“I’m so hungry!”
Am I?
Or could I be bored, stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, sad, lonely, or _________?
Did you know there are different kinds of hunger?
1. The traditional concept of hunger: when you haven't eaten in several hours, your stomach is starting to grumble and you're feeling those usual bodily sensations associated with hunger. Your body needs nutrients and tells you to feed it.
2. OR, we want to eat even when we don't need to, and the more often we eat highly palatable (combo of high sugar/fat) foods, the more our brains learn to expect and want them. You can call that hunger, but the reason for that "hungry" feeling appears to have much more to do with seeking pleasure or comfort than with needing nourishment.
It is helpful for us to learn the difference between the two because your hunger symptoms could be broken or turned off due to eating processed foods for so long.
Unfortunately, highly processed foods can turn off the hunger and satiety hormones (ghrelin & leptin) that God created us with, and it’s easy to confuse our pleasure/comfort seeking with actual physical hunger.
What do we do?
Start by eating 2-3 satiating low carb meals with lots of protein and healthy fats every day so you can rule out physical hunger.
Then, if it’s not mealtime and you want to eat, I encourage you to pause and think on what is triggering the hunger. Is it physical or emotional hunger?
Cravings are emotional hunger and they disguise themselves as a NEED, an urgent need! If you can’t get a craving out of your mind, it’s time to take back the ownership of your mind.
You can do this!
It’s not always easy but it is always possible.
You can direct your thoughts and overcome cravings.
Snacks are almost always emotional decisions.
If it’s not physical hunger:
Get busy: talk a quick walk, organize a drawer, do something different than what you are currently doing to “reset” your brain.
Tell yourself, NO. You’ve already eat a meal that nourished your body and it’s not time to eat yet so you don’t NEED food right now.
The good news is that over time, you can turn those hormones that tell you when you’re hungry or full back on.
Broken hunger signals will start working again when you heal your body from the damage of processed foods (sugar-starches-carbs-vegetable oils).
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Phil 4:8
I really appreciate this reminder on cravings.