Difference between Hunger, Desire, and Cravings and Prove you Can Tolerate Hunger and Cravings:
Since the workbook exercises are review for me, I’ve decided to ‘do what I know how to do’ as I work through each day’s exercise from this point on. What this means is that I will be doing one day at a time, after today, by doing my evening review and planning session for the next day. Day 12 is my least favorite exercise. I have been afraid of hunger. I get the ‘shakes’ easily when I skip a meal. Oh, well. It’s just one day, & I’ll have a dinner I like. Besides, I’ve not cleared my system (that 3 day period it takes for the body to ‘panic’ about not having food), and haven’t officially restarted my diet, so I’ll probably sail through the exercise this time. Last time I made it 5 hours. (This time I made it 6 hours.)
Also, last summer I made a chart to go with this exercise. This is adapted from Judith Beck’s definitions, but I added “addiction” because sometimes I go ‘mindless’ and it gets past the Craving stage:
Hunger: haven’t eaten for many hours, specific body sensations (empty sensation in stomach, rumblings…anything will satisfy me)
Desire: just eaten but want to eat more, social or time response eating (specific thing sounds good)
Craving: strong urge to eat, tension and unpleasant physical yearning sensation (only xxx will do)
Addiction: anxiety + poor boundaries (unable/unwilling to restrict, unwilling to delay gratification; fear based eating; nothing will stop me from getting xxx to eat)
What I observed: At first, I was more aware of being thirsty rather than hungry. My craving will usually be for chocolate (sugar & chololate = 3 Musketeers), and will usually hit after 3pm if my protein intake has not been good for the day. I was aware of noon as a time to eat, by the clock. I didn’t really want to eat, I was just aware of the time. Around 3pm I experienced moderate hunger and a strong craving. I exercised and the craving lessened, but the hunger did not. By 4pm I started getting the shakes so it was the end of the exercise. One thing I learned is that sometimes I have a desire AND hunger, which can pull me off my plan of what I had intended to eat. If I can separate the desire for a specific thing to eat from hunger, then I will probably be more successful.
