How to know if you are hungry or full?

Many are triggered to overeat for the Holidays and that time is coming. Too much food around, too much social pressure, or it is simply just delicious and you want it all.

In our daily lives stress play into our ability to know if we are hungry or not. Step 1 in the online program is about how to find a rhythm in our lives and learning about how stress affects us.

The bacteria in our gut affects our hunger too. Step 3 teaches how to balance the gut flora, so that you can have a more direct relationship with your feelings of hunger, and false hunger.

How to get mindful

It is not easy to learn mindful eating, because our thoughts wander off all the time. It is a bit like training a puppy. Keep bringing it back to where it started. It easily gets lost. Your thoughts are the same way so just practice with a smile, the same way you would with a puppy.

Keep bringing your attention back to the table. Keep coming back to eating. Keep coming back to being right there.

1. Looking at your food is helpful.
2. Sitting down to eat.
3. Don’t watch TV or work on the computer.
4. Eating from a plate not a carton.
5. Having gratitude for the meal. This also means considering those who were part of getting the meal onto your plate. From the farmer to the cook, even if the cook is you.
6. Say to yourself before you start that this will be really nourishing. Looking forward to eating helps to shift your mind onto the fact that you are going to be eating in this very moment.
7. Chewing, tasting, looking at your food is all part of mindful eating.
8. Keep your thoughts in check. Make sure you notice the food but avoid judging it and you for eating it.
9. Pausing and slowing down by putting the fork down between bites.

Levels of hunger and fullness

When you can be mindful to what you are eating, you can also start noticing your levels of satiation and fullness to get more in touch with your hunger, your meals and your needs.

• Slightly hungry (you probably have about 1 hour before hunger really hits)
• Hungry (time to eat)
• Ravenous (you waited too long and your are probably willing to eat anything right now)

Eating

• No longer hungry (you are just a few more bites from being satisfied)
• Satisfied (you could stop here and be perfectly fine)
• Full (not another bite – eating no more is essential to having energy after a meal instead of ending up on the couch)
• Stuffed (sorry, you are going to have to just deal with this for a bit until you feel ok to move and think again)

Consider getting ready for the Holiday with a subscription to the online program. Lot’s of tips, lot’s of things to learn, habits to shift, and recipes to make.