I'm stuck at the office for another two hours watching workmen complete a project. Their delayed schedule has thrown me off my meal schedule. I'm so hungry. I have white rice I was going to throw out from my lunch. Is it better to eat the rice or go without food for two hours?

if you've already planned the rice into your meal plan for the day then why not eat it?

Whatever you decided, the important lesson is to make sure you have something "good" on hand (however you define good). For me that means stowing a bag of baby carrots in the fridge at the office and another at home. When hunger hits I never have an excuse not to eat a veggie.

Well, I agree with EMC, that if you want to eat the rice, you should. I don't think it's gonna throw you off if you were planning on it.

OTOH, one of the most awesome diet secrets I've learned is that hunger is no big deal. If you wait, it'll go away in a few minutes, 15 or 20 tops. And then when it comes around again, it's just the same as it was the first time. It doesn't get worse, just stays the same, then goes away again. So... if you don't want to eat that rice, you will be fine. And I find that realizing that I'm in control, not my hunger, is very liberating and empowering.

If it were me, waiting those two hours with that hunger would mean making BAD choices as soon as I got near food. Like, Taco Bell in the car on the drive home (Which, honestly, I plan into my days if I'm going to work 12+ hours) If this is you, eat the rice! If you know you'd be able to deal with the hunger and be smart when you get home, then by all means wait for something healthier later.

The rice was not part of my meal plan. At lunch I ate the chicken breast and veggies off the top. The rice has been on my desk til now. I'll skip it. Threw it in the trash just now.

If you're not hypoglycemic or prone to binging there is no harm in being hungry for a couple hours.

Hunger comes in waves. Ignore it and it will lessen it's grip.

God, I wish my hunger worked like that. I've never had hunger go away spontaneously by waiting. Nor does my hunger "stay the same." Once it becomes noticeable, it grows steadily until I eat. If I go to bed hungry, I stay awake and hungry, and if I do fall asleep my dreams are filled with hunger and food I cannot eat (and remaining hungry).

I do have blood sugar issues, but if blood sugar issues account for my experience of hunger, then I've had blood sugar issues at least since I was 5 years old, which I suppose is possible.


As to op's question, I think only experimenting can answer the question, but if you're prepared and always have good options available, the question will never come up.

While it's true that hunger comes in waves, I find there's an inverse relationship between my level of hunger and my willpower. For me, the best solution is to avoid anything more than very mild hunger. I do this by eating 3 meals (of approximately equal calories) and 2 small snacks in a typical day.

F.

Agree with this completely - what you did this one time is less important than how you engineer your environment in the future so this doesn't happen again. Baby carrots don't work for me, but I try to have an apple and a Greek yogurt on hand for times when I might get stuck having to delay a meal.

Also, whatever you did this one time - don't sweat it! If you ate the rice and ended up going over for the day, no big deal - you can get right back on plan with the very next bite of food. It isn't even a blip.

Exercise your NO muscle. A 2hr hunger pang can and will be tolerated. Don't be controlled by hunger, that's just how I see it. I've been on a journey to make peace with hunger and I gotta tell you, where as before I used to see hunger as this big scary monster, by ignoring it I realize it's just a shadow and it can do nothing to hurt me. You do have to be careful though about the end of the time span, because you will be at a cross roads. Make sure you have a PLAN of what you're going to eat at the end of that 2hrs and even if it's a tomato just look forward to it and make it enticing so that you don't go through a drive thru.

Good for you throwing the rice away. Hunger is not an emergency. We need to learn to deal with it just as we do with any other aspect of losing weight and getting fit. In the future, keep an emergency stash of healthy foods in your desk - 100 calorie packs of nuts, protein (not snack) bar, can of tuna, etc.

Yes, make a plan NOW for what you will go find and eat two hours from now. If you wait the two hours, you may not make as good of a decision when you are super hungry (at least that is how it works for me!). But if you make the plan now ... before hunger gets worse - you cna go make a good decision when you have a chance to go eat.

Good job! I'm trying to keep learning the Beck Diet Solution principle of "hunger is not an emergency" for us first-worlders. And when hungry, I perceive it to be HUNGRY, but in reality, I'm certainly not starving!

If white rice is so bad, how come people in Northeast Asia are thin and live to be 100?

I'd eat some of the rice. Like others, I just...can't make smart decisions I won't regret if I'm blindsided by hunger.