The key to weight loss and developing a healthy relationship with food is knowing your internal hunger and fullness cues.
Hunger and fullness are normal sensations that tell us it’s time to eat and time to stop eating.
Most of us can recognize extreme hunger, but we often have trouble seeing subtler versions.
Some of us are hypersensitive to hunger and end up reaching for food at the slightest pang of hunger or at the thought that we might be hungry.
We may eat until we are stuffed or eat too quickly, which does not give the brain time to register that the body has had enough food.
Usually it takes about 20 minutes for the brain to register the fullness messages coming in from the hormones in the gut.
WHAT CAN INTERFERE WITH OUR HUNGER AND FULLNESS SIGNALS?
- We are busy and do not take the time to slow down and listen to our bodies signals.
- Most of the time we pay little attention to what our body is telling us and we eat in response to external cues – smells, commercials, pictures.
- Dieting, food rules, skipping meals and calorie counting
- Eating habits of others
- TV, computers, phones and other distractions
- Our emotions – bored, angry, stressed or depressed
The key to weight loss and developing a healthy relationship with food is knowing our internal hunger and fullness cues.
Being mindful while eating is necessary in order for you to tune into your body’s signals and help you develop a healthy relationship with food.
One tool I use is the Hunger/Fullness scale to help you begin to learn how to recognize your subtle hunger and fullness.
It takes some practice but once you become mindful of those cues it changes the way you eat.
Are you able to recognize your subtler hunger and fullness cues?
In my 90-Day Mind and Body Coaching Program we spend time working on how to recognize our hunger and fullness.
If this is an area you struggle with, I’d love to chat with you!
