of thinking about what I HAVE to do, that I rarely think about what I WANT to do. I deny myself rest, fun, artistic expression and so on. And it isn't because I don't have time. I consistently waste time that I could use more productively and enjoyably. Then I end up having not enough time to do the things I need to get done. Then, being frustrated and depressed, I turn to good old reliable food. I intend to try to deal with this from the source -- see that my needs are met, to the best of my ability.
Exercise 28: Eating for the Hunger to Come
If I didn’t eat for the hunger to come I might:
1 Be hungry when the type of food I want to eat is not available -- end up eating junk because it's easy
2 Eat more often. I sometimes feel upset if I'm hungry when I didn't plan for it. You know, I have breakfast at 7:30 and then at 9:30 I'm hungry again and I think "Oh no -- I'm hungry already -- how can I keep my points/calories low enough." I have to learn to eat when I'm hungry without anguish. Some days are just hungrier than others. If we eat more on a hungry day, we eat less on a not-so-hungry day. I have to learn not to panic if I'm hungry when I didn't expect to be. to feed myself if I'm hungry.
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I may edit more responses in later. Right now I want to talk about coping with this issue. I feel like it's important not to get too hungry, too. So I think that (and my recollection is that Roth addresses this) we need to always have something available that we can eat if we are hungry and it isn't convenient to have a meal. I used to keep soy bars in my purse for that reason. Now I work from home so it isn't as difficult, but i find that it's really helpful for me to have something in mind that I will eat if I get hungry.
LLB, I guess I'm talking to you. Try to take something to work with you that you can eat when the need hits (something that will nourish you more effectively than the candy vendor). When you get the headache, is it hours after you ate? Is it possible that you're failing to notice when you have stomach hunger? I feel a bit light-headed sometimes when I don't eat, but I usually feel hunger some time before that that I've ignored.
Crone, interesting about "eating to keep hunger at bay." I read an article by a dietician recently that said that we should do just that. She said that hunger comes in stages; before the actual stomach hunger there's a feeling that you want to eat. She said this probably happens because our foraging ancestors had to find their food before they could eat -- if they only started to look once they were hungry they would get weak and would not be able to look for food effectively. So we evolved with an "early warning system": when we get the pre-hunger signal (which she says is something we can learn to detect -- I'm getting there i think), we find food and then we can eat before we are starving. Someone else mentioned that they could choose the food they really needed more effectively before they were overly hungry. I think that's really true for me too.
Ecchs, I don't think we've met -- Welcome! I've posted here before but haven't for a while. I'm going to go back in and do the exercises that I've missed. Feel free to join me if you'd like -- there's a lot of good stuff; I know I saw some when I was lurking...
yeesh. I better get off here and do something else. Like sleep...
G'night all!
xo
babette