hunger is good -- except at night
 

Hi,

My tdoc has some patients she sees for weight loss and she hypnotized me once for it. The two suggestions that she made to me during the hypnosis are 1) eat in a nice place like a real table with real table settings and focus on the food, and 2) embrace the hunger.
In other words, be mindful of what I am eating and understand that hunger is not really a sign to eat.
Biologically, hunger means eat, but it does not mean eat right this minute.
In prehistoric times, hunger was a signal to go hunt down something to eat and prepare it -- all of that which could take most of the day. Now that we have food in our kitchens, we do not have to respond to the biological urge because food is minutes away. The urge is not relevant now.
Also, hunger might mean that we are loosing weight.


Whatever.
I thought I would share that.
I don't mind being hungry in the day, but if I am hungry at night, I feel anxious because night hunger is tied in with bed time.

I guess one good idea is to plan for a night time snack by cutting from something during the day.
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders...help-you-sleep


M.

Food, Glorious Food!
 

hi Mari

those are good rules. and actually i observe #2 maybe not to a T, but i don't eat right away when i'm hungry. as for 1, i guess everyone's definition of a comfortable place can vary. i do prefer to be sitting when i eat, and i do like a a place to set things down, and napkins on hand. :)

----- issues with hunger

when i am persistently hungry though, if i don't put some food in, several bad things happen. 2 types of things really: 1. lightheadedness/shaking/confusion. 2. cramps, stomach ache, burping. the first batch are the worst, but are quickly reversible by eating just a little, or having juice. the stomach ache/burping interferes less with functioning, but it is very uncomfortable, takes about 4-5 hours to reverse, and my digestion gets messed up. if i start having signs (cramps), i need to eat ASAP, and enough so i'm not still hungry.

often i have a yogurt late at night. i don't consider it an 'extra' or subtract anything. if i'm hungry for it, i eat it.

my appetite normally varies, and i normally follow it, and that normally does not produce weight changes, so that's fine. but while not impossible, it is unusual for my appetite to vary this much.

----- current 'aberrant' appetite

the difference between usual extra-hunger and now, is that i am getting RAVENOUS. not talking a transient feeling of "geez, i am perhaps a bit peckish." it is sustained hunger - keeps comin back stronger. an hour later not only has it not passed, but i can eat a horse!!!

talking about subtracting things... it might not be as bad as it seems in that i haven't been having much lunch if any lately. i have been getting up late enough to have at "lunchtime" what i would for breakfast - milk. dinner is at pre-established times. but i have been eating more at dinner. and icecream and/or pie after dinner (after a couple hours). so it's still a lot more.

general note on breakfast (if up early): i know people are supposed to eat 'a good' breakfast. if i'm hungry i do, but otherwise it makes me feel sick (nauseous/full... nasty).

----- eating guidelines

my working norms for food intake are:

1. eat ONLY when hungry.

2. stop eating when no longer hungry. -- corollary: do NOT eat until full!

i do not like feeling 'full', but i have also found that doing so has bad results including indigestion, appetite increase, weight gain.

in the dark ages when people got hungry and then had to spend a day preparing food, i would have probably been eliminated by natural selection. at some point, i would have passed out.

~ waves ~

Dear Waves,

I often eat in front of my computer. The computer table is big enough and I read and do whatever while I eat --- that is not exactly mindful eating. . . . not sure how motivated I am to change that at the moment.

Yes, you should eat when you need to.

I like yogurt late a night too. It works sometimes as a snack near bed time.

Now I see what you are talking about. This kind of hunger is not usual for you and you do not have anything new going on that accounts for it.

Yeah, I don't like rules like breakfast must be eaten.
Sometimes breakfast is good if I have to be at work for a long time. Sometimes at home I skip breakfast and wait until lunch. I do better with fewer meals rather than little tiny meals throughout the day.

Your 1 and 2 about eat when hungry and stop eating when not hungry are good.

Whatever is going on with your appetite, is likely going to change. So maybe ride it out as best as you can.

