Day 6
This is Thom.  Today was a challenge but I pulled through! The nice thing is that I think my body is starting to adjust to the lower calories and smaller portions. The only time I really felt hungry was right after my "Lean and Green" lunch. I ate a chicken salad with a large amount of romaine lettuce and spinach, plus some tiny tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil. Is it just me or do vegetables make other people hungrier after eating them? I swear that's the case for me. Give me two slices of toast and I'm feeling ok; give me 5 lbs of lettuce and I feel like Roto-Rooter just went to town in my stomach. The feeling might have been exacerbated by the fact that our team had a pretty major software launch recently and to celebrate they bought huge pizzas from The Pie and a large box of fresh-made cookies. It all smelled so good.

Fortunately, I had already decided that I was NOT going to eat anything there and went to my office cafeteria and created my now standard lunch. I ate it while everyone around me ate incredible pizza. I'm not going to lie, it looked and smelled very good. But, I had a plan and I stuck to it. I had to step back from my desire to eat and realize that this was just a moment, and the moment would be over soon, and then it would make way for the next moment. That moment could include the lingering taste of pizza breath, a satisfied tummy, a lethargic feeling, slightly tighter pants, and disappointment, OR a vegetable hungry tummy, spinach breath (which doesn't seem to last as long as pizza breath), a lighter more energized feeling, and slightly looser pants. Once I saw the outcome from this moment, it became easier to choose which moment I wanted to experience next.

 Aside from my veggie hunger, which eventually passed, I felt pretty good on the hunger scale. I'd say if a 1 = the level of hunger right after Thanksgiving dinner and pie and 10 = the level of hunger after a few days of fasting, I'd say I averaged about a 4.8. Hungry enough to probably down a Whopper without pausing, but satisfied enough that I didn't feel hangry or deprived.  I image that might be where most healthy people stay.  I'm not sure though. I'll ask around.

I just said no to this