Hi, Nora! And to you, Judy--and to you, Serrelind (yes, that'll surprise you, Serre, but I've followed your posts, your earlier journal, and your valiant struggles for some time, and I admire you)!

I'll bite!

) Do you restrict food calories/quantities to maintain weight, or, do you eat ad lib? I try hard to practice portion control, which I do not consider restricting. I consider it more something my parents should have taught me way back when--I never really learned proper proportions for the appropriate maintenance of my body and its fuel needs...and as a result, I have to keep teaching myself now! And as I grow older, I need less, it seems.
I do not eat "ad lib"--I plan, and I eyeball sizes, and I have learned from experience what and when and how much. The only "ad lib" I've done for a long, long time was when I was on the Queen Mary 2 in January...and it was worth it.

2) Do you experience physical hunger?
If so, is it constant or does it come in episodic "jags and lulls" where it is alternating between starving and normal? When I'm eating properly for me--the mixture of protein/carbs/fat that I happen to need to feed my WOs and to feed my body and feel satisfied--I do not feel hunger during the day.

However, I stop eating three hours before my bedtime, and when I (inevitably) wake up in the middle of the night for a bathroom run, I am hungry--or, let's say I feel hunger pangs. Fortunately, I never learned to eat in the middle of the night; therefore, I simply register the "empty" feeling or gnawing feeling, and I've learned from experience (time and time again) that if I leave it alone, it goes away. And I wake up looking forward to my breakfast!

3) Do you find this hunger emotionally distressful and discouraging, or, is it easy for you to tolerate because you accept it? It would be emotionally distressful if I tried to starve myself daily (which I have done in my youth, so I know the feeling), but the nighttime feeling is not. I know it goes away, and I know breakfast isn't far away.

4) What is your high BMI?
My highest weight ever was 135; my average was 115.

5) What is your present BMI?
Do you mean bf%? I am 5'2" and weigh between 98 and 100 pounds in the AM (probably more like 109 pounds late afternoon! ).

6) How long have you been maintaining within 5 pounds of goal? I have been between 105 and 100 since last August.

7) If you know, how many carbs & calories do you eat? I average around 1200 cals/day, with about 60 net carbs/day.