M.

nighttime hunger/fridge raids
 

oh and i am not having carb cravings. this isn't comfort eating at all. i've been wanting 'substantial' food. normally i'm not a big meat eater, but... i am choosing meat over most of the alternatives - even preferring it over cheese! :eek: and i love cheese!
:confused: the past few nights in chronological order have been:

1. thigh+drumstick of grilled chicken
- in this case, i had had had icecream between dinner and this, but no pie. Pie was there, but was so hungry the chicken was more appealing/consistent with food need. i swear if there had been a waterbuffalo in the fridge, i would have eaten that!
2. cured ham sandwich, tomato sandwich
- here, i'd eaten icecream tacked ontor dinner, pie a couple hours after that, and the sandwiches several more hours later.)
3. ham sandwich
- had had only icecream, several hours after dinner.

the past 2 days i had also a beer in the afternoon.

:o

geez looking at this i am seeing that last night i ate less than the 2 previous. this could be a hopeful sign. maybe i am overreacting.

do you guys think i am overreacting?

~ waves ~

I don't know...
are you sure a little zyprexa did not slip into your benzo bottles?:rolleyes:
maybe it is causing the increase????. It does stimulate the gaba receptors which could be contributed to hunger...I forget.
sorry am not more helpful.
maybe you are not getting enough protein during the day?
the ice cream could produce a sugar spike then a blood sugar fall?
you could be getting hypomanic with an increased metabolism?????
I don't know if any of this accurate.
it could be hormonal...an old friend of mine used to "have to eat" a whole pecan pie before that timeof the month.
lol
hope it gets better for you.
bizi

Dear Bizi,

interesting thought about the icecream.

i'd been having it before though... before i started the eating later. mom would complain because i would have my icecream at 11pm instead of tacked onto dinner with everyone else. my answer was well i'm not hungry after i eat dinner, so no icecream. at 11, i'm hungry. since there is icecream, i concede myself that, instead of yogurt. i'm not going to feel stuffed, just so i can eat icecream on HER schedule. :mad:

heheh yeah maybe they dissolved some zyprexa in the benzo. :D:D

no seriously, then i'd be hungry every conscious moment of the day!

Dear Mari... i eat on the couch a lot. i have my bedside table/desk next to me. at work, i'd sometimes bring lunch and go eat on a park bench. sometimes i'd eat at my desk which i didn't like for lack of room.

either way i consider it mindful... i am very aware of my food and how it tastes. and even if i am doing something else at the same time, it becomes carefully interleaved with the food. maybe you do something similar, even at the computer table. i think mindful can be lots of things, and not necessarily sitting at a table, with polished silver, a lit candle, a plate for every separate bit of food, and a linen napkin. that's nice occasionally, but if started laying a place every time i ate, i'd be more mindful of the laying/clearing/cleaning than of the food! :D:rolleyes:

~ waves ~

Okay I'm going to chime in here.

If its going to be weight gain from medication I believe it would be
more than a lb in a week. I'm sorry if this sounds weird. But i know
I would gain 5 lbs or more in a week or more like 15 lbs in a month usually
when I started to figure out I was gaining weight because of the medications
I was adding.


I am not sure how to think this. But as long as you are watching how
much you eat. Not gaining a lot. Just watch how much. And get a little
extra exercise is what I would think.


Good news for me. My blood sugar cound is down. 5.8 and my chlestorol
is back down in the normal range 180.

Donna

Question:

Im still trying to loose weight... I havent been successful BUT, I just started walking... :rolleyes: I can drink water, I can eat veggies... but excersise has always been the hard part for me...

So, Im walking 10 minutes per day in the... machine ? how do you call it ? "walker"? LOL, anyways... I feel exhausted... :o My question is... do 10 minutes work ?? or Am I only wasting my time ?? Once, somebody told me the minus I needed to walk was 40 minutes so my liver could start eliminating the fat in it... :rolleyes: I have no clue... I was always pretty bad in my metabolism related classes :o

Thanks !

Dear Majo,

Walker = Treadmill :cool:

Ten mins of walking is good. Then you build up to 20 mins.
Every minute helps.

M.

I agree with mati, start at 10 then build up. they say a good cardio work out is 5 minutes warm up and then 20 minutes offast walking then 5 minuts of cool down.
sone say less but you need 20 minutes of higher heart rate like mine is 130 beats per minute I try to stay aboue 120 bpm....for a good work out.
Do you know how to check your pulse? jsut count for 15 seconds then multiply times 4.
bizi