If you’ve ever said “I’ve tried everything” and it’s not working, I have some GREAT news!
In my journey to lose 80 pounds, I tried and failed for over 20 years to lose my weight for good. By the time I was 54, I’d struggled and failed on Weight Watchers - yet again, I felt hopeless and in despair that I’d ever figure this out.
After hiring a life coach, I learned a new way of looking at food and hunger that turned my world upside down. - in the BEST way.
I can remember very clearly feeling a little hungry and thinking, “I’m so afraid of being hungry, I better eat right now”. So I consumed a steady stream of calories each day in order to avoid that hungry feeling.
Here are the words that have changed the way I think about hunger forever. …..
HUNGER IS NOT AN EMERGENCY
I remember thinking … She’s wrong!!
When I felt the first twinge of hunger I can remember it feeling like a fire siren going off in my brain and body and it felt urgent to “fix” it, immediately. I used the words like “hangry”, and “starving”, and I remember feeling so afraid that I would slow down my metabolism if I ate too little.
The result???
weighing in at over 225 pounds on my 5’2” frame.
She also challenged me with the concept that there’s a difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
wait……what???
I didn't understand what she was talking about.
Up to that point in my life, I had not really trusted my body enough to understand what actual physical hunger felt like to me.
I thought I knew what hunger feels like, because I was a Weight Watcher for many years, and didn’t like it. 😝
I thought being physically hungry meant I would deny, deny, deny, until I was so miserable that I gave up and then ate everything in sight.
Then beat myself up for overeating, and convince myself I would starve myself the next day and basically the pattern would just start all over again.
I thought being a little hungry meant I should be fearful, like something was really wrong. I simply didn’t trust my body, because I thought it meant I would over eat, so I never allowed myself to get a little hungry.
So I did what I thought was best and just ensured I had a steady stream of calories coming in ALL DAY AND NIGHT! 😳
HUNGER AS A TOOL
Then I learned a tool called the “Hunger Scale”.
Picture an old fashioned number line.
“0” is neutral, -10 is “Starving” and +10 is “stuffed” like, so uncomfortable you need to unzip your pants.
My coach taught me that I would know when to eat if I was feeling a hunger signal.
Sometimes it’s an empty, hollow feeling in my stomach, sometimes for me I have a hard time concentrating, or my stomach will growl, but not to the point of feeling like I was “starving”.
I’d know it was time to eat when I felt a little hungry, (at about a -2 on the hunger scale). Assuring myself and that I would be eating soon put my mind at ease.
TEST IT OUT
If you have any doubts just take a look at the last time you ate. If it’s at least 2-3 hours since your last meal, then likely you are physically hungry, (unless of course you have a physical ailment), but those of us who are overweight can “dine in” and use our amazing fat stores or stored calories for just such an occasion
You can use this tool to learn to begin to build trust with your body to let you know when it’s time to eat.
The good news is once I began to learn to listen to my body, I didn’t need to depend on points or calorie counters, etc. it became much more simple to manage my eating.
You take your stomach with you wherever you go!
I became willing to experiment with waiting for hunger.
That ONE thought is so powerful to help calm my nervous system down and helps me to breathe and evaluate what my body is trying to tell me.
For me, it started with the first meal of the day. Once I let go of the belief that I needed to eat a full breakfast the minute my feet hit the floor, I began to experiment with waiting for hunger to arrive before I ate my first meal of the day.
To this day, for me, I’ve decided I really don’t get hungry until about 11:00.
But there’s more.
Once I began to employ this theory that HUNGER is not an emergency to my evenings, and even overnight, I began to notice a difference between real hunger and FAUX (fake) hunger.
FAUX HUNGER
TEST IT OUT
Most of the time, eating late at night is due to Faux hunger. Avoid night time eating - When you eat late at night, you’ll interrupt your sleep cycle due to having to digest the food, store extra calories from food as fat, and your metabolism slows at night.
You’re feeling an urge for one particular type of food
TEST IT OUT
Ask yourself if I’m really hungry would a stalk of broccoli satisfy?
I call it the “broccoli test”. (If you’re tempted to over eat broccoli, choose an Unsexy food of your choice)
It typically has something to do with boredom, or feeling stressed, or fidgety, or you are looking for some type of distraction/ relief.
Anytime you’re noticing that you’re choosing to eat, and you’re not physically hungry …….that’s where I come in.
As your coach I help you to see what exactly you’re telling yourself in those moments that convince you it’s time to put on the feedbag.
We unpack the reasons why from a place of curiosity, not judgement, and then use it as an opportunity to learn and inform for next time that may come up.
Some things we explore while working together are:
Recognizing that food is just food. When we make it do the heavy lifting of providing joy and comfort it’s putting food in a place it doesn’t belong.
Food's job is to solve hunger. That’s all
We work together to create a life you can delight in, so food no longer has as much power over you.
If you’re feeling stuck and are convinced it’s too late to change, it’s time to prove to yourself what you’re capable of.
Be patient. This work takes practice, courage, and compassion.
You’ve got this!
Amy
