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WeightLossSurgeryCoach.com(formerly GastricByPassCoach.com) |
Information, inspiration, coaching and support for obese people wanting a longer, healthier life through Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) |
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Through Thick and Thin #21 (May 15, 2003) Head Hunger and Emotional EatingEver since my Weight Loss Surgery six months ago, I've enjoyed the new delights of having a consistent, reliable and effective “appetite regulator”. For the first time in my life, I know that I can trust the information transmitted by my stomach to prompt, stop or otherwise regulate my consumption of food and calories. And between my use of high-yield protein shakes and Juice Plus (to provide the nutrition I need, but can't fit or handle, from fruit and vegetables), I always know that if my body tells me I'm full, I have already have consumed enough protein and nutrition to sustain my body functioning in a healthy fashion. And yet... Sometimes, even knowing that my body has all the nourishment it needs, I “feel” hungry. Or, more precisely, I experience what seem to be real hunger pangs, even when I know they're artificial. This is what I call “head hunger”. My belief is that unless Emotional Eating is recognized, acknowledged and dealt with, it can and will sabotage the extreme measures I and we have taken to live longer, healthier lives. I thought about this recently when I spent a long night alone in a motel room during a business trip. In my former life (before WLS), when I found myself alone in a motel room, on the road (sometimes bathed in an accompanying self-pity), I used to stock the shelves with lots of sugar and other crap as comfort food to help me make it through the night. (After all, calories don't count when you're alone in a motel room, right?) Today, six months post-op and down 110 pounds, I've stopped buying those “treats” that used to assault my health and sabotage my eating plan. But this night, I found myself preparing to repeat the pattern. I knew, with certainty, that I had consumed enough to meet my body's needs. And yet I felt an unmistakable “hunger” that sure felt authentic and demanding and deserving of a response. So I reverted and took two half-crackers out of the baggie. In less time than it took to take that first bite, I realized what I was doing and PUT BOTH PIECES BACK INTO THE BAG. Because I became very, very clear, in that defining moment, that any apparent hunger messages I get when I know that I'm full are instead fraudulent, destructive, self-sabotaging Head Hunger messages from my past, my habits, my patterns, my childhood, my unconsciousness about my body, my past irresponsibility and unaccountability about my health. I can binge on anything — even two half crackers — if I eat when I know I'm full. Putting something back uneaten. Amazing! My life is really changing; my awareness is deepening; and I'm living, moment by moment, day by day, my commitment to using WLS to live healthy and long. I knew how far I have come, and how much self-work I have yet to do, when I drove by the new Jack-in-the-Box in my town. This fast food chain used to be my preferred source of comfort junk food, especially when traveling for business. Yet it was the one fast food joint that hadn't yet made a home in my community. Now it's here. Just the sight of the familiar sign was enough to generate a false message of hunger as I drove by. Fortunately, my trust in the information transmitted by my appetite regulator sustained me through the episode. For me, Head Hunger is a message that either I haven't yet done my requisite personal growth work to deal with and resolve all of the emotional reasons I used to compulsively overeat, or that I presently have some more work to do. I invested years of my pre-WLS life on a searching and fearless journey of self-examination, therapy and other personal growth work to figure out why I ate like I did and what I needed to learn, understand or apply in order to change. And still, like every time I pass Jack's Box, or any time I get too angry, lonely or tired, I have more work to do to remember, to be aware, and to use and choose what I know to take good care of myself. GlennClick here to read another newsletter.
Click here if you have a “fruit and vegetable problem” to see if my solution (see Through Thick and Thin #19) will work for you. |
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Copyright, © 2003, Glenn Goldberg. All rights reserved. |
Through Thick and Thin Newsletters
When I travel, I prepare conscientiously to assure that no matter the situations or unanticipated circumstances that may present themselves, I will have what I need to take good care of my body. That translates into getting a room with a small refrigerator; bringing some yogurt for breakfast; my protein powder and portable wand blender; a bag of graham crackers; and my water bottle, which has become like a beloved Teddy Bear to me.
