Where Did the Hunger Go?

A lack of hunger is one of the benefits of a pretty high-fat, medium-protein, and (relatively) low carbohydrate food path (aka modified ketogenic food plan). It is also quite weird, and so unlike how I've eaten--and been driven to eat--all my life. And now that I've been supplementing my minerals (particularly magnesium, sodium, and potassium), I don't have cravings anymore, either.

There's also a certain mechanistic quality, which is curious, as well. It isn't to say that I don't look forward to eating certain foods, like salmon, for example. But it does mean that I eat because I know that's something I need to do, versus something I'm driven to do by cravings or sugar crashes/insulin rushes. I generally eat two meals a day, with the occasional snack, such as pork rinds or blueberries. (When I feel like a snack, in fact, I know it's time to eat).

I try to keep my meals about four or more hours apart, primarily so I can keep as low a level of insulin in my bloodstream as possible, one of the tools I learned from Dr. Bernstein's The Diabetes Diet. Though I'm not a diabetic, I was once diagnosed as insulin-resistant, meaning my body's cells had a diminished ability to respond to insulin. Or, as Laura Dolson says, "Insulin resistance happens when the cells essentially don't open the door when insulin comes knocking." This is a major reason I began eating low carb. Anything I can do to not boost insulin unnecessarily, I will do. 

For the same reason, I also make a point of not starting a meal with a carbohydrate, unless it is a slow-acting one, like spinach or salad greens. The one exception is if I'm going to the gym to lift within an hour or so of eating

A Lot

I eat a lot of food.
Although I am eating better food, and much less (or, in some cases, none) of foods that are not my friends, I now realize that I regularly eat a large volume of food, much more food than I need on a daily basis. (I'd be even fatter if I didn't walk most places, and work out.)
When I say I eat a large volume of food, I don't mean all in one sitting (although I used to do that). Instead, I eat two or three meals a day, and graze throughout the day. Here's an example of what I can consume from the time I wake up through an early afternoon:

1 apple
1 plate of greens with a small chicken thigh and 1 egg
1 small sweet potato
1/2 serving (2 squares) of dark chocolate
1/2 cup of raisins, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds

That is enough food for an entire day (and too many carbs), yet I will probably eat more around dinner time. (Note: I normally don't measure the raisin/walnut mixture I consume, but did so this time just for this post.)
I need to (1) start measuring the raisins and walnuts I eat (as I did with the granola) and (2) start keeping a food diary again. Even as I type that, however, I get a clutch of fear coming up, that I am going to be deprived of food once I start tracking it. That is most interesting as I've seldom--even in these last couple of years with my major food changes (and this blog) limited the volume of food consume. That is, I've limited the total grams of carbs I consume, for example, but the not the total volume of food. Even the idea of counting calories--!!!--makes my eyes roll toward the back of my head.
One or another, however, I am going to have to acknowledge and work with that very difficult feeling of deprivation--and reduce the volume I consume. I don't think there's a way around that.