Embracing hunger

By katiebird | Published July 26, 2006

Just today, I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. And I’m going to use the tools and guidence from The Hacker’s Diet to help me reach my weight loss goal.

I think I’ve broken the habit of eating out of boredom or thoughtlessly.

I’m making progress. While I still struggle with inappropriate hunger, it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten without giving it a lot of thought first (which is why I can usually tell myself that I’m eating a ‘mini-meal’).i And I still believe in the concept of mini-meals — this project of mine isn’t going to work if it includes too much punishing hunger.

But my fear of being hungry sometimes makes me take larger portions than I should. If we’re looking at two pieces of meat or pizza usually I take the larger one just because I can’t go back for seconds. And that’s a pretty stupid reason. I might not actually be having seconds, but I’m putting a little more than one serving on my plate.a And I know it.

I’ve done that with baked fries too. I usually take a few more than I should as I’m serving myself.m So I’m following the rules, I’m keeping my commitment. But, I’m not going to succeed in my weight goals unless I find a more realistic way to deal with the hunger issue. Fear of hunger isn’t a valid reason for eating large portions.

(I think) My lack of hunger through spring was probably a signal that I wasn’t losing weight (not having The Hacker’s Diet tools made it hard to tell for sure just by the scale.)2 And I got used to not being hungry, I took it for granted. Then when I tried cutting back to a weight loss level of eating, I got hungry again.o But, I didn’t expect it (silly, isn’t it?) So, without thinking about it much, I’d have inappropriate ‘mini-meals’ to keep from being hungry.

Last night I monitored the time after I took my second fiber supplement (1 tsp with two large glasses of water) to see if I was less hungry (I had a totally reasonable, even small, portion of zucchini spagetti) through the evening. And I was, less hunry, that is.
I was still hungry, but it was in a pleasant way.4 The desperation was gone. I’ve got a calorie-cheap way to take the edge off. And now I’m going to embrace it as a powerful indicator of weight loss.

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One Comment

  1. Posted July 27, 2006 at 12:50 pm by Janet | Permalink

    Last night I made my favorite Vietnamese food for the first time here. Normally I’ve been going out every other week to this Pho Van place where the food is great and the stuff is organic. I only drink water with it. … But I decided how to learn to make it at home. So yeseterday we hit the Japanese market for the big soup bowls…

    I made Bun Thit Suong Nuon XA (Rice vermicelli noodles with Lemongrass skewered pork loin. Turned out GREAT!

    I’ve found that with Asian as well as Mexican cuisine much of it is preparation. And I’ve found a calming… in the preparation of food rather than the actual eating of it. Make sense?

    I paint.. and I get alot of relief from painting/sketching… but another greter therapy in it is the cleaning of your brushes, keeping your paints cared for. For a while I saw it as a chore, a burdensome task.. and now… it’s the desireable part. Same with cooking and presenting it.

    And… eating with chopsticks makes one slow down… :)