As someone who has repeatedly binged/eaten past fullness/eaten compulsively in the past I have trouble with following my body’s cues for hunger and fullness. Well, I know how to tell if my body is hungry. That one is easy for me. What is more difficult and even more important is the one I have trouble with: determining if my body is STILL hungry.
Am I still hungry while I am eating? Do I need to keep eating? Do I need to stop? Did I eat enough? Will I get hungry again before the next meal? These are the thoughts in my head at every meal… especially at breakfast where we choose our meal completely.
Sometimes I don’t know. I just don’t. This morning I went to breakfast hungry, as usual, and got a piece of french toast with syrup some peanut butt and milk. By the time I had finished it I felt satisfied. I didn’t feel full and I knew it was less than I normally eat for breakfast so I wrestled with the decision: am I still hungry? In the end I couldn’t make a decision one way or another so I decided not to eat anything else and see how it goes. If I am starving before lunch I will eat a snack.
I am clearly still trying to get the hang of mindful eating.
But just the fact that I am trying seems to be progress. The fact that I’m listening to my body, or trying to, means I am eating mindfully. Maybe I need a tranlator for my crazy stomach and body, but I’m still trying my best to interpret its cues.
I’ve written about mindful eating a couple of times, but I’m still working out the kinks in the application in my own life. I know that I’ve had a meal or two where I ate too much. I know I overinduldged on a snack. I’m not emotionally eating (yet, as I fully expect this to eventually happen… I’m not “cured” just in better control), but I’m not fully aware of the point on how to control my normal food intake.
But hey… not being able to decide and stopping eating is way better than not being able to decide and eating until I’m stuffed just to make sure. If you have to pick one or the other I’m pretty glad I chose the first path. Being overly stuffed is never a pleasant thing.
How about you guys? How do you know when you’ve eaten enough? Do you ever struggle with the question, Am I still hungry?
I am working on eating to satisfaction too…I really do not like how I feel stuffed and this is a good elsson in listening to my body.
Your are doing great! It is a step by step process.
That “satisfied feeling” kicks in, but my eyes still aren’t satisfied, thus makes me eat ALL, thus makes me regret later. I wish my eyes, brain, and stomach would cooperate with each other and agree for a change.
I fight with this all of the time. Especially if it is something I really like. In my opinion for what it matters, I think we get in the habit through our lives of eating until we can’t eat no more. We think that being “stuffed” is full and satisfied. When in reality when we stuff ourselves we don’t even notice the point of when we are satisfied because we are to busy stuffing.
Living the way I have and that I know many others have been for so many years. It is a total mind over matter game. We know better and we know what we should do but our habits are constantly pulling at us.
You are awesome! The more you work on it the better it will get and hopefully much easier as well.
I’m horrible at this. If there’s still food on my plate, I’m still hungry. No matter what!!
I have to really focus on portion control and limiting myself before the damage happens.
I think I know when I’m satisfied if I am relaxed and calm as opposed to eating in a rush or distracted by kids, TV or future plans. However, I find it really hard to stop at satisfied as I like the feeling of full as opposed to satisfied. For some reason, I have this panicky feeling if there’s any doubt that I’m not completely full. I seem to be so scared about the possibility of hunger which makes me struggle with stopping at satisfied as opposed to full/ uncomfortable.
Stuffed is never a great feeling…but when you use food to stuff your emotions, feelings, thoughts, fears, hopes, dreams, others, and yourself aside…it works. Until one day you wake up and say…I’m tired of being stuffed. You then have to learn to feel hungry, satisfied with less and all the other things you avoided. It’s a learning process that I wish would happen faster than it does…but you take small steps.
The bag of chips in the cupboard this week is for my daughters lunch’s this week…has not been touched or eaten by me. I know if I eat just one…it will turn into the whole bag. It’s my daughters treat for great grades and other great things this past week…not for me! it’s difficult to undo a life long pattern…one day at a time or one food bite at a time.
@Amani
HEY! Thanks for the comment! I miss you something fierce! Hehe. I know what you mean about want to feel full instead of satisfied. The full feeling feels more comforting – I know I won’t get hungry again until the next meal. And if I’m not hungry I won’t make any mistakes. But I guess living in fear of making mistakes isn’t the best option, so we’ve gotta learn to accept that “satisfied” feeling.
I’m still learning. Probably always will be. Some night I *feel* so hungry want a snack, but don’t want to “undo” all the exercise I did that day so rather than stay up fighting the urge, I just go to bed. How sad is that??
Wonderful blog!! Lovelovelove it :D I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on putting down the fork when I feel I’ve had enough. It’s taken a lot of trial and error, but I can say I’m almost there. Or at least, better than where I was! What I still struggle with is figuring out when I’m hungry! I feel most comfortable with food in my belly, so my impulse is always to eat to ensure I have that feeling. I immediately snack at the slightest twinge of hunger. But I think I need to let my stomach process the food I give it, get hungry, then feed it a meal. Feels like some days I’m suppressing my natural hunger cues when I should be letting my body do it’s thang and listen to it. As always, it’s a work in progress :)
What a nice site you have! I know it’s different post, but I love your pumpkin carving! If not this year, I’m going to copy that great scary face next year!
It takes time to relearn eating behaviors. If you stick to whole foods, and minimize salt, sugar , and fat, I suspect your body will return to it’s roots :-)
Sometimes I felt like I was still hungry even after eating the “proper” amount. Now I rely less on the feeling of fullness and more on knowing I have eaten the right amount of food for me.
