Just a short entry today. I wrote about this a few weeks ago on a post-it note and I think it might be useful for those who are starting out on the IE path.
When I first learned about IE, I didn't know I could have this huge range of hunger sensations in me. Simply because I had never let myself be truly hungry. Now that I do, here are a few types of hunger that might assail me when I need to refuel my body:
- a big hole in my stomach
- distinct stomach growling
- trembling/shaking hands and arms, wobbly legs
- feeling faint
- headache
- irritability
The interesting thing I've noticed is that it varies from day to day, and even from hunger experience to hunger experience. It is practically never the same hunger that I feel on a daily basis! This is completely new for me, and it does feel good to know that my body lets me know in no uncertain terms that it needs food! The types of hunger that I've listed are rarely combined together. It's usually just one of these symptoms at a time.
My favourite hunger sensation? Feeling great (no headache, no irritability, no shaking) but with a GROWLING stomach! The one I hate the most: shaking hands and arms/wobbly legs, because in those cases I really have to eat asap. With a growling stomach, there is no sense of urgency, I just know I'm hungry, and as long as I get food within the hour, I'm fine. But with shaking or feeling faint, then food is needed urgently, otherwise I can't carry on functioning!
What are your favourite symptoms of hunger? Learn to love and cherish your hunger signals. Learn to not be scared of them any more.
PS: Here’s a little story of what happened to me last week (making this entry just as long as any other, in the end! Sorry!). I had a sort of mini bingeing episode in the afternoon, so I wasn’t very hungry in the evening. My husband cooked goat’s cheese-filled pasta parcels and when he served me, I said ‘Just a few, thanks’. I had never had so little pasta on my plate before! After an initial tiny feeling of fear and discomfort at the prospect of having so little food, I relaxed and told myself: ‘If I’m going to have so little, I’m going to relish every single mouthful, every bite, every juicy bit’. Yep, it make me slow right down! And you know what? There was still too much food on my plate!! I had had enough by bite #4, I think! When I went to bed two and a half hours later, I was hungry again, but I was in bed, teeth brushed and all, so I just read and went to sleep (I don’t like eating after I’ve brushed my teeth, and I think there’s no point in eating just before going to bed, and I find that usually the hunger feeling goes within a few minutes anyway). The next morning, my stomach was GROWLING! Now if that wasn’t hunger! This proves that even after a binge, you should just ‘coast’, go with the flow, and soon enough your body will let you know that it’s hungry again. I also realised one more time that going with the flow is the best policy: go with the binge – it could turn out to be a small one; go with your tiny hunger – it could turn out that you’re even less hungry than you thought you were; go with your MASSIVE hunger the next morning – your body is ready for more food! And listen to it of course: do you want pancakes, cereal, a slice of bread, some fruit? The point is: you never know what your body is going to want after any kind of eating episode. So don’t worry about it, just listen and comply!
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3 comments:
I too have always rather liked the Growling Tummy of Hunger - EXCEPT when I get it late at night in bed. I think that's as close as I would get to being "scared" of hunger, because I just know that I'm not going to be able to get to sleep until I've silenced the growling. My mission of late has been to learn to attend to that late night hunger happily and calmly, giving my body what it wants, without the inner criticism and scolding about not eating late at night which I had absorbed from my dieting days. And hey, it's fun lying in bed and nibbling on my favourite shortbreads while I watch the midnight news on TV, guilt free!
Good post, honey.
sigigee
In my dieting days, not eating late in the evening was indeed in order to prevent potential weight gain. Now, it's just that I don't want to get up again, eat (and what would I eat that's light yet would satisfy my hunger? I can't even be bothered to find out!), brush my teeth again and go back to bed. Just too much hassle, just can't be bothered, and I know that it will pass very quickly. Experience has taught me that, so I let the mild hunger come if it does want to come, but then I let it go away without worrying about it at all. That is freedom from food worries, I'd say!
But well done for eating if you're really hungry, even if it's past midnight - that's true freedom too! And it sure feels good! I find that if I'm REALLY hungry (growling stomach, the knowledge that I won't be able to get to sleep if I don't eat, etc.), then of course I'll eat, and usually a yoghurt will satisfy me AND my hunger. Sometimes just an apple will do that too, and sometimes I need both. A biscuit (or even several) won't do, I know that now. Simply because they rarely do at any other time. Now, for me, a biscuit is what I eat when I fancy a little sweet something at the end of my meal. It never replaces a meal or a snack any more, because I don't find it satisfying stomach-wise.
But whatever you fancy is good, I say - whether it's midnight, 3a.m. or 8a.m.! Good luck with the attending to your late-night hunger. It sounds like you're doing really well. Just carry on, and at some point I reckon that we won't even NEED to talk/write about it! All these blogs and emails and forums will die with our food and body problems. YESSS!
It's been a while since your initial post, but I'm new so I just now saw it. Hope you're still there.
It's rare to find someone who enjoys hearing their own stomach growl, but I'm like that too. Not the kind of growl that wakes the neighbors, but the kind of "rumbly in my tumbly" that lets me know that I've not recently overeaten. I love the feeling of an empty stomach!
But I'm different from you because my favorite time to hear my stomach growl is when I'm getting ready to go to sleep. When that happens I can be pretty sure that it's been a good eating day and my weight will probably be a little lower the next morning.
My stomach is growling now, but my husband is coming early for lunch today. Oh well, all good things must come to an end!
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