Re: controlling hunger with distractions

[Guest guest]

Goal seekers can delay food intake, esp when food becomes an

inconvenience. Food disrupts focus on the project at hand.

Eating is a pain... So disruptive!

Eating less really is more ... More time for you!

-- Warren

On 11 Jan 2004, Francesca wrote:

>

> ... If I get interested in something besides eating ...

> [hunger] gets " submerged " .

> ... sat down at the computer ... was able to completely forget

> about my hunger ... keep [this tool] in my arsenal of weapons

> to defeat hunger...

Excellent title: " Controlling Hunger with Distractions " .

[Guest guest]

I've noticed that I can have pretty severe hunger pangs, but if I get

interested in something besides eating that it gets " submerged " . For

example, I was very hungry about an hour ago, but sat down at the

computer to do some work. It was not til later that I realized I was

able to completely forget about my hunger and instead had been

concentrating on the task I was doing at the computer.

Of course this only goes so far and if one goes long enough without

eating, the hunger eventually takes over . But it's a tool that I

don't use often enough and need to remember to keep in my arsenal of

weapons to defeat hunger for a couple of hours at a time.

*****Thanks for the helpful suggestion Francesca. I think what you

discovered about the apparent " truth value " of hunger is valid.

Going even further, one might not only consider " controlling hunger

with distractions " but that hunger, *itself*, is often a distraction -

- from something we don't wont to deal with or feel an irrepressable

need to avoid.

People often use food to " medicate " themselves. Since the original

issue isn't about hunger, but about something else, they ultimately

find that such an approach doesn't work. Then they try even harder,

eat more, gain more weight, and never realize that the tactic they

employed (eating food) was not " answering " the original question

(i.e., " what am I upset about " or " what is it I don't want to see or

feel a need to avoid confronting? " ). It can become a vicious cycle

until it is seen, since the eating more produces more weight gain and

that usually only adds to the upset. Sometimes I'm amazed at what we

humans do to ourselves! :-)))