Am I Hungry?

That is a good question.  In the past I would automatically take that empty feeling in my stomach and say yes I am hungry.  But now that I have been eating more sensibly with my portion size.  I have come to realize that I was not hungry, my stomach was just empty.  There is a big difference between the two.  Now I can sense that it is empty but I do not NEED to have that XXXX (you can fill in the blank with whatever your current craving is).  I just now realize that yes it is empty and I will eat when I am hungry. 

That is not to say that I am starving myself.  Trust me that does not work for me.  When I wait so long that I am famished I get home off of the train and start eating with dinner and don't stop until I go to sleep.  And then I am wondering why I am overweight.

So I have come to realize that it is normal to have an empty stomach between meals.  I don't need to have the sensation of being full all of the time.  And if I do eat a snack now it is a piece of fruit (still can't get into carrots and humus) and I am good to go to the next meal.  This is compared to my previous snack at work which was a couple of pop tarts (time to sell your stock in Kellogg's, their sales are going down).