Re-post: Hunger is NOT an emergency!

 Here's one from the RNY board coffers. According to the date stamp on my original post, I wrote this ALMOST two years ago:

Here's the original thread for a bit of board nostalgia (or, rather, Nik preachyness circa 2010):

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/4191491/Why-hunger-is- truly/ 

Why Hunger is truly NOT an emergency!

You can read my initial thoughts about that realization, here. I first read it in an article that was posted on this forum that outlined the differences between the thinking of slim people and obese people. One of them that caught my eye in particular was “slim people do not regard hunger as an emergency…"

 

I didn’t think I did either. Until I started to look at things a bit more closely. After this surgery we can be wooed by the fact that we have little appetite and we get full very quickly. This does not mean we don’t regard hunger as an emergency. It just means that our “emergency plan" is a bit different than a non-op.

 

If you are more than three months out, raise your hand if you ever:

 

• Noshed with cooking (“I’ll just have a little taste…")
• Had an extra snack to “tide you over until lunch/dinner/breakfast" (raises hand)
• Found that at mealtime you were too full to eat because you nibbled too much beforehand
• Grabbed something less than nutritionally beneficial because “you needed to eat something."

 

Yep. All signs that you may be regarding hunger as an emergency.

 

The reality is this: although your body is taking in significantly less calories than it did before, guess what? It has a back-up plan. And the foundation of that back-up plan is not food. It’s fat. Your body has stored it. To burn. When you need calories. Which…from my perspective, is the point of this whole crazy process in the first place.

 

I point this out not because I see any of you exhibiting this behavior, but because I have been working on this part of myself. And it really has helped me a lot. We deceive ourselves a lot in this process to think that smaller stomach=inability to overeat.

 

We have the inability to eat larger quantities of food at a sitting. We do NOT, as a result of this surgery, necessarily lose the ability to eat larger quantities of food within a day. And to our bodies it’s all the same. If you consume more calories in a day than your body needs, you will gain weight. If you consume as much as your body needs, your weight will stay static. If you consume less you will lose—and the amount of loss USUALLY correlates to the size of your caloric deficit.

 

I am getting to a point here…be patient. So although it does not feel like you can eat more, as time wears on you can without truly realizing it. And regarding hunger as an emergency does not help. It causes impulsive food decisions that can have physical (nausea, food stuck, vomiting), emotional (guilt, self-mental abuse) and social (not being able to eat a meal with your family) implications.

So how have I dealt so far?

 

You know this may sound overly-simplistic, but simply saying the following when I am about to “go there" has helped:

 

“Hunger is NOT an emergency, Nik. Think first. Eat second."

 

Usually if I take pause I can talk myself out of nearly any bad eating choice. That’s why when I am truly gung-ho to make a bad eating choice I go about it quickly J

 

So anyway, just a few thoughts from over here on the ledge. Hope they prove helpful to some of you as you continue on your path.

Thanks for this post. I didn't realize it but I do consider hunger to be an emergency. I always have I guess. Something I will have to work on.

I definitely am in this boat. Not so much post op yet because I still feel like poo a lot but before? At the first sign of hunger I'd jump at the closest thing that sounded good.

      .oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.Miranda.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.      

I had to get my journal out and write this down lest I repress it somehow.
AWESOME!!

Sometimes I regard hunger as an emergency because I fear the hypoglycemia that may follow if I don't eat often enough.  RH is a bee-otch. 

But yeah, other than that unfortunate cir****tance, I totally get what you're saying! 

 Yes, that came up in the original thread too. My response was, that's where that two seconds of thinking comes in. If you give yourself that time to make the determination, you can sometimes just give yourself time to say "yep...I need to eat...my sugar may get wonky if I don't...but what good choice can I make?"

But I agree...in the event of a RH episode, yes hunger kind of IS an emergency! I don't have RH but I do have "special moments." Interestingly enough, they come after I've eaten and when I am really NOT hungry. I often find myself resentfully eating when I am good and full to bring my sugar back up. I am still trying to wrap my head around that craziness.

It would help if I actually read the original thread!  LOL

I guess it's important to make good choices all day so that you never get to that emergency-type situation.  If I've let myself go too long without eating and then I just stuff some crap in my mouth, I may feel better initially but will end up doing more damage (blood sugar crashes) in the long run.  Sigh... sometimes I wish my life didn't have to revolve around food so much...

The more I think about this, this was a huge issue for me pre surgery. I didn't know hunger because I never let myself get there. I had a constant full feeling. I have definitley changed some since then but still if I know it is "time" to eat I just make sure I have stuff that I can eat so that it doesn't become an emergency... even though it should never be an "emergency". Oh the issues we have..

 Well see there's a difference between eating on a schedule and regarding hunger as an emergency.

One thing that trips me out about the newbies I know in real life is that when they travel, they have more stuff than you'd carry for a newborn baby in terms of food! One friend went on a day trip and packed a cooler. No lie. I asked if simply packing a lunch and snack wouldn't be enough. She then launched into this detailed diatribe about how she wants to make sure that IF she gets hungry she has something acceptable that she can eat and furthermore she wants choices!

I said. "ok" and left it at that. THAT to me is just a wee bit overboard (it was a five hour trip!). 

But planning and executing meals on a schedule, to me, isn't the same. 

 I dont consider hunger an emergency - actually I usually have a "crashing" episode before I realize..oh crap..I havent eaten enough! By "crashing" I mean...no matter how good of choices I make on my food, about 2-3 hours after eating..if I dont eat again by about the 5th hour I'm incredibly shakey, weak, dizzy etc.  I have to pay more attention to a schedule when eating is concerned or I get sick.