I like not feeling full. I appreciate a slight feeling of hunger now and then. For so long, I was a little too familiar with feeling stuffed, and uncomfortable after a meal. Now I recognize the 'just right' feeling, and can stop eating. When I feel a little hungry, it feels like I'm doing something right, that I'm not pushing myself to eat too much. I don't let myself get very hungry though, because that makes me cranky and tired. But feeling a bit on the 'empty' side now and then is nice.

While I can't relate to all the TOM stuff, I will say that this was a big problem for me in the first month of my process, but grows less so each day.

At the beginning I didn't only miss feeling full I missed feeling STUFFED! Which is crazy because I would always feel so miserable for hours after stuffing myself full of junk.

For me it was teaching my belly to understand a whole new category that didn't exist previously. Before my belly knew three categories

Hungry>>>>>Full>>>>>>Stuffed

Now I've added another category although it doesn't always work right;)

Hungry>>>>Satisfied>>>>Full>>>>>Stuffed

Now this requires a deal with my stomach. I promise that him (mine's a guy lol) that if I can stop when satisied, I will not starve him to long before feeding again, and if I get hungry I'll eat a snack.

While there is conflicting information about the metabolic benefits of eating 5-6 small meals, eating more frequently and smaller has really helped me in the area of conquering the "fullness" issue.

One other small note is that sometimes if I'm really feeling super unsatisfied I find it might be because I've overcut either fat/protein/carbs. Like I'll realize that the day before I ate almost no carbs and adding in a few gets me back to equilibrium.

I love good earth tea! I always want some sort of sweet substance in my tea normally, but this one I don't use any either! I feel silly that I never thought of making iced tea with it. Thanks for the idea!

The whole hunger feelings I still struggle with especially late at night. Sometimes I just go to be early so I don't have to deal with it and other times I will munch on something small. Like last night I savored 4 sun chips nibble by nibble.

I'm dreading a bad TOM incident. I know I feel like I could eat a whole cow :moo: around that time. Good luck!

Have you seen the Volumetrics books? They show you how to get more food per calorie. I've found it very helpful in planning my meals and such.