Do you remember the first time you asked yourself this question?
I do. The first time I remember asking myself this question when as an 11-yr-old. I was on my first diet (I think it was my first anyway) – SlimFast. I remember that at first, I found the shakes really filling… kinda sickeningly filling. But, after a few weeks, one shake for a meal left me very hungry… and I wondered how I was broken that this was happening to me. I wanted so much to be thinner…
It is interesting to me that the first time I can remember asking myself why I was STILL hungry was during a diet… SlimFast no less. Of course, I was still hungry! SlimFast simply doesn’t have all the nutrients a person needs. I could’ve eaten 5,000 calories of the stuff a day and I still would’ve felt hungry, cuz I still would’ve been missing crucial nutrients. Oh yes, you can “overeat” and be malnourished at the same time.
When I think back to most of the times I wanted to know why I was still hungry, I was restricting.
When I think back to the periods I spent binging, I also remember quite clearly that I was malnourished – even if at that time I was overeating … and I still was horrified that even as I was sickeningly full from a binge that I was still so hungry. Gee… Could all the time I tried to force myself to live on fruit have anything to do with being malnourished. It seems to strange to me that I couldn’t see this back then… to me, this just underlines the fact that eating disorders are mental illnesses – though I would guess that people who aren’t ed’d also experience this sometimes.
I’ve learned that the question, “why am I still hungry?”, isn’t a sign that there is something wrong with me. It’s just a sign I need more of some kinda nourishment.
So, Rainbows: When is the first time you can remember asking yourself why you were still hungry after you ate? What did those experiences teach you?
–AngryGrayRainbows
Angry Gray Rainbows 
The first time I felt hungry after I ate was when I was probably 11 or 12 myself. My dad had decided my brother and are were “too fat” and during our custodial weekend visits he was going to forcibly restrict us. I’d eating a half bowl of plain popcorn with only a little salt and he said that was a healthy snack that should fill me up. Only…it didn’t, of course.
Isn’t the “should” word funny. That snack “should” have filled you up. Should as measured by what?? The body is such a complex organism. Maybe what you really needed was dairy or carrots or bread or (god forbid!) chocolate.
I think that in many areas of our lives, “should” should be banned. LOL… “should be banned”. Ought to be banned? Could be productively banned with healthy results?
I like your post about the word “should.” I think it should be abandoned too.