Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fear of Hunger


There was a newspaper column in the San Francisco Examiner in June, 2009 that stated:

"An unscientific poll conducted in Roanoke, Virginia, indicates that many overweight and obese people have a fear of hunger. Observations locally confirm that a large percentage of obese and overweight people carry food with them to alleviate the first signs of hunger."

Cara Joyce on that June 30th piece went on to ask what is wrong with a little hunger. She completely misunderstood why hunger is so scary for some people.

I don't have to carry around food with me in case I get hungry, but should I get hungry there is a big danger of my overeating. I have to be prepared for it. I have to plan my meals so that I can be a little hungry but not reach a critical point where I grab something clearly meant to raise my sugar levels well above critical. Being classified as diabetic does not help either. It is easy in my house to avoid most sugar treats especially since I cannot eat gluten. That eliminates most cookies, cakes, donuts, and so on. However if I am out in the community I know of certain health food stores and grocery stores that carry gluten free treats. That is not good. I used to go to Starbucks because I could get a gluten free cake and just buy one. If I go to a health foods store I have to buy the whole box and you know where that leads. Then there is Cheetos. They have them in small 99cent bags. Not good too.

I went to the medical clinic and got training in how to use a meter or how to measure the sugar in my blood. It was interesting, but I can't use it yet because I don't have a special container to throw away the small needle pricks. California laws state I have to throw them away in special containers. They are sending me one from San Francisco. I did have to get weighed and lost one pound since last seeing my doctor. That is good. I did not register it as it is not the same scale I normally use. I will do that this Friday.

I was raised to fear my hunger pangs. I understand why and have written about this before. There is a reason why many people with childhood sexual and/or physical abuse identify with the Holocaust of the Nazis. I really don't have any plans to combat it other than to try and remain mindful. It is hard to do this before one's liver kicks in. When the liver kicks in, then the hunger becomes manageable although the shakes comes in. I start to lose concentration. The only way I can combat this is to eat regular meals. For instance, it is 11:30am and I am going to have a steak and veggies for lunch and will start fixing it soon. My hunger pangs are almost non-existent.

I wish there was something more that can be done. Having that not so smart article in the Examiner does not help those of us with a real problem. Maybe there is not real research on this issue. I could not find anything. Too many people with their "thin" bodies look for reasons to make other feel bad. They think all of us with overweight issues just have to exercise some discipline when this is not the case at all. They want to feel superior because they are afraid weight will creep up on their bodies. Weight fear is a real fear in this culture because of all of the prejudice against those who are "different".

Sometimes in these posts, I have solutions at the end of these posts. I don't have one here except to write about it. I wish I did. There has been advantages in being overweight and I have not suffered health wise for it, but I will if I don't get this weight off. It is a quest and I am learning a lot about myself as well as about others. That can't be all bad.

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