WLS Without WLS, Or Enhance Existing WLS?
Hi Kayla. You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. I was contemplating making a call to Johns Hopkins University to find out more about it in the interest of research. I suppose, like I told Elizabeth, I was grasping at straws. Thank you for your sound judgement.
It is an interesting study, though. It makes you wonder, what kind of procedures will be in place in the future? Except, I need to make decisions based on sound results in the present, right? Thank you for your good advice.
This approach will only address the former. IF it ever comes to fruition.
Get a revision to DS.
Sharyn, RN
RIP, MOM ~ 5/31/1944 - 5/11/2010
RIP, DADDY ~ 9/2/1934 - 1/25/2012
You're right. I have heard the term "head hunger" used many times, but have never really looked into it. You are correct in your conclusion that the head hunger will still remain after this procedure.
“Head Hunger”, “Heart Hunger”, and Real Hunger: How Do I tell?
“Head Hunger”, “Heart Hunger”, and Real Hunger: How Do I tell?
By Bette Blackwell
It’s 3 in the afternoon. Someone in the office is microwaving popcorn. Suddenly, you’re ravenously hungry. Or are you? Are you REALLY?
We all know that we eat when we’re actually, physically hungry, but we also eat when we’re bored, lonely, ticked off, stressed, or depressed or just emotionally triggered by something as innocent as an aroma wafting down the hall. Studies have shown that emotional eating accounts for up to 75 percent of all eating. How do you tell a “real”, physical hunger – that your stomach is feeling – from head/heart hunger, which is intellectual and emotional? Here are a few ways to tell them apart.
Real physical hunger comes on slowly. You stop eating when you feel full, you feel good after you eat, and you feel energized by the food. And, you’ll eat anything. One suggested test of hunger is to respond to it by eating an apple. If you eat the apple, you were physically hungry.
Head hunger hits you suddenly and severely and you have the feeling that it needs to be satisfied ASAP. It is usually brought on by stress, anger or frustration. You crave a specific food – usually something high in sugar, salt, or fat. If the food you’re craving is chewy or crunchy (“Something to smash your teeth down on”), like cookies, M&Ms, chewy meats, fried foods, nuts, or pizza, you are pretty surely suffering from head hunger. It seems like once you start eating, no amount of food can satisfy you. The most telling sign of all: you feel guilty after you eat.
Heart hunger is a response to an empty emotion, a feeling that something is missing, such as loneliness, depression or boredom. You’ll be craving “comfort foods” – the ones Mom used to make, like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, pasta, cake, cheese and eggs, or foods that made you feel happy: ice cream, candy and alcohol. As with head hunger, no amount can satiate you, and you feel guilty after eating.
Linda Spangle, a weight-loss specialist and author says, “If you’re hungry and don’t know what you want, this is usually heart hunger.” She says that the phrase, “I don’t know what I want” is the give-away. So take a look at the food you’re holding and ask yourself” “Who do I want to chew out?”, “What’s missing in my life?” or simply: “Why am I eating this?” The answer could help your stop eating when you’re not hungry.
Is Emotional Hunger Driving
Your Eating Problem?
Eating for emotional hunger reasons will not make our empty feelings go away…
- “I feel hungry ALL of the time”
- “I can’t seem to stop eating until I am completely stuffed, and then I feel sick”
- “Nothing seems to satisfy me – I feel like I am always looking for something that’s not there”
In problems like binge eating, compulsive overeating or other eating disorders, it can actually be very difficult for the sufferer to be able to tell whether they are genuinely physically hungry, or responding to more of an emotional need.
PHYSICAL HUNGER | EMOTIONAL HUNGER |
Comes on gradually, gaining in intensity the longer we go without food Is satisfied by eating food Occurs naturally in response to passing of time without food Comes back naturally and regularly | Often comes on suddenly and feels urgent Unable to be satisfied by food. Can eat and eat and still feel ‘hungry’ Is triggered by emotions, events, situations Should not come back if underlying emotional and psychological issues are resolved |
Our bodies physical hunger system comprises a sensitive network of nerves and chemical messages. But over time, we can over-ride and become completely out of touch with what this complex system is trying to tell us!
This can be especially the case where an emotional eating problem has been going on for a long time. We can become out of tune with our own bodies – like a de-tuned radio when all we get is confusing noise and interference!
So, as well as looking at how to identify and express our emotions in more self-caring and appropriate ways (see our other pages on these subjects), it is important to re-educate ourselves to get back in touch with our true physical hunger and satisfaction signals.
So How Do We Do This?
- Thinking about how we experience hunger – How do you actually KNOW when you are physically hungry? Do you get an empty feeling in your stomach? Hear your tummy rumbling? Feel light-headed? Whereas emotional hunger might feel different - like a vague emptiness or a sudden urgent yearning. Starting to pay more attention to the physical sensations we experience when we are hungry is the start to re-tuning ourselves to our hunger signals.
- Using a Hunger Scale – using a simple scale to literally measure how hungry or full we feel is an excellent way to start really paying attention to our bodies needs again. During the day, especially before, during and after meals, check where you feel you are on the scale. This will bring benefits with practice and can work well when combined with a food/mood journal.
| 10 - uncomfortably full / bloated / sick | Gone too far!! |
| 9 - extremely full / eaten too much | |
| 8 - full | Aim to stop eating here! |
| 7 - satisfied | |
| 6 - comfortable | |
| 5 - slightly hungry / 'peckish' | Time to eat! |
| 4 - hungry | |
| 3 - very hungry | |
| 2 - extremely hungry / 'ravenous' | Don't leave things this long; extreme hunger can trigger a binge |
| 1 - Feeling faint with hunger |
- Using a food and mood diary - Keeping a journal of how you are feeling as well as what and when you eat, can help you notice connections between your feelings and eating patterns, thereby identifying possible emotional hunger triggers.
