Intuitive Eating: Chapter 6

The fifth chapter of Intuitive Eating addresses the second principle, Honor Your Hunger. Seems like a common sense topic, but for people who have dieted for awhile, it's easy to lose track of real signs of hunger.

Some major topics addressed in this chapter include:

• Primal hunger- Your body doesn't want to be in a dieted, starved state and will seek out more food if it has been put through this for long periods. That is why after dieting some people end up gaining all the weight back plus more.
• When you undereat, you can become obsessed with food and become preoccupied with thoughts of food.
• Mechanisms that trigger eating-hunger drive is a mind-body connection. The issue of will power is really an issue of a biological drive
• The Carbohydrate craver-carbohydrates are the standard of food energy to the body
• Second Guessing your biology-chronic dieters overthink biology. If you ignore hunger signals, they begin to fade and you can't recognize when you are hungry anymore. OR you only "hear" hunger in extreme, ravenous states, which triggers overeating (leading you to lose trust with food). We can stop eating based on internal food cues, but instead by food thoughts and judgements instead.
• Primal food therapy: honor your hunger-your body needs to know that it will consistently have access to food and that dieting and deprivation have halted. It is much easier to stop eating hen you know you will be able to eat again-want to avoid feast or famine cycles.
• Hunger silence-dieters have a tendency to numb feelings of hunger or just deny it
• How to honor biological hunger-begin to listen for hunger and each time you eat evaluate your hunger level. Try not to let yourself get to a ravenous hunger level or go no longer than 5 waking hours without eating. Get reacquainted with your hunger by frequent check ins with your hunger level

I have been putting a big focus on this principle for the past several months. I've really been trying to evaluate my hunger level and allowing myself to eat when hungry. This sometimes means eating more than planned (also sometimes less than planned), or sometimes having unplanned snacks. When I was in extreme dieting mode I made myself eat only at certain times and all my points and calories had to be pre-planned and I felt extreme guilt if I didn't stay within that plan. At a certain point, I couldn't recognize my hunger cues very well at all and just allowing myself to eat with everything so "planned" was really strange at first. I still meal plan, because that makes grocery shopping easier and allows me to have variety in my fridge (and get some nutritious food!), but I don't follow a strict portion plan and I allow variation in my day depending on how I feel. 

I remember being so strict during the week (and the majority of the time) that when I allowed myself a cheat day or a cheat weekend I would WAY overeat. And then I felt terrible. I can see now that it was because I wasn't eating enough at other times and my body was just trying to get all the energy it could. I remember dreading the weekend, because I knew I wouldn't have the "willpower" and when I let myself have 1 thing off of plan, I would spiral into more overeating and felt I didn't have "control" over food. Well, these days, things are definitely different! And I'm so thankful for that. I do weigh more, but I eat so much more consistently. :-) Yes, weekends do involve more eating out or do have less structure, but I don't feel out of control when I eat something that isn't a typical food or is a treat. I can enjoy it without feeling completely out of control. I really like this change, and this has happened since I started really paying attention to my hunger, and not being so strict with a plan. I don't strive for a perfect diet, and I'm happier with just aiming for balanced eating, and trying to eat well the majority of the time. I'm learning more everyday, and also learning that some weeks aren't going to go to plan, and that's ok too. I've been trying to get rid of feelings of guilt with food and I've been striving for an overall calmer state with eating. Letting go of excessive calorie tracking has helped me tremendously with feeling more relaxed.