I think this is a lesson that I have needed to learn for a long time, and will probably always struggle with. I have such a fear of being hungry that as soon as my stomach growls even a little bit, I'm ready to run to the kitchen. Not to mention I get very hangry if my blood sugar drops too low. This has been a constant problem and a huge source of my past failures.

My weight loss had stalled for a couple weeks because I was grazing almost constantly. I decided to try an experiment where I would force myself to ignore my growling stomach for a hour or two and see what happened. Lo and behold, I didn't die of starvation, the world didn't end, and I made it to my next meal unscathed. It's OK to be hungry! My band helps somewhat in this department but I realized all over again the necessity for some form of willpower. I was sick of being stuck at the same weight for weeks and starting to feel my old feelings of failure and the "Screw it, I'm going to eat a box of cookies since I'm not losing weight anyway" mentality. Then I went to the mirror, lifted my shirt, and looked at my surgical scar. I didn't go through all this pain, the post op diet from hell, and weeks of recovery to fail now. I knew I was in this for life when I had this surgery and there are going to be ups and downs in this journey, but so far I've been heading in the right direction.

Happily, I broke my plateau this morning and I'm down three pounds! My new mantra: It's OK to be hungry!