Eating when I'm hungry

May 08, 2010

Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full.  I learned this from Geneen Roth in about 1980 when she was living in my town and doing Feeding the Hungry Heart support groups.  But in recent years I haven't practiced "eat when you are hungry" for a variety of reasons.  And even though I learned this lesson again in relationship to the band from my support family here on OH, I have not practiced it since getting my band either. 

One of the reasons is that for years I have been battling fairly severe hypoglycemia.  To stave off symptoms of that, I essentially ate every 2 hours whether I was hungry or not.  So I have gotten in the habit of eating every 2-3 hours, even though hypoglycemia is rarely a problem for me now.  I am afraid that it might be...

Other logical reasons for eating on a schedule rather than in response to my bodies messages are: getting in all my protein, arranging my eating to eat with other people on a schedule (dinner with family, lunch with friends etc.), convenience during my work day (I'm at my desk now, later I have to go out to a meeting where food might not be available).  These are logical but they are partly based on the underlying reason that eat when I'm not hungry. 

Under it all, I'm still obsessed with food.    Fear is part of the basis for my food obsession.  Afraid I won't get enough, afraid I'll miss out on the good stuff, afraid I MIGHT get hungry.  I think that as much as we all get down on ourselves for our obsession with food that it is part of human nature.  Humans spent thousands of years in survival mode, obsessed with getting enough food.  It's built into to our physiology to be driven to eat, to hoard, to think about food.

So, I need to work on this.  Today I'm going to try to pay attention to getting hungry.  I'm also going to try to pay attention to the things I feel when I want to eat.  We will see how it goes.

0 Comments