Day 25 – I’m starting to get hungry.

Well after 25 days I am starting to get hungry. Funnily enough my tummy rumbles are only happening when its mealtime.

Each morning though my band and or my stomach feels tight. Could this explain my morning aches and pains? I manage my liquid vitamins and a glass of water and then an hour later I have my coffee. I’ve tried sipping and Up and Go but I cannot stomach more than a few sips.

I’ve never eaten breakfast. I would always have preferred to have slept in for 30 minutes extra rather than have breakfast. But come 10.ooam I used to pig out and binge on anything and everything in front of me.

Now this time around I get the tummy rumbles at midday and then at 6.00pm. Its great hearing the rumbles as it tells me that its time to eat. The beauty of the lap band is once you start eating you actually feel your stomach putting the brakes on and saying STOP. My lap band is awesome it is such and amazing tool. I eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m full, what more can one ask for.

When I am full, I am FULL. Its almost like if I take one more spoonful or forkful I think I will burst. I tried to take another spoonful of my dinner last night so I can see what happens if I overeat. I’m getting cockier as time goes by. I put the food in my mouth and chewed and chewed and then had to spit it out I just couldn’t swallow it.

I’ve mentioned in a past entry about adhering to an organic diet but I have also been doing a bit of research of late on low fat food vs. high fat food. In my head I thought that if I am eating a twelfth of what was eating previously, pre-lap band, then I would eat what I want as long as it was organic.

I spent 2 hours in Macro the other day looking around at all the food. Reading the labels, looking at the sugar information and all the nutritional information. My word! What a headf**k!!! I then did the same thing in Coles. I picked up everything that I like and that I would eat and did the same thing. I was confused, perplexed and had a headache by the end of at all.

So I came home and Googled low fat versus high fat foods. I read, and I read and I absorbed as much as I could. Its crazy the amount of information that is out there! Low carb, high protein, very low calorie, full cream, low fat, on and on. It’s just so confusing.

I find also that I am craving things I would never have craved. Such as lentils, vegemite (I’ve only ever eaten vegemite on 2 occasions) tuna and spaghetti bolognaise. It’s bizarre. Why would I be craving foods like these when in the past I would have crave Krispy Kreme doughnuts, choclate, ice cream, KFC, Maccas and so forth?

I’m also questioning myself before each meal. I ask myself am I physically hungry or emotionally hungry. Some times I’m really only emotionally hungry so I go away and try and distract myself by doing something else. I’ve worked out that if I keep myself occupied doing something else for 45 minutes then I am able to distinguish whether Im fair dinkum hungry.

When I think I am physically hungry I wait it out before I go ahead and eat. I do this by delaying my mealtime. For example I usually go to lunch between 12.00pm -1.00pm every day during the week. Since I have been back at work I have managed to have different lunchtimes. One day I had lunch from 1.30pm-2.30pm, another day I went from 1.00pm-2.00pm. As much as I am a stickler for routine , but by trying to delay my eating from my usual meal times I am actually experiencing REAL physical hunger. Something I haven’t felt for a very long time indeed. I do the exact same thing at dinner time.

My main objective or goal of this exercise is so that I get to know my body so well that I eat only when I am physically hungry. I want to treat my body like a machine.

I prepare all my meals in advance and have everything in Tupperware with the correct portions in my deep freezer. I eat my meal, whatever I may have organised and that’s it. So even if I’m starving there is nothing else for me to eat because by the time I take another portion of food out of the deep freeze and defrost it my hunger is well and truly over.

Having said all that I am experiencing hunger. It freaked me out yesterday but after analysing things it kind of makes sense to me. I have no restriction in my band and as of this Thursday it’s been 4 weeks since I had my surgery so I guess it is time for my first fill.

My method of madness works well for me. Maybe it can help you too?


Reney