Everyday Systems

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:43 pm**

Ok so for breakfast this morning (7:30am) I had about 1 serving of kashi heart to heart cereal with skim milk. It held me until about 1pm, when I started having hunger pangs (which is a record). I had 32 oz of water and a couple of cups of tea in between. I ended up having lunch at 1:30pm. I thought that was good. However, after lunch at around 3:30 I started having serious hunger pangs! I even make sure I have a good 32 oz of water between meals to make sure I don't confuse hunger with thirst. I gave in at about 4:30pm and had a side of raw baby carrots. I won't be having dinner until around 6 or 7. How do you guys deal with the hunger pangs?!?! I'm good with not eating terrible crap when I have them, but sometimes it's just hard.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:51 pm**

cjgoodson2 wrote:Ok so for breakfast this morning (7:30am) I had about 1 serving of kashi heart to heart cereal with skim milk. It held me until about 1pm, when I started having hunger pangs (which is a record). I had 32 oz of water and a couple of cups of tea in between. I ended up having lunch at 1:30pm. I thought that was good. However, after lunch at around 3:30 I started having serious hunger pangs! I even make sure I have a good 32 oz of water between meals to make sure I don't confuse hunger with thirst. I gave in at about 4:30pm and had a side of raw baby carrots. I won't be having dinner until around 6 or 7. How do you guys deal with the hunger pangs?!?! I'm good with not eating terrible crap when I have them, but sometimes it's just hard.

Are you eating enough at meals? Seriously. Take a good look at that. You didn't say what you had for lunch.

Also? Low fat may not be your friend for long-term satiety. I do better with a little bit of fat and some protein with my meals.

When you're new, yeah, your stomach is going to be yelling at you. My solution was to remind myself that I can't starve in a few hours and muscle through it, but make a note for my next meal to make sure it's really an appropriate size to get me to the next one. (As Reinhard points out in his book, hunger is a FANTASTIC teacher).

FWIW, after you get out of the learning stage, your body will adjust and you won't feel hungry at inappropriate times. (Though if you're anything like me, you'll find being late for mealtimes isn't on your top ten list of Fun Things to Entertain Yourself).

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:59 pm**

hahaha thanks! For lunch I had an apple, banana, half a turkey sandwich on 12 grain bread topped with lots of veggies. It was really good, but may not have been enough like you said. Although, I do tend to get stuffed pretty quickly. It doesn't help that I've been trying to stop eating before I feel full. ahhhhh i'm sure it'll get better eventually.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:07 pm**

Were you stressed or bored? Those can masquerade as hunger, too, at least for some of us.

Could you see or smell food? Or were you watching TV with food commercials, or doing something that might make you think of food? Those can make me feel hungry. You might want to try to stay away from food during the day, if that's feasible for you, at least while you're learning the No S habits.

Do you have a habit of snacking during the afternoon? You might just be used to eating around that time. You can adjust your eating schedule, but it takes a little while.

Remind yourself, you cannot starve to death in one day. If your metabolism is normal, you can't do any permanent damage by not eating for one day. Millions of people fast for a day for various reasons (often religious). It really is not dangerous to most people.

cjgoodson2 wrote:It doesn't help that I've been trying to stop eating before I feel full.

Don't do this before you've got the No S habits established. Get in the habit of getting through the day without snacks, sweets, or seconds first, then worry about the amount of food you're eating at your one helping at meals. Break the snack habit first.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:21 pm**

I was nowhere near food. I was actually studying in our school science center. Stress actually surpresses my appetite. I know...weird. I have never really been a stress eater thankfully. Yes, I was a snacker before No S, but I've been doing pretty good without snacking until after dinner.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:47 pm**

I am new to this too. You might want to try and eat a little more for lunch. I also found that "being hungry isnt an emergency!" I am not used to feeling hungry and today around noon I was famished, but out so I couldnt eat anything, before to long the hunger pains went away. I am still trying to fing the righ balance with how much is enough. Good luck.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:15 pm**

I'm thinking you may not be eating quite enough. If you go to little on fat or protein it can be hard. Also if you have a little more at breakfast I heard from studies that it will help you with hunger the whole day. I think you may have to try adding a little more to your meals little by little until you can go without snacking. In time also your body gets used to no snacks and it will get easier.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:16 pm**

Lunch to dinner is the hardest stretch for many people, no matter about lunch.

I would make lunch my biggest meal. See how it goes from there. As hard as it is to believe, this just won't bother you much in a month.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:18 pm**

Thanks, everyone. It's nice to know I can just post on here and get some quick help and ideas.
And kevin, that is super promising and yes, hard to believe

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:58 pm**

cjgoodson2 wrote:How do you guys deal with the hunger pangs?!?! ... sometimes it's just hard.

Yep, sometimes it's hard -- and you can change that to something pretty close to "always", right at the start. That first few weeks or so can be quite tough, but it really does get better. If you can tide yourself over with liquids, that's better than having to eat, if you can manage it.

As others have mentioned, it can take a while to get used to how much to eat at meals. Remember, each of those meals is a third of what you're going to eat for the whole day: if you've been used to supplementing meals with constant snacking, those meals are probably going to be bigger than you're used to, or they will be if you're eating enough. After a while, you'll have an incredibly accurate sense of how much you really need to eat, to carry you to the next meal. (But "a while", here, is measured in months.)

