I’m in hard core calorie counting mode at the moment; I’ve set some goals for myself and am planning on getting myself where I would prefer to be by our summer missions’ trips.  Apparently this is a battle I’ll be losing and winning for the rest of my life!  Which brings me to the point of this post: there are two types of hunger we experience – genuine physical need and unnecessary cravings.

Thursday night I had a serious bout of cravings.  I knew I wasn’t physically hungry – there were no feelings of need in my gut, if that makes sense.  I wanted to snack desperately, it was all I was thinking about – but I knew I had eaten approximately 2000 calories that day (my daily goal), I knew my body wasn’t hungry, just my mind (yes, I’m an emotional eater – I was stressed).  So I recognized it for what it was, an unhealthy craving, told myself I just needed to power it out until I was in bed and then I’d eat in the morning.

Friday morning was a different story, however. I had Kashi oatmeal (great source of whole grains and fiber) and a banana.  That totaled 425 calories, which was kind of low (I usually shoot for 500 at breakfast), but I thought it would be enough.  Fifteen minutes, I was still hungry – it takes the stomach 5-10 minutes to get the message to the brain that it’s full, so I knew I was still physically hungry.  So I ate a 140 calorie Fiber One granola bar which did the trick.

Dieting doesn’t mean I need to be physically hungry.  It’s all about finding lower calorie options that fill me up and keep me feeling satisfied while still staying at my calorie goals so I can lose weight.  The trick is knowing my body well enough to distinguish between the two types of hunger and respond correctly.

And yes, that’s the Yo Gabba Gabba video for the ‘Party in my tummy’ song!  It’s kinda bizarre yet oddly fascinating!