Welcome back! We are in the thick of our Focus on Hunger series and this week we’re getting into the specifics, the details of how to wait for hunger, how hungry should we be before eating, and how do we know if it’s time to eat or not. I’m going to answer all these questions, but first…
How has it been going this past week?
Were you able to figure out when you were physically hungry vs when you were emotionally hungry?
What did you learn about your hunger?
Fascinating, isn’t it? For most of my clients, emotional hunger is a much bigger part of their daily experience than they thought. Actual physical hunger isn’t as frequent!
This is good news for this week because as we focus on waiting for true physical hunger, I have a surprise gift for you as you practice this new skill of waiting for hunger.
You’re going to have more time in your day.
Isn’t that fantastic? Who couldn’t use more time to take care of all the to-dos or just to take a breath? All of us can use more time – we’ve got plenty to do!
Here’s how it works: You only eat when you feel true physical hunger. I know, very simple. Not always easy, because those emotional hunger signals try to get in there and confuse the situation. But the only signal you want to respond to for eating is stomach hunger. (If you missed last week where we discussed the difference between physical and emotional hunger, go back and get it here.)
For example, in the morning, after you wake up you’d usually make breakfast, eat and clean up. But you notice that actually, you’re not hungry after your glass of water to start the day. (Try this if you’re not already drinking water in the morning – you probably need it and thirst is often confused with hunger.)
Instead of eating breakfast, skip it.
Now you’ve got the time from cooking, eating, and clean-up back in your day. You just got back at least 30 minutes! I know, some of you are resisting the idea of skipping breakfast. Won’t that slow my metabolism? Isn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day? What if I get hungry before lunch?
Actually, you won’t wreck your metabolism by skipping breakfast. That’s part of the premise behind intermittent fasting, that you can prolong the overnight fasting window to help lose weight. I’m not suggesting you fast – just wait until you’re actually hungry before you eat. The small bump in metabolic rate that your body makes to digest food isn’t enough to outweigh the energy intake you consume when you eat (otherwise you’d burn up every bite you eat and would waste away to nothing!).
If you get hungry mid-morning, decide what you’ll do about it. Have a cup of tea or coffee with cream to calm your tummy until lunchtime, or have a piece of fruit or a small handful of nuts to hold you over until lunch, or eat lunch early. Whatever works for your schedule, do that. Then when hunger returns, have your meal. Keep it simple – no overcomplicating things here!
As an aside, your brain wants to make this weight loss process very complicated. Your mind thinks that the more complicated, the better, because losing weight is hard and it must be a very complex solution to solve the problem of being overweight. It has to be, otherwise, you would have solved it by now. The problem with complicated is that it’s too hard to maintain. So even though your brain is trying to be helpful, complicated is not the way to go. Your life is full and complicated – your eating and weight loss need to be simple or you’re not going to get it done. Consider it: what if losing weight could be simple? How can you make this simple for you?
Next, how hungry do you need to be to eat? Do you have to be starving before you eat or should you respond to the first whiff of hunger? This is where the hunger scale tool comes in. The hunger scale is a range of numbers between -10 and +10, with “I could eat my arm off” at a -10 and Thanksgiving overeating at its worst “I’m so stuffed I want to die” at a +10.
I—————————–I—————-I——————-I———————————I
-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
You want to be in a range of -4 to +4, with a +4 being comfortably full, light, and energetic. We will get to fullness later, but for now, that’s a good target.
Remember, hunger comes in gentle waves and grows over time. You might even miss a -1 because it’s pretty quiet. But true stomach hunger will come back. A -4 feels a little more insistent – it gets your attention. You’re sure you’re physically hungry, you feel it in your stomach, and although you won’t keel over and die if you can’t eat, you’re ready. So serve yourself a meal and enjoy it!
Now, a couple of tips. You’ve waited for this meal, so don’t snack in front of the microwave and miss the best bites of your meal. The first few bites taste the best when you’re hungry and your taste buds are at attention, so don’t hijack that by tasting and snacking before you sit down to eat. Also, sit down to eat (unless you can’t – then plan to sit down for your next meal). Get present for the experience of the meal so you can enjoy it and so you can tune into your stomach for when you’re politely full. Last tip: just eat. No TV, reading, emailing, etc. Eating your food gets missed when you multitask. You actually miss the experience of your meal and then you feel cheated like you didn’t even eat. It’s also too easy to overeat when you’re not paying attention. If you want a break or entertainment and you are;t hungry, then watch TV. But when you’re eating, just enjoy your meal. Don’t mix your need for entertainment or rest with your hunger – your brain learns to associate food as the solution to your other needs. When you’re done eating, you’re done – go on with your day until the next time you get hungry!
You’ve got this! Now, for those of you who’ve been waiting, my weight loss course is coming! I’m planning to launch the course with a webinar called Weight Loss Without Willpower and I don’t you to miss it, so make sure you’re on my email list so you get invited to it. Attending the webinar is how you’ll get the details on the course, so don’t miss it! Keep up the good work and I’m here to keep the help coming – find the video version of How To Find Hunger below…
If any of you have been waiting to schedule your free consultation to work with me as your private coach, the window is closing! Once the course launches, I won’t be taking private clients while I focus on serving the class members So if you want a spot, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s get you in before it’s too late!
Here’s your video help for the week!