Hunger at bedtime

Last night I sat in bed playing Scrabble on my iPad before turning off the reading light.  It's a nightly ritual that helps me unwind and quiet my mind so I can effortlessly drift off to sleep.  Hubby was already lying down with eyes closed and reading light off. 

Suddenly.....GROWOWOWLLLLLLLLL.

"What's that?" he said, thinking one of the dogs on our feet is having a nightmare.

"It's my stomach," I replied, relishing a secret delight in the sound.

"You okay?"  he asked.

"Yup."  Why was I so smugly gleeful?  Because I knew I'd taken care of myself, had made it through the evening without ingesting any 6,000-calorie "snacks," and would promptly fall asleep with clear conscience and a calm gut.  Plus...I would awaken in the morning feeling refreshed (without a food hangover), energized, and prepared to see happy numbers when I stepped on the scale .

One of my favorite Bucket List Weight Loss concepts is #4:  "Hunger is good."  Hunger, however, is an acquired taste, like single-malt Scotch or craft beers (here I go again on alcohol...)  You have to learn what it is, what you're feeling and why, and what it can do for you.

If you're like me (and I already know you are), you feel different types of hunger at different times.  Here are my main types:

• #1. That acidy sensation of an "empty" stomach after a huge meal about six hours earlier.
• #2. The growly, truly hollow feeling of a stomach that doesn't have anything to do.
• #3. The "low blood sugar" feeling of light-headedness, sweating and mild nausea..

The only sensation I really feel obligated to acknowledge is the "low blood sugar."  There's a stark difference between feeling acidy or growly and feeling weak and light-headed.  I try to avoid getting to #3, because that's my body telling me I've waited a tad too long to nourish it, and I'd better give it something of value in a hurry to keep it functioning.

Learning to identify and react appropriately to hunger takes a lot of UN-learning of conditioned responses.  Throughout our lives we've practiced the philosophy of "eat when hungry."  Our mealtime lectures were about starving children in Africa.  Our Depression-era parents (many of whom experienced true deprivation hunger) wanted to protect us from ever feeling hunger.  As a result, our first response to a hunger sensation in our gut is "I gotta eat" or even "I get to eat now."  It's like a ringing phone or a clanging alarm clock.  It elicits a learned reaction from us, and we feel we need to do something about it immediately.

But when I'm all tucked in bed at 11pm, with cozy jammies, clean sheets, my husband, several dogs and an iPad, it's just way too much bother to disrupt them all, get up, go downstairs to the kitchen and "have a little something" to quell my #2 hunger.  Besides, the last thing my gut needs at this time of night is more food to process.  I know I'll sleep much better, and my gut will be more rested and refreshed, if I just turn off the light and get prone.

That's why I'm sitting here now at 6:30am in pre-dawn darkness.  Hubby and dogs all went back to bed after the 6am feeding; that's the ritual.  But I don't require any more sleep this morning because I went to bed hungry and actually rested my body all night.  And in a few minutes I'll go downstairs and weigh in on the Wii, expecting positive results.  What a great way to start the day!

Embrace your #1 and #2 hunger!  It means you're in control!!