“…But you’re always hungry all the time.”
“Yes. Yes you are.”
This was the conversation I was having with a co-worker
about my diet. He was right. On my diet I was hungry all the time. But let’s be
honest here, how was that any different from normal? I was always hungry before
– ravenous even. I’d eat breakfast, then second breakfast… like a friggin’
hobbit. One thing was clear to me in the beginning: I had to figure out a way
to deal with hunger or I’d never make it. I chose to redefine what hunger meant
to me.
Most of the time when we start a new diet plan we look at
hunger as the enemy. The nasty dragon or sumo wrestler we must contend with and
overcome every single day of our lives. The prospect of this is daunting and at
times discouraging. Hunger is at its most ferocious in the beginning when
you’re trying to wean yourself off of sugar, carbs, and just generally eating
like a vacuum cleaner. Hunger was my nemesis and it was the one thing that
always kept me from really changing my lifestyle.
But what if hunger were my ally? What if it was my
companion? What does that even mean? I began to look at hunger as a good thing.
Instead of striving against it I started thinking to myself, Oh, I’m hungry. That means it’s working! I’m
losing weight! That hunger is me getting healthier! Now I don’t know the
exact science of it all and I certainly can’t claim that it’s true that when
you’re hungry you’re losing weight. However, I told myself that the ache in my
stomach was a good thing. After all – I knew I wasn’t going to die. I was
eating (and eating better than ever) so that wasn’t the issue, but I had
programmed my mind and body to need food all the time. Hunger was there
constantly reminding me that I was in process. Hunger had become one of my
biggest cheerleaders.
Hunger even helped me control my portion size. After I had
eaten a meal it would be there, gently whispering, “I’m still here so that
means you’ve probably had enough.” When my portion was gone I was done eating.
Period. After a while I would be a little concerned if I wasn’t hungry after I’d eaten. Oh
crap! I’d think, I’ve gone overboard!
Then half an hour later hunger would be back and…get this…I would actually
be relieved. Can you believe that?
I’ll go a step further.
As a Christian I believe that God can use hunger to help us
find areas in our lives we need to work on. I say that because I was an
emotional eater. I was kind of like Doug Heffernan on King of Queens who would eat any and all emotions including
“scared” and “bored.” Before I started my diet hunger would be this raving
lunatic that would scream at me, “YOU’RE DEPRESSED ABOUT YOUR JOB! PIZZA WILL FIX THIS! ALSO, SNICKERS!” In
time, hunger would say, “Hey… I’m here and you’re stressed and sad. Maybe ask
God to help with this.” In time I found that all those emotions sort of worked
themselves out after I decided to just go ahead and feel them then move on with
my life. Don’t be afraid to feel your feelings – it’s a lot quicker and
healthier than eating them. If you’ve got a lot of pain that you don’t think
you can bear without food, maybe there’s a bigger issue there. It might be time
to really go after God and figure it out. Find a friend you can talk to and
deal with the issue. Food is delicious but it doesn’t heal emotional and spiritual
wounds.
I have grown to be so thankful for hunger! The kicker is
that it’s not even really actual stomach pains hunger. It’s just cravings and
mental programming. So when you’ve started your new diet plan and you’re hungry
– R E J O I C E! It’s working! You are
making progress! You won’t die if you don’t eat Reese Sticks!
No comments:
Post a Comment