Bad Conversation Topics When Surrounded by Throwable Objects 6

TOPIC: Are hunger pangs reliable and trustworthy indications of hunger?

You have busied yourself the entire morning, energized by the healthy-hardy breakfast you scarfed down at 7:30 a.m., because indoctrination programmed you breakfast is the most important meal of the day; your breakfast actually consisted of much more food you usually eat, but it contained healthy and nutritious choices so you do not feel guilty about it, so why, only three and a half hours later at 11:00 a.m., does your stomach rumble and gurgle, announcing your ravenous hunger once again, almost cringing with starvation? Your stomach should still be satiated! 

And lunchtime taunts you, still an hour away! 

Or...are you really even hungry? You must be, right? Your stomach feels as if it will commence eating itself from the inside out if you do not listen to its demands for sustenance immediately…you are now experiencing the first stage of hunger, the initial warning your body requires fuel, but should you indulge? After such a large breakfast?

The grumblings in your stomach are called “hunger pangs.” These pangs are designed to alert you of a possible need to eat again, but more likely they are simply telling you your stomach and its other parts are empty. Does this mean you are actually hungry? Not necessarily.

Hunger pangs are discomforts in the abdominal region occurring in the early stages of hunger or fasting, correlated with contractions of the empty stomach or intestines. Basically, your body sends signals your stomach is empty and it is time to start thinking about food. But notice the key words and phrases in this description: “early stages of hunger,” “empty stomach,” “start thinking.”

Even though your body is signaling hunger does not mean you are actually suffering from it. So why the pangs? Your brain interprets your stomach’s situation, realizes the emptiness and sends orders to your stomach and intestines to start contracting so you feel hunger, just like Pavlov’s dog involuntarily salivated after hearing a bell, your brain becomes programmed based on your eating habits to alert you when you SHOULD be hungry, not when you actually are hungry. This is the curse of eating set, conventional meals everyday—breakfast, lunch, and dinner (possibly an occasional snack time too)—instead of only eating when you are truly hungry.  Your brain is trained based on your habits and will act accordingly. 

Now, I will not delve into the origins of these set, conventional meals in this post, but just think about your eating habits for a spell. Does what time it is propel you to eat? Do you feel obligated to eat breakfast because you have been instructed of its importance? Do you eat your brown-bagged meal or pitch in cash for an office pizza simply because it is lunch time? Do you come home from work, sit down to dinner and eat an entire meal, even though somebody celebrated their birthday at work and the celebration lunch was riddled with potlucked delicacies and you sampled each dish of the free food, consuming enough for two grown adults and one small child? If you have experienced these phenomenon, you are not eating when you are hungry, you are eating on your body’s trained schedule. 

Actual physical signs of true hunger manifest as:

Dizziness, faintness, or light-headedness

Headache

Irritability, easily agitated

Lack of concentration

Nausea

Now, I am not suggesting you do not eat until you lose consciousness or get physically sick, the only thing I am asking you to consider is when, if ever, you have felt any of the above symptoms before you sat down to eat. If you have not experienced any of these symptoms, than you have never eaten when truly hungry. Maybe you should consider yourself lucky? Lucky, but maybe not healthy. Individual differences of the above list assuredly exist from person to person, but can you recognize your true hunger signals? When I SHOULD eat, I start to get a headache; when I NEED to eat, I get a little nauseous; and when I MUST eat I lose focus, I am unable to concentrate and my thoughts jump from one irrational thought to the next. I usually sit down to eat right before my full-blown headache starts, but I have trained myself and have learned my own patterns. 

After implementing this process, combined with walking at a steady pace for one hour a day, I lost one hundred sixteen pounds in a year and a half and I have kept these pounds off for five years now, even maintaining when I go through stretches of poor eating choices and/or non-exercise due to time constraints or other responsibilities. When I overeat now, I feel horrible, heavy, and physically sick afterwards, but I do cheat and indulge in my favorites now and then, but after I falter or cheat, I immediately get myself back onto the regiment of paying attention to my true hunger signs. There is not a better feeling than not feeling overstuffed, but still satiated.

Each person will have their own formula, but unless you start to consciously think about this formula, you will never discover your own personal signs of hunger, learning to ignore traditional meal times and those troublesome and annoying hunger pangs.