I’m not saying I’m predictable, but most days somewhere around 11am you’ll hear me muttering at my desk about the fact that I’m starving. It’s a word so baked into the flippant fabric of first world language that it’s accepted for use in the ‘I’m a bit peckish and could definitely eat something’ situation but you know when I really think about it, I’m not sure there are many times in my life when I’ve even crossed the line from peckish to hungry.
My 11am declaration is usually more accurately interpreted as it’s at least two hours since I’ve chewed something so just in case there’s a hunger pang formulating somewhere, I’d better take action now in order to avert disaster. As I sit here in my kitchen typing this, thinking about my desk in the office at work I can even visualise my emergency stash – a box of teabags, a plastic box with crackers in it, some salad cream, some mayo, some Aromat, half a punnet of grapes and a tin of almonds. I’m not sure I could tell you from memory where my hole punch is, but if you needed a cracker quickly I could definitely deliver.
It’s almost like I’m scared to find myself in a situation where I don’t have ready access to food. Given that I work in an environment where two sandwich vans visit daily, there’s a fully stocked shop just around the corner, a vending machine down the corridor and a trading team upstairs who have a never ending stream of samples available, in the unlikely event that a hunger pang did manage to make it through, it wouldn’t exactly be the end of life as I know it.
Which begs the question, why am I so reluctant to allow myself to feel hungry? That’s surely the cue which most normal people look out for when they’re deciding whether to eat or not. And it’s not like we’re up against the clock as soon as a hunger pang strikes…you know, like you have thirty seconds to eat something or you’ll implode and the world will stop spinning. Hunger pangs aren’t painful, not unless we’re talking the kind of belly hunger that most of won’t ever experience.
I’m not sure that feeling hungry has ever been the number one reason why I eat. If I had to call out the number one reason I’d be hard pushed to decide between habit, and boredom. I think habit might have it by a nose…the first thing I think about when I get in from work for example, is what’s for supper. And often in the past if I’ve grazed my way through the afternoon I’ve probably not even been hungry at that point…but I do associate walking through the door with preparing and eating food.
So, prepare it, but leave it until I’m hungry then..? No, epic fail on that front too…if it’s there and ready to be eaten, I’ll eat it. Where food is there, whether I’m hungry or not, I’ll eat. Even now, when I’m in the sweet spot and my resolve to stay within budget is stronger than I can ever remember, I’ll eat. Those occasional catered lunches at work..? I’m still going in for the kill whether I’m hungry or not. It’s there, it’s got my name all over it, and I’m in there with my plate as though my life depends on it.
So…that’s head hunger rather than belly hunger, right…? I’m sensing work to do, in understanding the difference 🙂