- 'H.A.L.T' - this technique is well known in compulsive and binge eating disorder selfhelp programmes, and it's well worth mentioning here. It stands for:
Hungry - Am I genuinely physically hungry? If I am, then what type of food would
satisfy me the best?
Angry - or am I angry, or upset in some other way?
Lonely - or sad or unsatisfied in some other way?
Tired - or feeling worn out or bored?
If the answer is YES to anything other than genuinely physically hungry, then we need to think for ourselves what is it that we really need? A good sleep? A hug? Getting out of the house for a bit? Speaking to a good friend?....
- Interrupting Eating - This is a very useful exercise to re-tune ourselves into our physical and emotional hunger signals. If you find that you feel hungry between normal meal times, then go ahead and have a few mouthfuls of food, but then stop. Put the food away, knowing that you can have some more in a moment if needed. Then wait 15 minutes or so and do something else in the meantime. After the time has passed, check on your hunger scale how you are actually feeling now. Think through the H.A.L.T technique as well if it helps. Now if you are genuinely hungry, that's fine – have some more to eat until you are satisfied. If not...decide a better, more self-caring and appropriate way to look after yourself for that moment.
- Regular Eating & Optimising Nutrition - this is important to ensure that we are not allowing our blood sugar levels to fluctuate wildly or get too low - which can impact upon our stress hormone levels - which can lead us to feel anxious and emotional - which will certainly will complicate an emotional eating problem.
- So, with the help of techniques like these, and with time and patience, we can 're-tune' ourselves to be able to recognise our physical hunger signals. We will then be in better position to know whether it is actually something else we need instead.
We can then move on to look at the reasons behind this, and find our own solutions to our emotional hunger needs as well.
Emotional Eating and Weight Loss
Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food -- usually "comfort" or junk foods -- in response to feelings instead of hunger. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.
Many of us learn that food can bring comfort, at least in the short-term. As a result, we often turn to food to heal emotional problems. Eating becomes a habit preventing us from learning skills that can effectively resolve our emotional distress.
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By Hallie Levine Sklar When Lisa Downs, 43, is in a good mood, she sits in front of the TV and munches on Lay's Potato Chips. When she's stressed at work, she gets relief from black jelly beans and Twizzlers, and when she's bored, she turns to Snickers bars or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. So this past fall, when her husband was temporarily out of work, it was no surprise that she found comfort in food. "I would sit in my office thinking, How are we going to pay all our bills? while...
Read the Stay Away from the Fridge article > >
Depression, boredom, loneliness, chronic anger, anxiety, frustration, stress, problems with interpersonal relationships, and poor self-esteem can result in overeating and unwanted weight gain.
By identifying what triggers our emotional eating, we can substitute more appropriate techniques to manage our emotional problems and take food and weight gain out of the equation.
How to Identify Eating Triggers
Situations and emotions that trigger us to eat fall into five main categories.
- Social. Eating when around other people. For example, excessive eating can result from being encouraged by others to eat; eating to fit in; arguing; or feelings of inadequacy around other people.
- Emotional. Eating in response to boredom, stress, fatigue, tension, depression, anger, anxiety, or loneliness as a way to "fill the void."
- Situational. Eating because the opportunity is there. For example, at a restaurant, seeing an advertisement for a particular food, passing by a bakery. Eating may also be associated with certain activities such as watching TV, going to the movies or a sporting event, etc.
- Thoughts. Eating as a result of negative self-worth or making excuses for eating. For example, scolding oneself for looks or a lack of will power.
- Physiological. Eating in response to physical cues. For example, increased hunger due to skipping meals or eating to cure headaches or other pain.
To identify what triggers excessive eating in you, keep a food diary that records what and when you eat as well as what stressors, thoughts, or emotions you identify as you eat. You should begin to identify patterns to your excessive eating fairly quickly.
How to Stop Emotional Eating
Identifying emotional eating triggers and bad eating habits is the first step; however, this alone is not sufficient to alter eating behavior. Usually, by the time you have identified a pattern, eating in response to emotions or certain situations has become a habit. Now you have to break that habit.
Developing alternatives to eating is the second step. When you start to reach for food in response to an eating trigger, try one of the following activities instead.
- Read a good book or magazine or listen to music.
- Go for a walk or jog.
- Take a bubble bath.
- Do deep breathing exercises.
- Play cards or a board game.
- Talk to a friend.
- Do housework, laundry, or yard work.
- Wash the car.
- Write a letter.
- Or do any other pleasurable or necessary activity until the urge to eat passes.
Other Emotional Eating Tips
Sometimes simply distracting yourself from eating and developing alternative habits is not enough to manage the emotional distress that leads to excessive eating. To more effectively cope with emotional stress, try
- Relaxation exercises
- Meditation
- Individual or group counseling
These techniques address the underlying emotional problems which are causing you to binge and teach you to cope in more effective and healthier ways. For more information on these techniques, contact your doctor.
As you learn to incorporate more appropriate coping strategies and to curb excessive eating, remember to reward yourself for a job well done. We tend to repeat behaviors that have been reinforced, so reward yourself when you meet your weight loss goals. Buy that blouse, take that vacation, or get that massage you wanted. By rewarding yourself for a job well done you increase the likelihood that you will maintain your new healthy habits.
Not very logical, and not a viable choice anyway.
Batwingsman · 0 replies · 56 views
Batwingsman · 0 replies · 56 views