Diet and Hunger

Getting hungry whilst dieting.

Yesterday I had a hungry day.  I woke up hungry, I was hungry all day, and whilst I didn't go to bed hungry, I certainly wasn't full. So what does one do about hunger when one is dieting?

Its a funny thing, hunger. One little word that covers everything from not really being hungry at all but, like Winnie the Pooh, fancying a little something just because it is morning tea time, right the way through to being so hungry you feel you would cheerfully eat the kids, or at least the puppy, if you don't get something soon.

Then there is starvation. This is not hunger, although the starving certainly feel hungry. I am sure we all know the difference. Please note, in this post I am talking about hunger, not starvation.

I will be 50 years old in a couple of months. I was raised in a small English market town, which had not really embraced the full flow of modern life, not even modern life as it was in the 60's and 70's. In fact the 60's seemed to pass it right by, and only actually arrived in about 1978. I went to a school that included hats in the uniform. When one was outside the school grounds, one had to wear the school hat. It was a girls school. We had a boys section, but they were on an adjoining site. The boys wore caps, and we wore velour hats in winter and straw panamas in summer.

When one was off the school grounds, and wearing ones school hat, one was not allowed to eat. This was a written school rule. Eating whilst walking down the street was shameful. It showed a number of things. It showed that one did not have the self discipline to wait until one got home. It implied one did not have a better place to eat. And of course eating whilst walking was neither tidy or elegant. People could see you chewing in public, and inevitably you dropped crumbs, thus making a personal mess in a public place.

In fact, back then, on the whole, people did not eat in the streets, in their car or when out and about. I remember the annual street fair. It was amazing, the streets and market place were filled with fairground rides, side stalls and toffee apple and candy-floss stands. And we ate candy-floss whilst walking in the streets! It was part of the delight of the thing. A time when you could walk around eating and people just smiled at you.

When out in the car, we might take a picnic, but we actually stopped the car to eat it. I remember turning off the main highways to find a quiet country road where we could picnic beside a stream, or at a farm gate where the verge was wider. Unless it was pouring with rain we would eat outside the car. A waterproof sheet would be laid on the ground, and a blanket would be spread on that. We would put coats and hats on if it was cold. We would use plates, and drink from beakers. Only if it was inclement would we actually eat in the car, and it was considered a far inferior experience.

And what about hunger? I remember being told to wait for the next meal. We had 3 square meals a day, plus maybe an after-school snack...which would of course been served on a plate, taken sitting at the kitchen table and cleared away afterwards. And that was it. We did not eat between meals, it did not occur to us. And whilst we may have got a little hungry, nothing terrible happened to us. We simply relished our next meal all the more.

The contrast between then and now is startling. Thinking back, I have to conclude that at my fattest I only ate one meal a day. I started in at breakfast, and then I would never go more than an hour or so without putting something else in my mouth right through the day. I would have a biscuit with my morning tea, I would buy myself a little something when out shopping, I would nibble on something whilst making the families supper, if I got bored I would make (or buy) myself a nice healthy wholemeal sandwich. And I certainly had no problem in eating wherever I was. In the street, in a park, in the car, at home, standing in front of an open fridge.....


So when and how did it change? When did we move from 3 meals a day, and it being unacceptable to eat in the streets to the all day, anywhere, any time eating pattern of today? And when did we decide it was terrible to be even a little hungry?

Hubby and I were talking about this and we wondered if it was about the same time as mobile phones first came in. Back then we had the whole yuppie, I'm-too-busy-and-too-important-to-stop-for-lunch senarios. Lunch was for wusies and sleep was for wimps. It was important to work all day and all night and be seen to do so. Remember when mobile phones first came in. People would hang them ostentatiously from their belts and shout loudly into them in public places.
"Yes, James, it's me! Sell! yes, now, just sell!"
We all thought they were idiots! But now its is unusual not to see someone tapping or chatting away with a mobile phone. Heck, it is even socially acceptable to break off from a conversation with someone, turn away and leave them standing there like a lemon, whilst we answer a text or a call.

And was it the same with food? That gradually we became desensitized to people in a hurry grabbing a snack on the go? And so we ended up with us all wandering around the streets, chewing and strewing crumbs and litter as we go?

And that, somehow, must have led to this amazing fear of being hungry. One reads it in all the diet literature, and most of all on the forums. "But what if I get hungry?" People ask it again and again. Ermm.... you had breakfast and shortly you will be having lunch, you have a snack planned to eat at some point, to say nothing about dinner. What do you mean "What if I get hungry?" You wait a little, and then you eat your next meal.

So yesterday I was hungry. So what? I truly enjoyed my next meal! A little hunger is not a problem, honest. A big hunger needs a little thought. Is this a one off, are you eating enough, are you eating too many carbs, which make you hungry. Ketosis suppresses hunger, could you try ketosis. Or just go with it for a couple of days. Does it go away again, or are you always hungry? Live with it for a little, and then make adjustments. Don't panic. A little hunger is fine. A regular big hunger may need a tweak or two to the diet.

As an endnote, there is a great diet out there, called the 'No S Diet', or grannies diet. No sweets, no snacks, no seconds. You can find it here . It may be worth a look if you are struggling with eating all the time. And take a look at the forums....see how many people are scared of getting hungry, even though, on the No S Diet you can eat whatever you want 3 times a day. Think about this. When you actually start looking at it, it is quite weird. Yes, we need to be afraid of starvation, it is a survival thing, it's hardwired into our genes, but we don't need to be afraid of a little hunger.