ARE YOU ACTUALLY HUNGRY?

As Day 1 winds down, I am reminded again why this is hard for me. Many days, really most days, I have been eating one, large, heavy (ie lots of carbs) meal in the evening and that's about it. I am also bad at only drinking anything with that meal and nothing else during the day.

I know many people wish they had more points but I actually struggle the other way. It is almost 9pm and I have 1/2 of my daily points left (22 points)!

I did get up late and essentially missed a meal there but this is a habit I really have to break. When I was attending meetings in NZ I would frequently have 10-15 points leftover in a day so this isn't a new thing.

I had a nice dinner - the 13 Bean Turkey Chili (10pts) I made earlier (lots of protein) and a fresh salad (0pts) with spinach, cucumber, carrots, tomato, cottage cheese, bacon bits and McCormicks seasoning.  I use a mix of Lemon juice and Worchestershire sauce as my dressing.  

And I'm not hungry.  But for me, and I think most people, there are 3 types of hunger.

BRAIN HUNGER - You are thinking about food. You know you have points left. Your brain is engaged in the food cycle but 90% of the time you are not actually hungry.

MOUTH HUNGER - You are craving the taste or texture of a certain food. You want to eat it, not because you are hungry but because it satisfies your tongue (and often your brain hunger)

STOMACH HUNGER - You are actually hungry. You need to refuel and may be displaying other signs such as lethargy, trouble concentrating, stomach growling...

So looking at my tracker, it makes no sense for me to eat 22 points of food this late at night especially when I am not hungry.

I'm not a big sweet fan anyway so it isn't like I am craving that last late night snack like ice cream either.

My metabolism has been flat for so long, I have to remember to keep poking it along and break the bad habit.

I am going to go do prep for tomorrow and then rest with my doggies. We'll do 3 meals tomorrow and aim for only a handful of points left.