Day 6: Do you know when you're hungry
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Today’s task in 31 Days to a Better Diet is centred around controlling hunger and the portions you eat. If you’re following this group of posts, they’re marked by the picture on the left.
Maybe your stomach rumbles. Maybe you get light-headed or really tired. Or is it that everyone around you suddenly starts annoying you?
Whatever the signs, do you know when you’re hungry? Because it’s surprising how many people don’t.
Do you have time for hunger?
Most people work in offices. The day is pretty structured. You have breakfast at home and pick up a coffee on the way to work. Lunch is at midday, you then have some biscuits from the kitchen in the afternoon while you’re bored. Travel home and dinner is ASAP. Sometimes there’s no time to actually get hungry.
Many people also mistake other signs for hunger. Being dehydrated, tired or bored are all common signs and feelings which can be mistaken for hunger.
Why you need to know your hunger signs
And if you don’t know what hunger is like for you, then it’s a problem
- Firstly if you mistake other signs, like dehydration and boredom for hunger, it’s more likely you’ll over-eat – because you’ll be eating when you don’t need to.
- If you miss the signs of hunger and leave it too long between meals, you’ll be more tired than you need to.
- If you let yourself go too long without food, you’re more likely to over-eat at the next meal.
Part of creating a greater awareness around food and what you eat is knowing when you’re hungry.
Today’s task
So today’s task in 31 Days to a Better Diet is to find out when you’re hungry:
- Spend a few minutes writing down what you think are your hunger signs.
- During the rest of the day monitor yourself. Each time you think of food, or prepare a meal ask yourself am I hungry?
- If you’re not sure, have a glass of water or wait 10 minutes. Does this alter how you feel?
- Don’t change what you’re eating, simply check-in with yourself several times and see if you can spot when you’re hungry.
- In the evening review your day. Did you feel hungry?
What are your hunger signs?
Scales photograph by Benjamin Earwicker.
06 August, 2008
Comments
i think this is my biggest problem.
I get what my husnabd calls ‘the hangrys’. If I am hungry I get very angry, snappish, lose concentration and it is all bad.
On the other hand i think about food a lot. Too much. So yes, I sometimes eat when i am not hungry. just becaseu i want to. I am not sure how to stop this.
The comfort eating from “stress” in our lives in another biggie too. People often reach for the comfort of food even though they are not hungry.
This has especially become a problem for me since I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Due to my medication regime of multiple daily insulin injections I had to make sure that I was eating at regular intervals, otherwise I could risk getting low and even falling into a coma! I am now on an insulin pump, which gives me more freedom with my meal times, but now I am just so used to eating when I ‘should’ be that I don’t recognise the hunger symptoms any more.
The only hunger sign that I actualy pick up is when I have left it way too long between meals and I get a splitting headache… or start getting dizzy because my blood sugar is going too low!
I have so much trouble with this. I constantly mistake dehydration with hunger. Or, I’m just so busy I forget to eat when I’m hungry…
How did everyone go with monitoring their hunger signs? I now I have several stages, depending on how hungry I am. The first sign is the classic one – rumbling and gurgling in the abdomen. However if I ignore this or can’t eat, then I become vague and spaced out.
I really try not to let myself get this far, because at this point I find it virtually impossible to decide what to eat. And then the next stage is me getting super-angry. So Ran, I can relate to your “hangrys”.
As you can see, I have stages of hunger. And by trying to tune into them, I’ve learnt I can ignore the rumblings for about 30 minutes. But beyond that I’m into vague, which quickly develops into angry.
To me it’s not really recognising when I am hungry, it is more recognising when I am full! I used to eat to the level of uncomfortably full and have started the practice of strick portion control and also stopping before I think I am full.
It’s not that easy to do, but an ongoing process.
With real hunger I know there are about three ways that my body tells me I am hungry; the growls, pang in my stomach and the salivation factor when thinking about the food I am going to have. It’s just difficult to not fall into the trap of eating because it’s a habit or for emotional reasons.
I have the same signs as most of you: the first sign is usually either a rumbling tummy (often quite noisy) or sudden, overwhelming cravings for something sweet or junk food. The cravings usually go away as soon as I eat something healthy. If I ignore my hunger and try to go without food for too long (for example, if I´m trying to lose weight) I always end up, sooner or later, overeating or even bingeing. Sometimes, though, I do need to eat when I´m not hungry, because I have to fit my food around my exercise schedule (I´m a dancer) as I can´t eat during or immediately before dancing but also find it hard to dance when I´m starving – more because I lose mental concentration than physical strength. What is more problematic is when I am bored, or ill, and could just nibble all day. For those times, I leave set minimum times between eating – three hours for a meal, one and a half to two hours for a light, small snack, which helps to keep things under control.
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