Tapeworm moments

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:39 pm

Last night I was having what I call a tapeworm moment. This is where, for whatever reason, I get ravenously and continuously hungry. No unconscious idle gnoshing will satisfy it. I had my one plate and was still hungry. And unfortunately, I really really dislike milk (loathe is not too strong a word here) so I just lay in bed and tried to read the No S book.

I hung on but this morning had breakfast before coffee (unheard of!).

I'm really glad today is an S day.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:55 pm

Ah, I call that the "hollow leg syndrome." Those days are so funny because they seem to come when you would least expect them. You can't figure out why there doesn't seem to be enough food in your kitchen to fill you up.

I'm with you on the milk. Might as well be Maalox. Blech!!

slickchic · Post by **slickchic** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:06 pm

I had once read how we have a "set Point" for our weight. If we get below that weight, our hunger will take over, cuing us to eat more so that we will not drop in our weight. The whole idea is like a thermometer in our homes. We have the heat set on 70, if the room drops below that, the heat cranks up to heat the room. To experience these days where you are really hungry is great because it means you are going down in set point if you can get through it.
Don't know if this is true, but it gives the motivation I need to resist the hunger, telling myself a victory is only getting me closer to my goal. Giving in just "sets" me back!

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:22 pm

slickchic wrote:I had once read how we have a "set Point" for our weight. If we get below that weight, our hunger will take over, cuing us to eat more so that we will not drop in our weight.

Unfortunately, that's not the case here!

slickchic · Post by **slickchic** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:28 pm

I don't believe that the set point is necessarily your ideal weight, but what you weigh, or have weighed for awhile. Just an idea!! To move down the scale, we have to resist that urge to "feed the furnace" outside of meal time!

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:42 pm

I know that our bodies really hate to give up the fat. It's worse than a two year old giving up a favorite toy.

And Wos, (interesting name, where did it come from) you are right about the hollow legged tape worm coming out of the blue. I've been No-Sing since late March so I'm on what... week 3? 4? something like that. I had the first week rumblies but this is one of those extra hungry moments. Probably a combination of hormones, stress and heaven only knows what else.

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:19 pm

Blithe morning,

I call it the endless hunger ... This ALWAYS happens when I am on a diet or eat reasonably for any period of time ... I have also experienced this a few times on No S. I pretty much do what you did last night ... find something else to do.

That being said, I do think my own body has set points. THey are about every 7 or so pounds. As I go down I will get to one of these weights and my body won't want to let go ... if I don't give into my endless hunger I get past it.

I really believe my own endless hunger is emotional hunger. I mean logically there is no way I physically need as much food as I "want". I did do a program called Shrink Yourself before this and the truth was it didn't help me stop binging but it did help me comprehend emotional hunger and my responsibility in creating the life that I want and speaking up for myself. Those were my two particular issues. Not everyones.

Blueskighs

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:17 am

It was quite a day, I tell you what. Most of it spent on my bee-hind doing papers. I am in graduate school hades right now and I've changed my research topic twice!

Happily, I think I finally nailed down what I am going to focus on. The impact of a food waste reduction/composting program on the behavior of middle school students. So tomorrow I'll be hitting JStor and American Search Premier and Community Based Social Marketing websites doing literature reviews.

Oy.

At least the tapeworm is gone.

ThomsonsPier · Post by **ThomsonsPier** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:41 am

I find that generally happens when I haven't been eating a properly balanced diet; nutrients need to balance one another to do their job and a shortage of one sometimes sends my entire body out of whack.

The trouble with this is that it's not always easy to figure out what it is that I haven't been eating but should have been, though usually it's fruit or vegetables.

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:03 pm

Thoms,

Good point. Maybe whole grains? I eat lots o' veggies and fruit. My guideline (not a rule) is to make sure the largest serving of anything on my plate is veg/fruit.

Btw, when I was in the UK two summers ago, I thought the eating was way more reasonable than here in the US. The only dish that I thought was oversized was the fish and chips... and it was the fish portion that was huge, not the chips.

Also, you all didn't seem to have the snacking options or maybe being I just didn't know where to find them other than the coffee places on the interstates (highways - I know you don't call them interstates since you don't have states). It was hard for us with our Yank palates to drink pop without ice or at least as much ice as we are used to.

ThomsonsPier · Post by **ThomsonsPier** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:29 pm

I eat a reasonably balanced diet, higher in vegetables than most (but low in fruit), but I tend to view the day's nutrition as a whole rather than balancing each meal individually. I usually eat cereal for breakfast, have whatever lunch I feel like and partially tailor dinner to make up any perceived deficit. This allows me to have meals like fish 'n' chips (note that the UK spelling includes two apostrophes rather than the letters 'a' and 'd') without worrying about the lack of vegetables (I don't think mushy peas should count).

Additionally, I'm not a fan of thinking in terms of days in all cases because, bar the obvious day/night and year cycles, most periods of time are arbitrary. I doubt any species save ours places much importance on the seven day week. As a result, my nutritional requirements can span two or more days without any problems. I know that's at odds with No-S to some extent in that it requires me to keep track of something other than 'days on habit', but it's become largely unconscious and I can just listen to my body a lot of the time.

I've completely forgotten the point I was trying to make there, but never mind.

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:35 am

ThomsonsPier wrote: I've completely forgotten the point I was trying to make there, but never mind.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does this.

W/r/t to nutritional needs being met over the course of a few days, I think our bodies can handle this. Our hunter/gather forefathers certainly were not getting 100% of the Recommended Daily Allowance of the two dozen or so vitamins and minerals and nutrients we so dither over.

And, Anglophile that I am, I too must draw the line at mushy peas being anything other than, well... mushy peas. I don't understand mushy peas.

I also don't understand beans on toast. But since I know the British don't understand iced tea (especially Southern sweet tea which I don't understand either) we'll call it mutually incomprehensible.

ThomsonsPier · Post by **ThomsonsPier** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:49 am

Blithe Morning wrote:And, Anglophile that I am, I too must draw the line at mushy peas being anything other than, well... mushy peas. I don't understand mushy peas.

Pea trivia!
I found out how to make them a short while ago; it is, apparently, possible to do so without destroying all of the vitamins, but it takes longer. As this would mean more processing time in the factories, I imagine the stuff you get in chip shops is the unhealthy variety.

Blithe Morning wrote:I also don't understand beans on toast. But since I know the British don't understand iced tea (especially Southern sweet tea which I don't understand either) we'll call it mutually incomprehensible.

Bean trivia!
Storing a tin of beans upside down causes the beans to fall to the top of the tin and the sauce to gather at the bottom. If you then open the tin the right way up, the whole of the contents will slide out smoothly, meaning that you won't need to poke about with a spoon to gather the remnants.

Tea (quite trivial)!
I had some delicious iced tea in Cyprus, but don't like the stuff you can get in England; it's far too sweet for me. I'm too impatient and lazy to make it myself.

Back to the point; I originally started thinking about nutrition over a number of days as a result of those things that have weekly guidelines, like red meat (twice a week, supposedly). A perfectly balanced diet for a week/month/year divided into daily portions would probably result in some very strange meals.

BrightAngel · Post by **BrightAngel** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:03 pm

blueskighs wrote: I call it the endless hunger ...
This ALWAYS happens when I am on a diet or eat reasonably for any period of time ...
I have also experienced this a few times on No S.

"the endless hunger" Good name for it.
Something I am very familiar with..
....no matter what diet or food plan I'm on.

I'm Hoping that after developing a No S habit,
I experience it a bit less.

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:31 pm

Bright Angel,

me too!

Blueskighs