Quote:
Originally Posted by kiramira
Are we AFRAID to feel hungry? And has this contributed to our weight issues?
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I guess it is like exercise and discomfort vs pain -- not every exercise-related discomfort needs medication and rest, but significant pain needs to be addressed. But you have to be able to distinguish between the two. I think the same goes for hunger.
Kira
just to throw it out there, just because a person is normal weight doesn't necessarily mean he/she doesn't have issues with eating (and/or his/her weight). the only reason I say this is because if you compare your eating habits to someone who's thin, you may be comparing yourself to someone who may have her own load of laundry to wash. (I'll add that my bf's family, all thin to extra thin, have so many issues around eating and food that I find it a little excruciating to eat with them.)
great q. it's like having lots of words for different types of snow.
I've gone through times when yes, I think I was actually scared to be hungry, and would eat as soon as I didn't feel completely full. That, to me, seems like a very emotional response.
I read a thread by a woman who posted that after losing some large amount of weight she became hypoglycemic, which I wasn't aware could happen. If I don't eat lunch early, I get that shaky low blood sugar feeling (doesn't happen with any other meal). That's another kind of hunger in a way.
then there's the "I'm not really hungry hungry, but I could nosh" hunger. that probably describes the husband eating apple before dinner scenario (or maybe that's more along the lines of low blood sugar). It describes me at night in front of the tv.
then there's the "yen for whatever" hunger, which is more of an urge than real hunger. that can be powerful, which is why those dang fast food commercials they play constantly at night can be so insidious. they put the image and thought in your brain, as a craving, an urge. someone was writing about those dessert/chocolate commercials with the women eating some dessert and moaning in absolute ecstasy (that puts the urge in your head, or at least in mine, which may just be proof of my over manipulability, heh heh)
I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, which keeps my blood sugar level, usually, at a pretty even level. I do get hungrier sometimes. it's pretty rare I get ravishingly hungry (because of the small snacks -- apple and V8; banana; yogurt; glass of milk, etc.). Having eaten this way for quite a while, it also has redefined what it means for me to feel full. Being full, seems to me, to be the other important part of the q.
on diets I have had that feeling of I just can't feel full eating this, which is like saying "I feel deprived." I think there's a couple of layers to that idea, one which can be emotional (which it was for me), the other just wanting the physical feeling that I was used to thinking of as being full -- which in reality was being OVER full.
I've heard too, that people may be thirsty and confuse it with being hungry. I'm always drinking water, got into that habit from a young age when I joined WW as a teen.
another way to possibly think of hunger, when you're truly hungry, and you eat, it can be a real pleasure and make the food taste even better. I've had plenty of times in my life when food felt like the enemy. I have to eat, and I have to eat on a regular basis, and will have to eat on a regular basis for the rest of my life. I'm better off figuring out how to do that in the most positive way I can.