Saturday, February 13, 2010

Making friends with Hunger

Well, I'm doing it. I'm getting hungry. It's been months since I've really been hungry. Oh, I've been hungry when I've walked into a grocery store, but I'm not counting that. That's hunger triggered by a situation. False hunger, if you will. I'm talking about whoa-mama-I-have-to-eat hunger. The kind that goes away if you ignore it for 20 minutes, only to return with a vengeance a half hour later. The kind of hunger that means you're burning calories. That's the kind of hunger I hadn't been speaking to directly for a looooong time.

So, yesterday's plan of letting Perfect Sue pick my food really worked! Especially now that I'm making friends with hunger. I ate very well: nitrate-free ham and whole grain bread sandwich, packed into baggies so that I can have one for a snack and the other for lunch. And two bags of pretzels, and two bags of carrots. Two bottles of water, one with a little juice added. It was fabulous! I had a little snack of spinach salad just before I left, but I was still hungry. During the day, as I drove to my client's home in Northern Illinois, I had to make a couple emergency calls to avoid my usual trick of stopping at a gas station to buy crappy food to alleviate my hunger. Karen didn't answer, but my Auntie did. She very halpfully reminded me that I REALLY NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. Hello? I have a blog about it, so I think I know. Just kidding. I know her heart's in the right place.

Anyway, I was slightly hungry pretty much all night. I didn't have popcorn, and when my other Sue friend, Svelte Sue, came to the movie we were all at with a ginormous KitKat bar, I still held off. I let Perfect Sue order (it was actually a collaboration). I got a salad with veggies and balsamic vinegar and a plate of steamed mussels. It was perfect, but I was still hungry. Then when Karen ordered fries and sat them right behind me, I did great at not ordering them. So proud.

Today was a little tougher. I did have a muffin at the store. It's weird, but I have been hungry all day, even after I eat. I think I'm in some kind of weird transition. I've been eating -- I had half a ham and cheese sandwich that Tim made for me, and a little something for breakfast, but no matter what I put in my mouth, I'm still staving. I'm ok right now, but I just keep drinking water. It's all good, though. I'm really proud of the progress. I'm weighing my foods, I'm letting myself get hungry, I'm really thinking about how I'm making food.

Tonight I made lasagna with venison, organic cottage cheese and fat free tomato sauce. I only put the mozzarella (part skim) cheese on the top layer instead of all three like I usually do. And you can actually see sauce beneath the cheese, a new one for me. Usually it's so thick! I can have one piece of this lasagna, which also has spinach, onions and mushrooms in it.

3 comments:

  1. Nice! I like the hunger. If you stick with it, you really won't feel hungry like you did today. Your tummy will get used to less food and stop yelling at you. Just hang on for a few days. My one scolding, though, is this darn grocery store snacking. That is the strangest thing I've ever heard...it wouldn't even cross my mind to eat while I'm grocery shopping. You really need to break that habit. Trust me, it's weird. Not to mention diet destructive. And expensive! Chew some gum or something, but do what you need to do to stop that habit.

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  2. You are right Ann! It is weird. It's what fat people do. (I'm trying to think like a thin person.) I'd love to know more about what you think about as food times approach, because you are a food person who is also a thin person. Let me in on your secret!

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  3. I don't know, it's hard and I struggle when meal time approaches, too. I count calories, and I have every single day since I was about 12 years old. It's a little obsessive, I realize. But if you know you only have 400 calories left for dinner and you're making a delicious meal, you're not going to blow 200 of those calories on a granola bar at 4pm. It also helps close off the day. When I reach my calorie limit, I'm done. No negotiating. It's a good incentive to exercise, too, as I'm sure you realize with your WW points. Usually if I know I have an unusual eating situation coming up (book club, a dinner party, Thanksgiving, etc.), I make sure to get a good workout in that day to free up some extra calories. But even then you have to watch it. A good workout can balance out 2 glasses of wine, for instance. But it won't cancel out a second helping of pasta and a dessert. You know what I mean? I think a lot of people feel like they get a free pass if they exercised that day. I don't want you to think any of this is easy for me, though. Most people living in our culture (and climate) battle this stuff every day. I do have a lot of self discipline, but I also fall off the wagon all the time. And to keep myself from eating I do unhealthy things like suck down diet soda.

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