Ode to Hunger

[countrysongbird 0]

Ok, so here’s a strange line of thought: Hunger is great!

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I know it sounds so crazy, but after being banded for a month (1<SUP>st</SUP> fill on 6/24) and starting to have a few foods now, the other night I couldn’t sleep…I was tossing and turning, and wishing for sleep when my stomach started to really hurt…I was really feeling uncomfortable.

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I laid there for a few minutes thinking, “hmm, this doesn’t feel good,” I am ashamed to say it took me about a good two minutes before it hit me – “This is hunger!”

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Now I know that many of you have posted about being hungry and the worries that go along with that so I wanted to post these thoughts and happenings that have transpired within myself in regard to hunger over the last few days.

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For years of on again-off again diets every night when I got in bed I considered the day a general success if I did not go to bed feeling full. Translation: I did not eat myself out of house and home before bed!

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I was thinking of this the other night when I started having hunger pains…I laughed in spite of myself and thought, “Well, I guess this was a good day!” And then something remarkable happened – the next day, I was driving down the road, and again this pain hit my stomach – hunger again! I looked at the clock; it read <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:time Minute="35" Hour="12">12:35pm</st1:time>…huh, how about that? lunch time! Its lunch time and I am hungry – just like I am supposed to be!

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I had a little breakthrough there driving down the road. A couple of things occurred to me: 1. I’m not sure that I have ever (EVER) really felt hunger a day in my life. 2. It is perfectly normal – did you catch that word – normal – to be hungry at lunch time, and at Breakfast, and at dinner. Being hungry at the appropriate times is a sign that my body is working exactly the way it is supposed to – imagine that!

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Now I have been on every diet known to man. I have fasted, I have done every program available, and I have been on liquid diets, and yet this new hunger that I am feeling took me by surprise, and it occurs to me that for years I have starved my body for hours throughout the day, never really feeling this sort of gnawing discomfort in my gut because my body was not functioning the way it was meant to. My body was very used to not having anything to eat or drink from morning until late afternoon, and then being overfed until bedtime. My body knew no reprieve from running on dry…

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Only now, with the lap band, with directions that I must follow from my Dr. that I MUST have liquids all day, that I MUST eat small meals throughout the day, that I MUST listen to what my body says when I do eat…only now, have I experienced the most normal basic bodily need – hunger. I think it is a beautiful thing, a reaffirmation that I am on the road to doing many more “normal” things.

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I do not fear my hunger, I am embracing it as proof that my body has begun to actually communicate with me its needs and I in turn am listening and responding conscientiously.

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Hunger is a good thing!:biggrin2:

Edited June 17, 2008 by countrysongbird
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[ghannouge 0]

Very Nice!

And as a new saying that i know now:

VIVA liquid diet LOL

[nebraskahickchi 2]

Beautifully stated!

[ladyluana 0]

I completely agree with you; and you said it beautifully!

I am on the 5th morning of my Optifast 800 calorie pre-op. On day 4, still no hunger-then it hit that afternoon and I was shocked! I have felt hunger, but this was intense-and I was happy for it. My body is slowly going to get back to normal (how it should be) and the band is not even on-I am so excited about this JOURNEY!!!

[HeatherO 7]

Very beautifully stated. It surprised me as well, not to be hungry but to ache with hunger :0). I just think it goes to show we are on the right track.

[aubrie 6]

very well written. Your epiphany was putting things in proper perspective, and like you said, realizing you're achieiving normalness. Congrats. What a breakthrough!!