It has been drawn to my attention that people often eat when they are hungry, and in many cases, are lucky because their hunger coincides with meal times. Believe it or not, I was surprised to learn this. I thought about this for a while and have come to realize that I don’t eat because I’m hungry; I eat because it’s time to eat. I eat because it’s breakfast time, or lunch time, or dinner time, regardless how hungry or full I feel.

Because I eat so regularly, I’m hardly ever hungry. It also means that being unhungry is not an impediment to me eating a full meal. It’s probably one of these tragedies of modern life, when the act of eating is disassociated with hunger.

I also think that this is why I have trouble recognizing when I am actually hungry. I remember once saying to Damjan, “My tummy feels funny.”

“Does it hurt?” Damjan asked.

“No… It doesn’t hurt. It just feels strange.”

“Try eating some food,” he suggested. So I ate some bread.

“Oh!” I was surprised. “That feels better. I must have been hungry.”

The opposite problem happened on Friday. I sent an email to Damjan complaining that I was really hungry but had to wait half an hour for lunch. At last, 12:30 PM arrived and I could eat some food at the office’s Spring Carnival lunch. I honestly thought that the food would alleviate my discomfit, as it did last time — but it didn’t! I kept eating and still, my tummy was unsettled. I’m not sure what the problem was. I only felt better by the end of the work day.

It looks like I still have to learn to recognize my hunger cues.