A Little Bit Hungry

I've been in maintenance for more than 18 months now. I love my life and for the most part things fall into place around my food choices as long as I keep a few basic parameters in play. I eat dense protein first, separate liquids from my meals and weigh every day.  

Occasionally the scale ticks up a couple of pounds and when it does, I jump into action right away by dialing back my calories and my carbs. When I'm back to the scale number I like best, I carry on with just using my lifelong basic parameters  

Today is one of those days when I'm dialing back. At 2.5 years out, my hunger is still thankfully low, but I can feel it. Not in the old all consuming, overwhelming way, but I know what it feels like at about 5%. Despite its low intensity, I still find it a little frightening!

So today, I must remind myself that hunger is not an emergency. It's a perfectly natural sensation that tells me I'm alive and healthy. It tells me I'm no longer stuffing myself and my feelings. It also tells me I care enough about myself to tune into that ever so slight gain and deal with it swiftly and effectively. 

Today, I'm grateful for that teensy  tingle of  perfectly human sensation that I avoided for years. Am I 'normal' when it comes to food?  Nope. Dealing with stuff?  Yup!!  

"Hunger is not an emergency" is such a great saying.  Yes, I can feel hungry, but it doesn't mean I have to do anything about it!

You can do it. 

Wonderfully said!!   I'm only less than three weeks out.  I will hold on to these words!!   Thank you!   

Nice udpate, Linda!  Thanks for the sane and sobering advice.  As always I am encouraged by your compliance and success 

Oh I needed this.  It is so true.  

Thank you!

It is nice that hunger no longer constitutes an emergency! (Our friend taught me that one, too!)

I have days very much like you are having today. I often forget to remind myself that it is a natural feeling. That is a good reminder. I usually just sort of deal with it and go on. I like the idea of reminding myself that hunger is a good, normal, and natural part of the day.

Love, love, love this !!!!

I'm going to step you up another notch .......

You get this and many other parts of this process because you took the time to build a proper and solid foundation.

The further out we get the more we need to rely on this foundation !!!

It is also very important to keep adding structure to this foundation, every new thing we learn about the process and about ourselves keeps that foundation solid and reliable.

As time goes on, you are a great example for many of us to follow.

You are the real deal !!!!

frisco

I find this very encouraging.  I hope I have the strength you have that far down the road. 

Great post!  I love it :)

The phrase that hunger is not an emergency has helped me bypass crappy food choices many times in order to wait for something more appropriate. Of course that goes out the window when I am in North Dakota. I may have to take half my kitchen with me the next time I visit the grandchildren.