Everyday Systems

I'm enjoying the fasting between meals now because it's fun to see how tasty my next meal can become.

However I notice that about 20 minutes after I'm done eating I'll get some hunger pang. Maybe it's something else and just seems like hunger. I wait it out for about 5 minutes and it passes.

Before I would eat thinking I must be hungry but now I wait and I'm not hungry again for a good 5 hours or so.

Does anyone experience this? I'm not hungry after eating just that one blip 20 minutes later.

Something similar does happen to me. I find myself filling up faster and therefore eating less at certain meals, especially lunch (my traditional favorite time for overeating) but then I'll suddenly have an urge for "something else" between twenty and forty minutes after lunch.

A big glass of water helps, and probably aids digestion, too.

By "pang" I wonder if you mean you feel it in your stomach? Or you just want "something else"? If it's in your belly, and you've had a good, normal sized meal, not a diet meal, then a drink should help.

I have realized through this (and through eating very mindfully and taking time before a meal to decide if I'm truly hungry in my stomach) that I am far less hungry, far less often than I ever dreamed. At the same time, I am noticing that my food urges still happen in between meals, and they are usually more about boredom, anxiety, fear of hunger later, fear of hunger now, or telling myself that I'm not enjoying life if I don't eat this one tasty thing right this second. That last one is surprisingly powerful. Weird. It's like "what if I die tomorrow, and passed up this cupcake? I won't have lived my life fully." Why do I not feel the same way about going outside for a long walk in the spring air? Or calling all my loved ones? Just the stupid food. Lame!

I still eat more than I need, but in three plates a day. But I'm working on it, slowly, in it's own time.

If you're eating enough and not, as finallyfull says "a diet meal," I wouldn't worry about it.

I ignore "hunger" now. It's not an emergency, even if it's 20 minutes after you've had a meal. I've found that most of the time it passes. You're going to be eating again in a few hours.

maryashley wrote:
A big glass of water helps, and probably aids digestion, too.

When I first started NoS, I found that what might be taken as hunger was actual thirst. By eating less food, I was ALSO taking in less water--not by drinking less but because all the extra food I had previously been eating had provided with me a lot more; food is 20% (for very dry foods like crackers) to 90+% (fruits and veggies) water. It might very well be that you will feel more sated with an extra glass or two of water throughout your day.

I found, back then, that I needed to boost my liquid intake early: glass of water when rising, then coffee, small glass of juice, and milk/water at breakfast. Now, I don't need to do that but I really did in those early NoS days.

HTH,

vmsurbat wrote:

maryashley wrote:
A big glass of water helps, and probably aids digestion, too.

When I first started NoS, I found that what might be taken as hunger was actual thirst. By eating less food, I was ALSO taking in less water--not by drinking less but because all the extra food I had previously been eating had provided with me a lot more; food is 20% (for very dry foods like crackers) to 90+% (fruits and veggies) water. It might very well be that you will feel more sated with an extra glass or two of water throughout your day.

I found, back then, that I needed to boost my liquid intake early: glass of water when rising, then coffee, small glass of juice, and milk/water at breakfast. Now, I don't need to do that but I really did in those early NoS days.

HTH,

I'll bet you're right; it's just thirst. Often we confuse thirst for hunger and perhaps the body doesn't care either way because natural food is full of water. Fruits and vegetables for instance.

If it bothers me, I'll have some water. Better for me anyway.
Thanks.

Barbara Rolls, a researcher on satiety, reports that the water thing is a myth since thirst and hunger are regulated by different systems, but it seems like a lot of people experience the placebo effect. I don't like drinking much with my meals.

One of the reasons I committed to No S was that I noticed that I would feel the urge to binge for the first three hours after I ate. Eating snacks did not stop me, and now I think it made it worse. Much research shows that eating itself, and especially overeating, can be paired with bingeing so that they become triggers!

If I can get to three hours without eating, I don't get the urge to binge from then until my next meal. No S saved me.

oolala53 wrote:One of the reasons I committed to No S was that I noticed that I would feel the urge to binge for the first three hours after I ate. Eating snacks did not stop me, and now I think it made it worse. Much research shows that eating itself, and especially overeating, can be paired with bingeing so that they become triggers!

Oh yes, me too. When I eat, I get the "food taste in my mouth" that is like a trigger to keep eating. Even after 12 weeks on No S I'm still trying to control this.

You can't really control what you desire. It does sound like you are controlling the urge to eat, right?

My desires to eat right after work haven't gone away, nor has my desires to eat more on weekends at times I used to graze. This after three years. But these desires are small potatoes in the scheme of things. They are manageable and usually no more trouble than other little frustrations of life. They just got so much attention for years that they became magnified. And I play a bit of a part in that.

Good point. Why do we let the urges become so magnified? In the scheme of things, it is just food.

Why do we think having those urges is abnormal or unusual? In today's world not giving in to the urges is pretty abnormal, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. In fact, quite the opposite.

It sounds like a craving, an impulse to eat that isn't related to the body's need for nutrition, especially since it passes.

I have found the technique of "urge surfing" to be very helpful when I experience cravings. Here is an MP3 that talks you through the process of urge surfing:

http://depts.washington.edu/abrc/mbrp/r ... urfing.mp3

Like OoLaLa, I found that snacking did not stop the impulses, in fact, they perpetuated them for me.

In the past, giving into cravings because I misinterpreted them as hunger or as my body's way of telling me it needed nutrition led to weight gain and just kept this whole cycle of frequent cravings alive.

No-S, and urge-surfing, extinguished a lot of that for me.

Thanks Andrea, very helpful.