Category: Resources

There is a particular noodle dish that I liked, but restaurants always served too many noodles and too much broth. I could never finish all of it. And I always felt full after eating about half of the serving, but I never stopped there. I always kept on eating, one more bite, then another. Eventually, I would get to the point of actual bursting and I couldn’t eat another bite. But even though I had already figured out that I was full about ten bites before that, and even though I was having a conversation in my head about the fact that I was full and should stop eating, I could not stop eating.

I eat my portion of food and it is enough. I never get that feeling of being too full, and I don’t have to try to apply the brakes in the middle of a meal.

I suffer from terrible migraines. I don’t know what causes them, but I have had them all my life. At various times in my life, I have been told that they could be caused by cheese, chocolate, yoghurt, nuts, mangoes, coffee, and a whole host of other things. If a food was identified as a possible trigger, I would try to avoid it, but I was completely incapable of avoiding certain foods. Chocolate, for example, was non-negotiable. Also cheese. I could not give up chocolate for even a short time. I am pretty sure that if my doctor told me I had to stop eating chocolate or I would die, I couldn’t have done it. I would have just accepted death by chocolate as my fate.

I have not eaten chocolate in nine months.

I would eat because it was time to eat. Because I was tired. Because I was bored. Because I was mad. Because I was sad. Because I missed my bus. Because someone said something to me that I didn’t like. Because I was happy. Because I felt insecure. Because I bought a certain food and couldn’t wait to eat it. Because someone bought food for me, so I had to eat it. Because I was watching TV. Because I had a headache. Because I was hot.

I am not sure I even knew what actual hunger felt like.

I eat when it is time to eat, which is at three set windows of time per day for breakfast, lunch, and supper, and I don’t eat at any other times.

This might sound impossible, and it certainly was for me in the past, but that is how I eat now, and I am happy about it. The best bit is that I feel satisfied and can move on with my day without obsessing about food all the time.