The Eyes Have It...

Note to self:  let your stomach tell you how much food you can eat--not your eyes!  Wednesday night, I had Chinese food for dinner.  It was the first time I've had Chinese since the surgery.  It tasted good to me--perhaps a little *too* good.

I ate ONE piece of chicken more than I should have.  That's all.  One piece.  A cube about an inch in length made me feel just terrible.  I should have stopped.  I had determined as best I could--I am getting better at it--what a portion size was for my new tummy.  And then I set out to eat that portion.  And did so.  It was delicious--the sauce was delicious--it was exactly what I wanted.  And I should have stopped.

But I didn't.  I had to pop that last piece of chicken in my mouth--and once again, *habit* beat out *hunger*.  I thought that I needed that last piece, so I ate it.  And almost immediately regretted it.  I had an almost-instant stomachache.  I felt queasy within seconds.  With that one little chunk of chicken, I overate.

This is new to me still.  I have to learn to listen to my body after years of *not* doing so.  How many times have you eaten that "one last bite"?  How many times have you continued to eat because your eyes were hungry or because of habit?  That bloated, uncomfortable feeling is never good--but it's far worse now that my stomach is the size of an egg.  I'm hoping that this is a lesson I'll learn rather quickly because I felt terrible last night.  Perhaps you can learn with me, and from time to time, we can remind each other to eat with our stomachs--not with our eyes!