Have you ever heard your stomach growl and said, ‘it’s not lunch time yet, I need to wait until 12.30pm at least?’. To honour your hunger is the 2nd principle of intuitive eating, and here are 6 key points to remember when applying this principle.
- The power of hunger is so primal, so much so that we need to think of it as just as important as breathing.
- Our body is incredible, it has mechanisms both biologically and psychologically to get us to eat if we’re not eating enough.
- We can never outthink our biology, if your stomach is growling and you don’t eat because it’s not the right time, then you’re listening to your mind and not your body.
- If you ignore your hunger, you can find yourself in a state or severe hunger, which can lead to eating anything that’s in sight and missing your fullness cues. This can make us feel guilty and frustrated and that we can’t be trusted around food, but this is a NATURAL consequence of primal hunger.
- Your level of hunger depends on many things…
- How much you ate at your last meal or snack
- How long ago it was
- How active you have been since
- It’s very common, after long term dieting, for hunger cues to disappear, because they have been ignored for so long. Don’t worry, they will come back once you start teaching your body that food is no longer limited.
Click out my blog “Intuitive Eating and all-inclusive holidays – how does that work?” to see an example of a worksheet I use with clients to help them to connect and respond to their hunger and fullness cues.
Hope this helps!
Áine x
