Day 12 ties closely with Day 11.
Beck asks the reader to do an experiment to experience and tolerate hunger. The point is for the reader to realise that nothing bad will happen if we forestall eating when we are hungry. We are not going to starve to death if we have to wait a few hours to eat.
She warns not do this experiment if you have a medical condition.
I have Type II diabetes. Not eating for more than 5 hours or so will make me physically ill. It will mean eating or drinking something to bring my blood sugar up quickly. It will mean feeling uncomfortable, out of sorts, ill-tempered and miserable for several hours while my blood sugar regulates itself. I am not insulin dependent – so it’s not a life or death thing for me – but it is definitely not something I’m going to do as an “experiment”. I’ve done it enough times accidentally to know the outcome. Often, I feel the effects of low blood sugar (short temper, light headed, nauseated, weak) before I feel hunger.
I think I understand the reasoning behind the experiment, and Marisa at Loser for Life wrote about this very concept in a recent post and did an excellent job. I think she explains it better than Beck did so, if you’re interested, please head on over and read her post.
I realised that the last two posts I didn’t give myself credit. It is so easy to forget to do it!
So over the last few days, I’m giving myself credit for:
- Tracking everything I ate.
- Remembering to take all my vitamins/meds.
- Reading The Beck Diet Solution every day.
- Spontaneous exercise for the last two days.
I get that same feeling, I get nauseaus, headaches, and just feel out of it, and then I end up drinking OJ or eat something sweet and within an hour or two I'm ok again. My Mom always tells me to have it checked out, but all bloodwork is fine whenever I do, and I've never had anyone test me throughout an entire day, only fasting in the morning. I even went and bought a testing meter and ouch, those strips are soooo expensive, I didn't realise just how expensive! wow!
ReplyDeleteGood for the credit, we all need it!
And you're are doing so amazingly well with this book! Proud of ya! x
Good choice not to do the experiment. I can handle hunger now but it wasn't always that way. But you're right, no one should do anything on this journey that will compromise their health.
ReplyDelete