Sometimes there is an eye-stomach disconnect that occurs.
It took me a little while before I was able to eat proper portion sizes on a consistent basis.
Keep up your analysis and good work!!
My advice – being always hungry myself, I am a cumpulsive snacker. On advice from a friend, I started buying non-buttered popcorn. Has REALLY helped. Keep your heads up!
Mary, it took me time to understand me & knowing when I was full… this mindful eating. I am sure with time you will get there & yes, this is better than the alternative: “not being able to decide and stopping eating is way better than not being able to decide and eating until I’m stuffed just to make sure”. You are doing great!
Love this Mary. I have issues with “mindful” or “intuitive” eating because I feel, speaking only for myself, that I have been very removed from hunger as a biological symptom. Hunger’s primary role of triggering a necessary function has been muddled with its social and psychological functions. I think because eating is so very social, because access to addicting and unhealthy food is so wide-spread and marketed, it’s easy to lose that “intuition.” Plus, I’ve developed a relationship with food that far surpasses hunger — we’re like co-dependents in a twisted marriage.
I think your goal and desire to stop eating before the “fullness” factor is a great one — in fact, I think that’s the “80%” rule or something (eat until 80% full — I think some deem it a Japanese tenet). I have yet to master that. I often eat until either too full, or simply stop even when still obviously hungry because I’m trying to limit myself. Both are not very healthy, but I’m trying to get better.
I love reading your blog, Mary!
xoxo
Your decision to stop eating even though you didn’t know if you were satisfied yet is hard for many of us to do because we often walk around with the mindset that food isn’t available. Even when it is. That’s a negative consequence of the diet mentality. I used to describe it as food insecurity — a term we often use when we don’t have enough money to guarantee enough food. For a dieter, though, money isn’t the issue. Permission is. So making the decision to stop eating when you’re not completely sure whether you’ve had enough can be a great sign of progress, if you’re doing it like you describe, not out of fear that you might overeat. I’m rambling but trying to get to my point that stopping when we think we might have had enough, knowing we can have more later if we get hungry, is a great way to experiment. And the more you experiment with hunger/fullness cues, the more you will get to know your body and the more you will trust what you feel. Knowing you always have access to food, however, is key to helping yourself do that.
I struggle with this. The only thing that helps me is to stop eating long before I believe I am full and see if I am still hungry 30 minutes later.
I never realized how much food I needed to eat to feel full until I accidently dropped half my lunch on the floor. ( I had slipped on a slippery stretch of floor while at work) Anyhow, I ate the remaining half. What surprised me was that I was full 10 minutes after completing my meal. Ordinarily, I would’ve eaten the entire thing no problem at all.
I used to feel sluggish about 2 hours after eating lunch, but on that day, no sluggishness. I was so used to eating twice as much as I needed that I never let my body enjoy the food as I ate it.
this is such a good post and such a good reminder to me. it’s not easy, but everytime we are content and appreciate it and then past-full–I understand why it isn’t great for me anymore. I am finding that balance. I am not there yet, but the luxury of shoving my face isn’t great for me anymore. I am glad that I am getting there. I am glad that you’re sharing your story.
Thanks,
M
The thing about human body is that it has a delayed “response” to not being hungry. Basically even after you’ve satisfied your hunger, your mind won’t update for 10-15 minutes (comes from the fact that a few thousands years ago food was scarce and so you had to sort of eat in advance, kind of like a camel lol)
A good advice I’ve been told is to stop eating while you are still hungry, compared to eating until you stop being hungry. Also, don’t forget that your body also gets used to how much you eat, so if you always eat 3000calories and then switch to 2,500 you might feel hungry even though you may only need 2,200 calories in the first place.
I need to work on this myself. I’ve noticed I tend to eat when I’m not hungry at all because I think I MIGHT be hungry later. Like as though I can’t eat at that point?!
I think self satisfaction is a big thing.
For me it is still hard with things I love.
I LOOOVE ME SOME POPCORN.
I lacketh the internal mechanism which says DUDE YOUVE EATEN ENOUGH OF ME. 3 KERNELS FROM NOW I WILL GO FROM AWESOME TO AWESOMELY MAKING YOU FEEL SICK.
I also sometimes have difficulty in knowing if I’m hungry or not. What you did sounds the perfect way to handle this.
Sometimes if I’m not sure, I tell myself – Just wait for 60 seconds and then ask the question again. Usually that gives me a chance to think about it! But in general, if I’m not sure if I’m hungry, it means I’m not!
Love your honesty!! I’ve struggled all my live with the same thing. I love food… good for you foods, bad for you foods… I just like to eat!
I have to say that for the first time that I remember in my life I felt comfortably full & knew I had eaten a small-normal portion. Let me give you some background… for starters I’ve been exercising 3 times a week for the last 3 weeks. Last Friday my husband & I started eating Healthy Chocolate and between the two things I have found a greatly decreased appetite. I went to a buffet last night with my husband & I usually get a salad plate, 2 dinner plates and a dessert plate… for real, too much I know. Last night I had a small salad & 1 dinner plate. I took 2 bites of dessert & I could eat no more! I was done… the food didn’t even appeal to me anymore. My mind on autopilot said “What’s wrong, Eat!”, but my stomach and satisfaction level said… “No more.” I was almost dissappointed because I just love to eat so much.. but will be grateful if the weight does start to come off as easily as I’m anticipating. Guess it might be a love/hate relationship… although I do get to eat 3 pieces of chocolate every day now. :)