Life Without Food Noise
In the general conversations about GLP-1s, people have been telling me about the feeling of food noise going away. I found this very fascinating because my food noise is so nonexistent, that it would never have occurred to me that it is a phenomenon for other people. That is, on the spectrum from “does not get food noise, ever” to “has food noise all the time” I am very much at the far end of the former.
I found it very interesting to read people’s detailed accounts of their experience. I thought I would write a note about what it is like to live without food noise as part of that conversation.
I wake up in the morning. On a completely normal day, I am not hungry at all, and not thinking about food. If there is a free hotel breakfast, or somebody is making breakfast, I would have some, but I would try to go on a walk outside first if it is possible, because otherwise eating right after waking up usually feels pretty bad to me, digestively speaking. I can generally get myself to eat 30 minutes after waking up if I have to. If I am hungover, or did not eat much the day before, or something unusual is happening I might be starving. But generally, I am either not thinking about food at all, or I am completely starving and need food basically immediately (probably needed food during sleep for some process and would wake up pretty messed up).
I have acquired a taste for very good black coffee, so I’ll have some of that and then do some kind of fasted workout. Then I’ll come back and have a protein shake. I am lucky because I actually very much enjoy the taste of protein powder, and there are a few premade shakes I really really like, and like as food rather than as protein shakes.
I really like bananas, and so if I have them, I’ll eat one of those. Then I will go do something else and not think about food for a while.
After a few hours I will realize I am hungry and that I should eat lunch. I will be pretty ambivalent about the lunch. A caesar salad would be fine. So would steak and broccoli. So would any sandwich. Often I have leftover pizza. I often eat leftovers for lunch, because that is fast. I try to make it a bit festive and not eat it too fast. Usually I would make a cool tea, or have a cool drink to pair with the leftover lunch. I would try to have some vegetables with whatever the leftovers are. I try to make sure I eat the lunch, because it would be pointless to fast in between breakfast and dinner too much, versus just having a good lunch, and then a light and earlier dinner, and then fast longer at night. But I can easily prolong eating lunch or forget about it for a long time, until I notice my mood is not great and I am having too many weird thoughts. Then I realize I should probably eat.
After lunch, I do not think about food, because I am full. Dinner comes and I’ve always lived with people so either I cook or we cook together or people order food or I decorate more leftovers. It is very rare that I would crave sugar, though sometimes I do crave ice cream. If I drink a protein shake, I generally don’t need the ice cream though, and if I eat ice cream, I can be very happy with less than a scoop.
If somebody brings in a decadent desert, I will have some and not feel guilty about it, because it is special, but too much sugar at night messes with sleep, and so I will be wary of that.
Then, I do not think about food. If I stay up past midnight, I will get hungry again, but the trick of drinking a lot of water or a lot of different calorie-free beverages works very well for me.
And so I go through my day mostly not thinking about food 90% of the time unless I am hungry. If a picture of a food I like appears on the TV, in a show or in an advertisement, I will think about that food though. I am extremely impressionable when it comes to visual food on TV. I also sometimes think about sushi, when I am hungry and want sushi. This happens once or twice a month. Usually what makes that feeling go away for a while is going and eating sushi.