Hunger is not the enemy; it’s a sign of life.
When it comes to eating to nourish our bodies, the first priority is making sure we eat enough to fuel our body. Keeping our bodies adequately fed with energy and carbs, fat, and protein prevents a physiological drive to overeat.
Unfortunately hunger has been treated as something that needs to be “fixed” and “suppressed”. It’s socially acceptable to push off our hunger by using coffee, tea, water, chewing gum, even medications to prevent it. But hunger is an amazing physiological signal our body has to keep us alive and healthy and to ensure we have enough energy to do all the awesome things we want to in life.
Not sure what Intuitive Eating is? You can read more about it on these two articles; What is Intuitive Eating? and Intuitive Eating Principle #1: Ditch the Diet Mentality.
Would you ever feel guilty for being sleepy after being up all day? Would you ever try to suppress needing to pee? Not likely, because these are natural signals our body sends to us, and hunger is just another tool our body uses to communicate with us.
If you have felt out of touch with your hunger, here are a few helpful tips to start tuning in again:
- Observe what does hunger feels like to you. Where in your body do you feel hunger?
- Notice how your hunger changes before, during, and after a meal. Were your sensations pleasant, would you want to experience them again?
- Notice how your hunger changes when you’re not in a routine. Does it change when you are stressed, tired, anxious etc.?
Bringing awareness to how your hunger feels, without judgement, helps you to start learning about your own body and how food feels in your body.
Hunger is often treated as the problem when really it’s a sign of LIFE. It’s your body fighting for you to survive day in and day out.
What if we began to respect the signals our body gave us, and trusted them? When we honor our hunger we can start to build trust with our body again.
Are you hungry for change in your life and relationship with food? Here at iLiveWell Nutrition and Therapy we help clients heal their relationship with food and stop the cycle of dieting for good. Want to improve your relationship with food? Call us today!
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By Zoe Halbert – Zoe is a registered dietitian, licensed in Austin Texas who is passionate about helping people create healthy relationships with food and body. She focuses on intuitive eating with a non-diet and practices from the health at every size (HAES) approach when working with clients.
