THE HUNGER

I am obsessed with the idea of being hungry.  I was born in 1972, the dawning of the age of microwave, TV dinners, coca cola and twinkies.  I have always gone to grocery stores with food aisles stocked with EVERYTHING you can imagine.  Fresh foods from all over the world, grapes from Chile, blueberries from Maine, oranges from Florida!  Pretty amazing if you really think about it, yet I am obsessed the topic of hunger.

I have read books about the potato famine in Ireland, when people only had rotten potatoes to eat, WWII stories, fiction and non, about prisoners of war being starved and worked to death or almost to death and the same with stories about the Jews in camps.  Some of my favorite stories have to do with world annihilation, what happens when Publix isn’t right down the street anymore? People are eating dogs or other unmentionable things to survive, even killing each other over the prospect of a good meal.

I know this makes me sound nutty and maybe I am a little bit! 

I can be “hungry” 30 minutes after eating a healthy, nutritious dinner, and besides the fact that I am a human machine, packed with muscle – what the heck is that feeling?  I can’t be hungry, not like the people in the books I read.  What is REAL hunger like?  Not knowing when you are going to eat next?  I have no idea how that feels.  Probably the longest I ever went without food was when I was “in labor” with my son 17 years ago.  Ask my husband, after 18 hours of ice chips I was hallucinating that he was eating a twinkie.  Anyone who knows Damon KNOWS a twinkie is not on the menu for him!   I couldn’t imagine going hungry for a day or longer.  The THOUGHT of fasting makes me feel dizzy.

However, what about being more conscious of that feeling?  What I mean is really thinking about the feeling before running to the fridge or cupboard or ice cream store.  What IS that feeling if you just ate?  Is it boredom?  Loneliness?  I challenge you to hang out with your hunger sometime.  Sit with it, ask it, “what the heck?”  Journal about how it really feels.  What is the feeling?  You may learn something about yourself.  It might bring you to an understanding about some of the challenges you have with your weight loss goals.  It may inspire you to do something that you have missed doing, enjoying a sunset, painting a picture, reaching out to a friend.  Feed the hunger with action!

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