6 Ways to Honor Your Hunger
Welcome back to my series all about how to start integrating the principles of intuitive eating in your life. You may have found this post from my original blog about intuitive eating, or from my last post talking about Principle #1 - Ditching the Diet Mentality. This post is all about Principle #2 - Honoring your Hunger. Keep following along as I go through each principle and hopefully make it just a tad bit easier to get started and move forward with intuitive eating!
Why You Need to Honor Your Hunger
If you look up what the word hunger means, you will see a few different definitions ranging from the sensation that motivates us to consume food (as part of a biological mechanism that keep our energy stores filled so that we can do all the things we need to live) to a state of food insecurity, where folks don’t have access to the resources they need to be fed and well.
What comes up for you when you think about the word hunger? For many of us, it can feel like a sensation we have been running from our entire lives. Diet culture and its focus on shrinking bodies poses hunger as a negative, and one that can completely derail us from our “goals.” Diet culture views hunger as the enemy, and pivots us in a direction of eating as little as possible to keep this feeling at bay.
Honoring our hunger, as the 2nd Intuitive Eating principle, is at the top of the list for good reason. We can Ditch the Diet Mentality and be well on our way to being an intuitive eater, but if we aren’t actually feeding ourselves adequately (adequately meaning physically enough plus other things that contribute to satisfaction such as taste and pleasure in general) then we are going to hit a brick wall. Honoring your hunger is an important step in reconnecting with your body and rebuilding trust that your body is giving you clues and information that needs to be listened to and respected
Getting in Touch With Your Body and Its Sensations (ie Honoring Your Body)
When was the last time you listened to what your body was telling you? Many of us have been told for so long not to trust our bodies that we truly have not been paying attention to what our body is trying to tell us. First of all, feeling this way is 100% valid and is not your fault. We live in a culture that literally tells us not to listen to our bodies. How many of you grew up with parents/caregivers/other adults that told you that there was no way you could be hungry and you should just “drink some water.” Or that you “just ate” (the portion someone else decided for you of course) so it didn’t make sense that you needed something more to eat. Sound familiar?
I just want to point out here that there are folx who (for lots of good reasons) will really struggle with their interoceptive awareness, or your awareness of your internal body signals. I do think that many people can work their way back to understanding these signals, but if for any reason this isn’t in the cards for you, there are other ways to honor your hunger and move towards intuitive eating.
So we’ve established that many of us have been avoiding or neglecting our body’s signals for quite some time. Now what? How do you start to honor your body? One of the first steps is taking a good look at your own self care. An overtired, overworked, underfed body is going to have a hard time tuning in to what is going on internally. There are some more practical tips below about how to engage in self care practices that work for you, but in the meantime, really tune in with how much attention you are paying to your physical and emotional states. If the idea of self care is something that is foreign to you, really take some time to dive in here.
What Hunger Feels Like (& How You Can Utilize a Hunger Fullness Scale)
Back to honoring your hunger and asking “what does hunger actually feel like?” Cue the face (that I see from many people) that screams “holy shit I don’t even know what it feels like to be hungry anymore.” Well you are in good company. A few things could be going on here, one of them being that you have been ignoring your hunger cues for so long that you actually *don’t* remember what they feel like. Some other possibilities are that when we aren't taking in enough nourishment, our body might be focused on other processes besides letting us know that we need food, OR you actually are feeling cues and are assuming it is something else.
Here are some common ways that we as humans experience hunger:
Grumbling stomach (the classic)
Feeling of physical “emptiness”
Lightheadedness
Nausea
Irritability (aka being “hangry”)
Headaches
Anxiety
Fatigue
Increased thoughts about food
Do any of those sound like something you have experienced before? One way that we can start experimenting with our feelings around hunger (and fullness for that matter) is to use something called a hunger fullness scale. Just your luck - I have made one that you can grab for free! This scale helps you pinpoint where you are at on a scale of really hungry to really full. My suggestion for using this scale is to whip it out at your usual mealtimes, and before you start eating do a 10 second check in. Try to close your eyes if that feels comfortable and check in with where your hunger levels are at and what you are feeling in your body. Then, take a look at the scale and try to see where you fall. Remember that this is a practice and it will take time to get used to it!
Why Intuitive Eating is NOT a Hunger/Fullness Diet
Now is the time for me to say something SUPER important. Intuitive Eating is NOT a hunger fullness diet. Yes we want to try to tune into our hunger and fullness cues which can assist us in knowing when we need to eat and when it might feel good to stop. BUT - if we say that we are only going to eat when we are at a certain point on the hunger scale and stop at a certain point, then this is putting yet another set of dieting rules onto us and we are trying to avoid that mentality at all costs. We are learning how to honor our body without all the rules.
There are plenty of situations where you will need to eat and honor your hunger when you are not feeling physically hungry. Here are a few examples:
You know that you have an appointment/meeting coming up and won’t be able to eat for a while so you eat an early lunch even though you aren’t having any hunger cues yet
You are at an amazing restaurant that you love and have been eyeing a special dessert but are feeling stuffed from dinner. You might not have access to this food typically so you decide that it’s ok to push past your fullness even if it might be uncomfortable
You are in a social situation where it feels customary to try some of what is being offered to you and you would like to participate even if you are not feeling hungry
There are obviously many more examples than the three above, but I share them to reinforce the idea that it is ok to eat when you are not hungry. The key here is knowing that this is a choice that you can make at any point while also honoring where your current hunger and fullness levels are.
Ok - enough of the back story. Here are some practical tips to truly try to honor your hunger!
