The fear of hunger

Feeling hungry. It's what dieters fear the most, as ex-dieter Lesley suggests in her recent post in Raspberry Ramblings. But why?

Because when you know food is restricted, and there are only certain types of food you're 'allowed' to eat, the last thing you want to be in is a position where you're starving and you can't get hold of food that fits in with your plan.

And also, you fear that when hunger approaches, you may lose control completely and the diet will go completely out of the window, leaving you back to square one.

The feeling can take some time to pass when you begin intuitive eating. For many months, I'd make sure I considered where I might eat if I was to get hungry while I was out, and sometimes still did the dieter's favourite trick of packing something 'healthy' into my bag just in case hunger strikes.

Now, I never worry about it. Of course, if I'm going on a long journey I often take food - who wants to pay ridiculous motorway service station prices?

But it is because I know that I can bring the food I enjoy, rather than buy over-priced crap that won't satisfy me. And my motivation has nothing to do with fear of hunger.

I still do occasionally push a snack into my bag if I think it might be something I'd like to eat later. But invariably, when I do get hungry I don't want whatever is in my bag so I find something else from wherever I am.

And the other thing I'm more able to do is live with hunger until I can get home and find something I really enjoy, rather than be frightened of hunger appearing when I can't eat.

In fact, I play a game with this. I relish getting hungry and then planning something really delicious, that I know I'm going to enjoy. It happened last night in fact, and I had M&S hot & spicy chicken wings with some steamed broccoli (which I love!), yummy.

So I no longer fear hunger, but welcome to feel it. Because with hunger comes eating, and I love eating, but even more so now I choose what I want, rather than something that I'm eating for the sake of it because it is a 'diet food'.

Comments

[Sally Roberts]

As an ex dieter I can really relate to this too - but I am hypoglycaemic and have to eat something every 2 or 3 hours so I DO keep things in my bag such as a small packet of nuts and fruit or a cereal bar, just in case I am somewhere I can't eat at all such as stuck in my car in a traffic jam or on the London Underground.

[Lesley]

Just wanted to add that my 'fear of hunger when going shopping' is nothing to do with restrictions. It's just when I'm hungry and in a supermarket I end up buying more junk food... often to the point where I'm never going to eat it. Kinda like binge-buying I guess? I find it real hard to tune-in properly while surrounded by so many goodies. Last time I did that I bought Danish and doughnuts and cheesecake. At home I tuned-in and ate the Danish and was satisfied. 2 days later I threw the cheesecake and doughnuts in the bin. It's the waste I hate!

[Andrea Wren]

Hi Sally, I can also relate to what you say as I get very low blood sugar but I've found that since I stopped dieting and started to eat more high protein/high fat meals, my blood sugar doesn't 'crash' anywhere near as much as it used to.

Lesley, thanks for replying to this post! Yes, it can be easy to end up buying too much food if you shop when you're hungry. I've really had to learn to control how much I order when I go out for dinner as well, as if I'm starving I want a starter, main, bread, etc and then of course, after my starter I'm usually full so there is so much waste!

[Sally Roberts]

Hi Andrea,
Yes I find that upping the protein and fat and lowering the starchy carbs is helping me a lot too! I find I keep the starchy carbs to early in the day and don't eat them at all in the evenings and that works for me.
This morning I had a really odd breakfast - macaroni cheese! It was lovely!!!