We’re getting into this week! We’ve gotten clear on why we need to get up close and personal with hunger, how hunger is the signal we want to feel to prompt eating, and how eating only for hunger actually fuels our weight loss.
Hunger is our tool – something we can use to help us lose weight!
Let’s identify what real hunger actually is! We often eat for many other reasons than true stomach hunger, so it’s easy to answer the normal signals we use to eat instead of only stomach hunger. I like to think about hunger in two categories: emotional hunger and stomach hunger.
First, let’s examine emotional hunger. We often eat to soothe uncomfortable emotions instead of actually needing to feed the body. We want to be sure to put food in when we need it! If we can identify why we’re eating, we can decide if we’re eating for the reasons that work for us instead of against us. If we only eat when our bodies call for fuel, we will lose weight!
Emotional hunger is eating when we don’t need food but we want it. Over the years, we’ve learned to celebrate, comfort, soothe, and fix boredom with food. It’s a normal thing in our culture to go out for ice cream after a game or to have a glass of wine (or two or three!) after a hard day of work. We eat popcorn while we watch a movie and we have a whole category of “comfort food” that we eat when we feel sad or discouraged or disappointed. We’ve learned to eat for lots of reasons that aren’t physical hunger!
So what does emotional hunger feel like? Emotional hunger is loud. It’s very demanding and urgent. Hunger like this is designed to get your attention and make you act quickly. For example, if you’re having a stressful day at work, your brain might offer that chips are required, immediately! You feel drawn toward the bag of chips and it seems like nothing else is the right thing at the moment.
Here’s what’s really going on. You feel stressed and it’s uncomfortable. You want to get that feeling to stop as fast as possible, and your brain knows that eating chips will distract you from the discomfort, even if it’s only for a few minutes. What it doesn’t understand is that when you eat the chips, you will feel better for a moment, but later you’ll see them on the scale and feel even worse, because you’re stressed AND you didn’t lose weight (the thing you really want more than chips). But you eat the chips because in the moment it takes your mind off the stress and you feel better. Right in that stressful moment, you can’t think of anything else that will fix your stress other than those chips!
One tactic to help your brain the next time you want to eat and you’re not hungry is to spend some time now thinking of alternatives to eating to solve the uncomfortable emotion you feel. Make a list and write it down somewhere convenient, like on the notes app on your phone. If you’re stressed, maybe you need to take a moment and do some breathing exercises. Maybe you’re exhausted and need to plan for an early bedtime. Some green or black tea might give you a little boost until you can catch up on sleep. If you need comfort, you can give yourself a hug (it works!) and decide on a hot bubble bath later in the evening. Whatever feeling you need to solve, you can think of a non-food solution.
Snuggled up…
Now, what does true physical hunger feel like? Stomach hunger is more subtle. It tends to be like a suggestion, a tapping on your shoulder that is asking for your attention instead of demanding it. You’ll feel a pulling or gnawing feeling in the upper belly just left of center. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s a little uncomfortable. Stomach hunger comes in waves – if it comes and you don’t answer it, it’ll go away and come back in 30 or so minutes.
Stomach hunger is more polite than emotional hunger. It’s not yelling at you, but it’s there. It wants you to answer it, but it can be quieted with warm tea or a glass of water. If your hunger is physical, it will keep coming back, a little more noticeable each time. This signal is the one you want to answer when it asks for fuel. Can you imagine what would happen to your weight if you didn’t answer any of the calls of emotional hunger and only the ones for stomach hunger?
That’s the focus for this week. Wait for true stomach hunger and let that be the signal to eat. Start discerning the difference between stomach and emotional hunger, and stop answering the calls of emotional hunger. That’s it – not hard, but it’ll require your focus. Remember, you’ll be tempted to try to complicate this. But just focus on identifying and answering stomach hunger, and you will be more successful than if you dilute your efforts by adding on diets or exercise, or other food rules.
You can do this! One step forward at a time and before you know it, you’ll be changing the whole game! Next week, I’ll help you add a tool to help you determine how hungry is enough to eat. It’ll help you refine your focus. Until then, you can get a second go-round on this lesson on the YouTube channel. And, for those of you who’ve been waiting for the digital weight loss course I’ve created, it’s on the way. I’ll be offering you a chance to sign up for my webinar, Weight Loss Without Willpower so you’ll get first access to the course, so stay tuned!
If you really want a chance to work with me before I close my one-on-one coaching spots for the course launch, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com, and let’s get your free one-hour consultation booked. Individualized help is rare and special in our world today, so don’t miss out!
Here’s your video help for the week!