6 Ways to Honor Your Hunger
1. Keep food stocked
We will talk more about this idea in a future blog around making peace with food, but for now focus on keeping food on hand. This could mean ensuring that you grocery shop each week (if necessary) to keep a variety of foods around, or making sure that you stick a few snacks in your work or school bag. What we want to avoid is getting into a situation where you feel hungry (yay for feeling that cue!) and don’t have access to food so that you can feel what this new pattern is like of honoring your body and hunger. If you are not sure yet what to stock up on, focus on quick and easy snacks and meal options that you know you enjoy and will fill you up.
2. Eat consistently and adequately throughout the day
One great tip for trying to re-engage with your hunger cues is to ensure you are eating more consistently throughout the day. If you are really in a place where you don’t know what your hunger feels like, try to focus on eating 3 meals and 2 snacks to see how you feel (this does not need to be a hard and fast rule). If it is difficult to eat larger meals then set an alarm for every few hours and make sure you are eating either a small meal or a snack.
3. Ditch the clock and follow your cues
Unless you need to set timers as described above, try to ditch eating by what the clock says and focus more on how you are feeling. This is less about not eating a meal because you are “not hungry” and more about giving yourself permission to eat at whatever time of day if you are noticing some hunger cues. For example, you might eat lunch at noon and be hungry again at 2 for a multitude of reasons - maybe you didn’t eat enough or weren’t truly satisfied with the foods you ate. Also remember that there are no rules around the when/where/how of eating. You are allowed (and encouraged!) to honor your hunger whenever you need to. This is especially important when you are trying to re-establish your feelings around hunger and allow your body to trust that it can let you know when it needs to be fed.
4. Engage in consistent self care
As I spoke about above, there are many ways that our ability to feel our internal cues can be blocked when you aren’t taking care of or honoring your body in all the ways it needs. Here are a few areas to do some reflection about and ensure that you are getting what you need
Sleep: The amount of sleep you personally need can differ from the person next to you so perhaps you don’t need to focus on a number and instead focus on how you feel. Do you feel tired during the day? Do you have a hard time falling asleep at night? If you notice anything coming up around sleep, check in with a doctor/therapist/other provider and get the help you need to catch those Zs.
Down Time: This could mean taking a vacation or ensuring you take a lunch break at work. We live in a capitalistic society that tells us we must go go go all the time and that can run us into the ground. Make sure you are getting what you need, and if you aren’t, come up with a plan that meets those needs.
Thoughts/Feelings: Do you take time to honor or process the thoughts or feelings that you have throughout your day/week? Are you constantly pushing thoughts down in the hopes they will magically disappear? Many of us do not function well when we are not taking care of our emotional health, but often are so busy we pay little attention. Get help if you need from a professional, or lean into your friends/family/partner, etc, for support if needed
Relationships: Humans are social creatures, and for the majority of us that means that we need to have social contact to feel balanced in our lives (there are of course people who need less of this so check in with what YOU need). Do you have relationships that are meaningful to you? Do you have enough connection in your life? If not its ok! This might mean coming up with some creative ways to connect, which with our new-ish virtual world has brought some interesting ways to do this.
5. Mindfulness
I don’t think that anything is a “catch-all” in terms of what we should be engaging in, but in my experience most of us could benefit from some additional mindfulness in our lives. To clarify, mindfulness in its simplest form is being present in the here and now without judgment. If you love things like meditation then that’s great! But it is not the only way to be mindful. Try this - set a timer for 1 minute and turn off all distractions. You can close your eyes or leave them open, but sit up straight in your chair and wiggle some parts of your body while also paying attention to your thoughts. That’s it! You’ve been mindful for a minute. From there, you can experiment with mindfulness in all sorts of ways throughout your day. Remember that all you need to do is be present in the moment (without judgment) and notice what is going on both inside and around you. This gets easier with practice! Practicing mindfulness can help you better understand what you are feeling in your body, such as hunger fullness cues.
6. Be thoughtful about what type of hunger you are experiencing
There are 3 different types of hunger - Taste hunger (when something “sounds good”), Practical/Physical Hunger (when our body has an energy need), and Emotional Hunger (an emotional need that could be met via eating). It can be important to distinguish between these types of hunger as it can help guide us towards what we would like to do in that situation. Here are some examples of how to help the type of hunger guide you:
Taste Hunger: check in with yourself about what is sounding good in that moment. Do you want something salty? Something sweet? Does it sound better to have something smooth or crunchy? If you have access, try to really meet this hunger with what you are craving/desiring.
Practical/Physical Hunger: Are you starting to feel the beginnings of physical hunger and need to plan ahead due to the timing of your day? Check in with what your level of hunger is (use that hunger fullness scale) and try to match your meal or snack with your hunger level
Emotional Hunger: First, remember that there is nothing wrong with emotional eating (check out my past blog post about this). Food can be joy and comfort and love and that is to be celebrated. It can be helpful to notice when you are eating for emotional reasons so that you can tune in with what is going on underneath and understand if you need more support around something. We can absolutely use food as a tool to cope, and we can also make sure that we have a nice big toolbox full of lots of options to use when we need it.
Are you ready to start honoring your hunger? If so you are well on your way to honing your skills as an intuitive eater. This is a friendly reminder that, yes, these are skills that you need to develop and they take work, especially after the years you have likely spent being told that you can not trust yourself around food. Make sure to grab my free hunger fullness scale below to help you on your way to honing in on those cues! Also know that it is ok to not go this alone if you need additional support. As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I would love to work with you 1:1 or in a group setting to help you embrace the intuitive eater I know you can be.