I don't remember ever having severe hunger pangs, I guess I was lucky that way, but I do remember being so hungry at dinner that I couldn't *stand* to wait, if there was some delay in our usual meal time. But now (coming up on two years in July), this is not a big deal at all. Just tonight, dinner was about an hour and a half later than usual, and while I was certainly *hungry* by the time we ate, I wasn't at death's door or unable to wait for everyone else. It's good to be hungry, it makes your meals better. (But stabbing hunger pangs are no fun for anybody! I hope you find that those go away if you bulk up your meals for a while, especially when you're just getting started.)

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:41 am**

Know that being hungry is not a red emergency alert situation. Nothing bad will happen to you if you feel hungry for a few hours (assuming you don't have any metabolic disorders such as diabetes, ask your doctor about this if you do). Really. It's not like having to go to the bathroom, where something bad will happen if you ignore the sensation for a few hours. It's a little uncomfortable, but that's all that will happen.

Food cravings are the same way. They do not signal that you will die or get very sick if you don't get whatever nutrient from that particular food in the next few hours. It is possible to wait out a food craving without eating whatever it is you're craving, and nothing bad will happen to you if you do (again, assuming a normal metabolism).

One thing I sometimes do when I'm feeling hungry or having a food craving (and it's not meal time) is say to myself, "I notice my mind is feeling hungry/craving whatever." Mentally step back from the feeling, and just watch it being in your mind. Don't try to push it away (that doesn't work, with thoughts and feelings), but do try to find something else to think about and focus on for a while.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:31 am**

Hunger is like a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (that, unfortunately, I can't find an image of online):

Calvin looks at a book and freaks out. "Omigosh! This library book was due two days ago! What will they do? Are they going to interrogate me and beat me up?! Are they going to break my knees?? Will I have to sign some confession???"

His mother looks at him and calmly says, "They'll fine you ten cents. Now go return it."

Calvin says, "The way some of those librarians look at you, I naturally assumed the consequences would be more dire."

The way you feel when you're hungry, you think the consequences of ignoring hunger would be much more dire than they actually turn out to be for most of us.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:24 am**

I don't get many hunger pangs, I get cravings. Almost like when I gave up smoking! I try and sip a drink when that happens - even a calorific drink like fruit juice or milk is better than snacking for me. Not in terms of calories taken in, but in terms of habit. I prefer that to water sometimes too as water doesn't feel enough....

Keep at it you're doing awesome

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:50 am**

cjgoodson2 wrote:How do you guys deal with the hunger pangs?

I make sure I have something good to look forward to at the next meal. I quite enjoy hunger pangs if I know when I'll be eating next.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 11:57 am**

ThompsonsPier, trust me I think about my next meal all the time. It's getting quite annoying though. I feel like I think about it all the time now.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:54 pm**

Someone here once said "instead of thinking of it as hunger pangs, think of it as 'having an appetite' - which you are supposed to have at mealtime!"

I think reframing it that way helps.

Drinks help - coffee, milk, even hot tea.

Attending to what's on your plate at mealtimes helps. Enough food? Some protein/fat (they "last" longer)?

And part of it is just re-training your body, which DOES happen.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:01 pm**

Nicest of the Damned wrote:Hunger is like a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon

Calvin looks at a book and freaks out.
"Omigosh! This library book was due two days ago! What will they do?
Are they going to interrogate me and beat me up?!
Are they going to break my knees?? Will I have to sign some confession???"

His mother looks at him and calmly says,
"They'll fine you ten cents. Now go return it."

Calvin says, "The way some of those librarians look at you,
I naturally assumed the consequences would be more dire."

The way you feel when you're hungry,
you think the consequences of ignoring hunger would be much more dire
than they actually turn out to be for most of us.

Nicest,
Good Thoughts.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:19 pm**

cjgoodson2 wrote:I think about my next meal all the time. It's getting quite annoying though. I feel like I think about it all the time now.

I did that in my first few months of No S. I still sometimes do it, when I am bored. I suspect it's normal.

There's an upside to it, actually. Supposedly, there are studies showing that people who plan meals in advance eat healthier food than those who don't. This goes along with my observations of what Nicest Husband and I eat when I do and don't plan meals, so I'll buy that. If you find yourself thinking about your next meal, plan what you're going to have, and for your meals for the next few days.

Posted: **Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:37 pm**

KCCC wrote:Someone here once said "instead of thinking of it as hunger pangs, think of it as 'having an appetite' - which you are supposed to have at mealtime!"

I think reframing it that way helps.

Ooh, ooh! That was me!

Though I doubt I'm the first, and of course Reinhard refers in the book (I think) to the way you eventually start to find snacking a bad idea, because it ruins your appetite (just like your mother/grandfather/aunt used to say!)

Posted: **Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:44 am**

Nicest of the Damned wrote:
cjgoodson2 wrote:I think about my next meal all the time. It's getting quite annoying though. I feel like I think about it all the time now.
I did that in my first few months of No S. I still sometimes do it, when I am bored. I suspect it's normal.

I do that too. As far as hunger pangs go, in the very beginning big classes of water helped me heaps. I've only been doing No-S for 7 weeks, and after about 3 weeks I noticed that I wasn't getting as hungry between meals. Your body gets used to the longer space between meals. My hunger pangs have become mere flutterings, and they only happen right before meal times.

Everyday Systems

the hunger pang thang

the hunger pang thang

Re: the hunger pang thang

Re: the hunger pang thang

Re: the hunger pang thang