I was surprised I lost weight this week! There was a family crisis, and in the midst of trips to and from hospital, missed sleep, etc, I didn’t keep track of what I was eating. I still lost 0.8kg.
What happened? Well, something quite amazing. All of my thin friends know when they’re hungry, and when they’ve had enough to eat. I’ve never been good at that.
I realized the other day, that I do know when I’ve had enough to eat. I was at McDonalds. (It’s next door to my son’s school, so I go there for a coffee and read the newspaper while I wait for him on the days I need to pick him up.) I hadn’t had afternoon tea, and they had gluten-free friands, so I bought one to go with my McCafe coffee. About half-way through eating it I realised two things: firstly I wasn’t enjoying it and secondly I wasn’t hungry anyway. I put down the fork and left the rest of the cake.
Since then, I’ve been able to tell when I’ve had enough to eat and to stop eating. Sometimes that means “wasting food” ie throwing out some of what I had on my plate. As a kid I would have been in endless trouble for “wasting food” – the same parents who always picked on me for being fat would have been outraged if I didn’t finish everything on my plate! (Food was hard to come by after all.)
I’m very excited about this new skill. It leaves me some hope that a day will come when I don’t have to constantly count calories, and watch every mouthful of food.
Of course, habits are hard to change – and going back can be quite easy. I suspect that if I over-ate a few times, I could easily lose the ability to tell when I’ve had enough.