Hunger and Appetite...Fight them?

I like to eat. And, I like to eat for more reasons than because it satisfies my hunger. I am a social eater, a celebration eater, a dessert eater, and yes, I like junk too. Sounds like eaters anonymous or something. I wish, sometimes, that I was one of those people who just eat to live. But, I'm not. That probably won't change and I don't think it's realistic for me to try to change that right now. So, I just have to figure out strategies to make sure I don't make every social event, every celebration, every dull, tired or sad moment an eating event.

By 4pm yesterday, I was starving. My stomach was growling and there's one thing I've learned about myself, if my stomach is growling, I tend to act like a bear. I get grumpy. But, the problem was that I had all ready eaten 1400 of my 1800-2200 calories for the day and I wanted to wait until dinner. Well, then we decided we were going to go to the maze and pumpkin patch before dinner. At that point, I realized that I needed to listen to my hunger. Hunger is a physical signal that we need food. I almost stuck my hand in the Triscuits box, but then my mind told me that a South Beach protein bar might keep me satisfied longer. I had all ready tried a carrot and some popcorn 30 minutes earlier and it didn't get me far.

Appetite on the other hand is a whole other animal. Fighting hunger might not be the best fight to fight, but fighting appetite is a worthy cause (even if I hate it.)
At 9:30pm last night, I really wanted a snack. Ok, it was a cupcake. Was my stomach growling? Nope. It's just that my dear friend brought cupcakes and there were two of them sitting on our counter and they looked really good. There they were, with great looking frosting and pretty little sprinkles. I was tired, the kids were in bed and it just seemed like the perfect end to a good evening. As I promised myself in a previous post, I would let the food cross my mind before it crossed my lips. I thought about it for a bit (ok, maybe it was a lot longer than a bit...it was actually annoying me) and then decided I better not think about it any more. I laid down on the couch, realizing I was tired and decided to let this appetite pass. I did it. I won the fight this time. Trust me, sometimes my appetite wins. You don't just have 10 extra pounds to lose by winning the appetite fight all of the time!

I think if I can distinguish between the difference between hunger and appetite all of the time, it'd be helpful to reach my goals and stay there. I think if I made conscious choices to let myself get hungry (but not TOO hungry) before a social event, then maybe eating and socializing can be a good match. It's all about awareness and not shutting down the mind when we get hungry. Trust me, there's been plenty of times that my stomach is TOO hungry and my hands and mouth just go on autopilot and my mind doesn't even have a chance to catch up. I'll save that for a different post.