My second appointment with Dr Zermati was yesterday. I arrived very late after forgetting my food diary, here is a subconsciously deliberate mistake. But in the end, my diary and I, we were there.
I was a bit scared, for I am used to medical reprimands on my meals that are according to me rather modest and healthy but seem to actually be, for every nutritionist, an example of orgy not be followed
You can imagine my surprise when I realised that the only interesting part of the diary for mister Zermati is the one where I describe how I feel before, during and after sex meals.
He didn’t need a long time to conclude: I eat too often without being hungry and battle to stop eating once I start.
Good news, according to him.
Because, so it seems, if we manage to get rid of all the food eaten for whatever reasons except hunger, I will necessarily lose weight.
OK, but how?
Through learning again to feel hungry.
Right, for me honestly, I know very well how it feels to have the munchies. In fact it happens to me often. So, he must have seen on my face that I was slightly skeptical.
Except that when he talks about hunger, it is not exactly what I mean by starving. Let’s say it is a bit the same with everything that implies effort, suffering, stamina. I don’t use the same scale as everyone else. A rather low tolerance threshold, you could kindly say. That is why now, no more messing around, we are talking about being hungry, really hungry.
Let me explain.
For the next four days, I will engage in a little experiment. Namely, skip breakfast, leave to work with a snack of whichever nature (basically I can choose two croissants, biscuits or yogurt drink, it matters little to him) and eat it only when I am really hungry.
“The issue is when I wake up I am famished.”
“Well, you’ll wait a bit anyway. In your mind, how long will it take for you to be VERY hungry?”
Short hesitation, time to realise « ten minutes » is most probably a wrong answer.
« …Hum… one hour? »
Slightly desperate look from the doctor who understands he is facing a tough case (=limit hopeless).
Self-control from that guy who’s seen a few things in his life and answer from a health professional. “No, you will not be very hungry, it is after three, four hours maybe, that you will really feel it”.
Right, the idea is yet not to faint, so he explained afterwards. But the rough idea is to wait for hunger to be unpleasant and almost painful before having the snack. Why? Because, and that is the interesting part according to me, because when you’re hungry you don’t put on weight.
When you’re hungry you don’t put on weight.
I know I just repeated the same sentence. But it is a bit as if The Mysterious Cities of Gold were revealed to me, you see. All in all, what Dr Zermati says without hesitation, is that what is swallowed when your body complains of hunger can’t be turned into fat since it will be used to fuel the engine.
Even better, he assures that it is easier to feel satiety when you are really hungry.
In short, during four days, I must manage to postpone my first meal in order to start eating only when I’ll need it physically. And go on with the same idea for the rest of the day.
This exercise has a small drawback: I’ll be staggered all the time and might eat a croissant while my colleagues have a steak. At the same time it is only for four days, which will include a week-end. I’ll just have to explain to my kids that all I ever said about obligation to eat at a table and at fixed hours was nonsense. I’ll pay for it, for sure.
But I have to admit that this idea of rebooting my organism, starting from scratch and finally feeding like a newborn (babies scream when they are hungry because their stomach twists and it really hurts), is delighting.
On top of that, no food restriction, because, anyway, you don’t put on weight when you’re hungry (I mentioned it already? Reallyyyyyyyyy?). Nor with a slice of custard tart neither with a plate of green beans. One last thing, even if during these four days I don’t manage to stop when I am full, not a big deal. Because waiting until I starve again to start the next meal will allow me to burn the extra calories.
I know, it sounds almost too good to be true. But in my opinion, it is less cool than I think and I could very well be crying for my breakfast tomorrow at 9AM. And at the end of the day, the goal still is to eat less, I believe that’s why it didn’t work up to now, I mainly focused on the “eat everything” part…
There you go, I hope it’s not too long, I don’t want to bore you with this therapy stuff. So tell me if you want me to continue giving feedback or if we go back to down to earth subject like, for Christ’s sake, the fact that I have cowboy boots AND a leopard print scarf in my wardrobe, which makes me an almost fashionista if I believe the last Elle about accessories. I think I should create a blog, shouldn’t I?
Edit: the picture is of a tiny bakery in Bastia in which I bought the best Fiadone of all times. I wish it was my snack…
