Thankful for hunger?

Well, not extreme levels of hunger. Just the everyday, normal hunger.

One trick to avoid mindless eating is to pay close attention to when you're full. But one can also recognize that it won't be very long before hunger will strike again.

Eating more when you're already feeling full isn't that pleasant. How unfortunate if we always felt full and never fully experienced the anticipation of satiety.

This may be something to remember when you know you're feeling like you've had enough, but another part of you wants to keep going. To step back from it, and remember that soon your hunger will be a kind of blessing, increasing the enjoyment of the food you will eat in the future.

The things we lack in our lives add depth, shadow, and dimension. Without hunger there can be no true satisfaction.

Memories of healthy choices

When you eat a healthy salad, or some other nutritious choice, try not to dwell for the next few hours on how few calories you consumed. For one, it may not have been that few calories, depending on the dressing.

But even if it was low-calorie, there's a danger in being "proud" of yourself for the way you limited yourself. Because it's not necessarily your whole self that feels this way. Part of you will feel deprived, and craving for sweets or other "feel-good" foods.

Better instead to dwell on the way that the salad nourishes you. Think of the vitamins and minerals that dark-leafed lettuce, for example, provides. Imagine how your body is responding to having these good things. Not that you'll know exactly how any given ingredient factors into your overall feeling, but envisioning a positive response will go a long way toward feeling good about the healthy choice you made, and not so conflicted.

Going on about tea again

I already did a post about tea, and wondered "is it reasonable to write another post about tea?", but then I realized a) pretty much no one reads this and b) I haven't written in a while and c) who is this blog for if not myself?

This morning starts the first day of Lent, during which I am pulling back from the creeping menace of sugar. I haven't gained weight lately, but I've definitely been eating more sugar than is healthy, and have been feeling the effects.

I felt good about my choice last night - had no qualms about eating plain oatmeal or plain bread w/ butter. Then this morning came and I realized the way the habit of eating something sweet is so pernicious that it can take over your thought processes. I mean, I know I decided on "no brown sugar on my oatmeal", but did that also mean I shouldn't have sweetened yogurt? In some ways, the gratitude diet plan makes things easier b/c it makes you start from the ground up, even as that "first day" threatens to feel so "depriving:.

Anyway, all that angst-ing about whether or not to repeat the "tea" topic and I haven't even mentioned it. Well, I felt so very grateful for spearmint tea this morning. Because it gave me the sweetness I felt like I needed, and felt genuinely satisfying. My other tea choice is a cinnamon-licorice root type thing, which is also very sweet, considering it has no sugar.

Then I read something recently about licorice root having some potential side effects, and I was like "noooooooo". But here's to recognizing that nothing is perfect or simple, but finding way to savor the sweetness of things anyway.

This is a great article

http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/blog/top-5-things-to-do-instead-of-lose-weight-in-2017/

Especially advice #1: EAT WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT, WHATEVER MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD AND SATIATED.

I like how it discussed fresh, clean water as both a blessing and a right.

This is a positive, healthy attitude about food.