You’ve heard of The Hunger Games, well today was one of my: Hungry Days! What a challenging day it was for me. Ever have one of those? I’m a teacher, and we had professional development, and these days are famous for snacking. Here are some of the pictures of snacks people all around me were eating:

I’m working on how to gauge my hunger, is it external or internal?  It’s pretty simple it goes like this: something from the world around you e.g. stress or food aromas are triggering a hunger sensation (external).  Or, your stomach is empty and you’re actually hungry for lack of food (internal). Here take a look at my notebook:

So here the blow-by-blow for my day:

• 09:10: I ate my yogurt and some grapes. I had not eaten since yesterday (internal)
• 10:15: I checked my phone to see if it was getting close to lunch as cakes and cinnamon buns were being passed around.. Seriously, it was then that I knew this was going to be a hard day (external)
• 10:30: I started eating vegetables, and nuts, and drinking water from my lunch bag. I have eaten 3sp so far and I’m still hungry (internal)

• 11:15: Candy was being passed around and instead of eating it I took food pictures. My friend told me that, “if you take a dark chocolate at least it’s healthy for you.” So, of course, I took one, as you can see it in the background (external)
• 12:00: Lunchtime and I did my best to eat slowly.  In total, I had eaten 14sp by the end of lunch and I was satisfied (internal)

I had some running around to do after work, and by the time I got home I was hungry it was after 7:00 PM (internal).  I was strategic about dinner, I made turkey chili. This is a quick and easy meal to make. It’s a perfect solution after a long day at work:

At the end of the day, I still have my little piece of Lindt Dark Chocolate. If I elected to have it it would be 4sp. Who would think that a little piece of chocolate could be a source of empowerment? Strangely for me, it is – it doesn’t really matter if I eat it or not. What matters is my resolve is stronger than chocolate…