Is That My Stomach Growling???

My primary care provider told me I am carrying too much weight. This is a reality I have been living with for a couple of years. I have lost a substantial amount of weight before and as suggested by her I shouldn't reinvent the wheel but do what was successful before.

Here is where I throw a tantrum!

I don't want to do what I did before! I want to be like every body else who is able to eat an apple without gaining any weight!!!!!!! But the reality is that America is fatter than they have ever been and that girl who was able to stuff her face and not gain a pound is harder to find. Besides the fact that my body is just not like that...I am going to gain weight if I eat 1 to many apples let alone a bowl of chocolate.

So when I was in her office spouting the number of hours spent in exercise and the fact that I eat healthy whole foods...she quietly said I was eating too much...well shut up, which is what I did because what can one say to the truth!

So today although I am not going back to weighing and measuring every morsel, I am embarking on a journey to listen to the 2 parts of my body that have gotten me into this mess, my stomach and my brain. I am a habitual eater, healthy foods yes but my brain says to eat every 3 hours because she cannot stand the growling that goes on from my stomach. I can feel panic if I start to feel hungry. A gift from my parents who at different times in their lives starved. Of course I have never starved but carry on the family tradition as a good daughter should. And there is the fact that food means more to me than nourishment, it is love, pain, fear and contentment. My brain and stomach wage a war that takes no prisoners.

How to understand 2 vastly different entities (my brain and stomach) and their approach to food. It is like learning a foreign language. This week I have decided to eat when I am hungry and to eat only until I don't feel hungry not until I am full. A book I read called The Blue Zone states that in blue zones where people live a healthier longer life they eat only until they aren't hungry any more not until they feel full. This results in a 30% less calorie intake. That means I have to get my brain and my stomach to work together for the greater good.

I also have a feeling that my eyes are siding with either the brain or stomach depending on who is working in it's best interest...much like Switzerland. So I am going to eat half of what I normally do, which means I will make half a sandwich instead of a whole one, that way my stomach can learn to eat until I don't feel hungry not until I feel full. It is all very confusing too me but I am bound and determined to figure out who is talking to whom and how I ended up with this chocolate candy in my mouth!