Ask These Guys

When my doctor told me I need to shed a few pounds to meet my healthy target weight range, I thought the worst thing is I’ll lose a few pounds. But you know what? The hunger was - although not unbearable- really uncomfortable. After all, our primitive human brains are trained to dislike hunger. What’s the point of working hard if we are going to be compensated by feeling hungry? Right?

Well, I’d like to share a few tips of mine that helped pull me through. (I’ve hit my target, hooray)

1. Water - drink lots of it. If water tastes bad, you should consider getting a water filter or water purifier. Avoid iced-teas - they are loaded with sugar. Another way is to to squeeze a little bit of fresh lemon, or orange. Don’t sugar it, but just to give your water a “twist” of flavour. Make sure you have a glass of water handy to your work desk, and that will calm you down from foraging for snacks.

2. If you work in a workplace where temptations abound, like snack machines, coke machines. Decide at night before you go to bed that you don’t want to buy those things anymore, and then work on the resolve by bringing the exact change you need to go to work. Leave the rest of your money at home. To avoid feeling hungry and having to borrow from your buddies, bring water (see tip #1)

3. Condition yourself that it’s OK to feel a little hungry half the time. After all, we can’t go along feeling full between meals.

4. Go for high bulk, low calorie foods. I’d like to share with you this tidbit. You can’t eat enough fruit to put on weight. Fruits have so much fibre and water in them that you will feel so full, yet they have very low energy density. If you’re hungry after a meal, cut yourself some fruits. As much as you like. Besides, your skin will be radiant and you’ll take years off your age.

5. Sleep more. Researchers have shown that people who sleep more are able to get by with eating less. This is very much similar to how bears can go into hibernation without eating for months. I noticed recently that when I had to stay up late working, I feel a lot hungrier throughout the day. TV is a major robber of sleep. By just being aware that the tube is robbing you of your sleep time, and making you hungry and then snack all day, you’d have made a major step in reducing your weight.

Of course you can turn to medication, or even surgery, like the silastic gastric ring. None of the suggestions I made steal your time, or your money, or require painful procedures.

Chui Tey is resides in Australia, and runs an online Australian Aborigine Art exhibition.