honour your hunger

Intuitive eating principle #2

For so long hunger was my enemy. I got used to blocking out the signals from my body, depriving it of the fuel and energy I needed to function. My lil diet culture tricks included masking hunger with herbal teas, copious amounts of water, black coffee, chewing gum and mints. I was ignoring signals from my body that I was STARVING. I was trying to maintain a calorie deficit that was less than the daily energy intake requirement for a toddler (!!!), and which only maintained the minimal basal metabolic rate for basic bodily functions (!!!). While I was busy shrinking myself, I was missing out on a rich, full life. I was constantly HANGRY (sorry friends, family, co-workers etc), exhausted, low and irritable. I would be woken in the middle of the night by hunger PAINS, and still I ignored these important messages from my body. All the while I was constantly occupied and obsessed with food!

I wasn’t able to see that nourishing and fueling my body would allow me to live a rich, full life.

With time, knowledge and healing I became more attuned and in touch with my body and its signals. I began to fuel and nourish my body with adequate energy and nutrition. In doing so, I was fueling my soul and able to show up in life as a better friend, sister, partner and colleague.

“Diet culture paints hunger as an enemy or symptom to overcome. In reality, hunger is your body’s way of communicating a basic need of survival.”

How to honour your hunger:

-Be kind to yourself. Honouring your hunger and fueling yourself embodies self-care

-Befriend your body, embrace your body, your intuition and become aware of your internal needs, wants and desires

-Notice your physical sensations of hunger. We become so accustomed to ignoring hunger signals! It can take practice and time to notice how hunger shows up in our physical body.

-Rate your hunger on a scale from 1-10 (0=ravenous, 10=stuffed).

-Become attuned with what YOU really WANT to eat.

-How does hunger affect your mood, energy and ability to focus?

-Allow the time to priortise eating, often we let our busy life get in the way of fueling our body.

-Ensure you fuel your body according to your day’s activities, with adequate energy and carbohydrates.

-Your hunger will ebb and flow, that’s ok. Every day will be different, if you feel hungrier and desire more fuel, embrace those needs.

-Let go of ‘food rules’ that determine what times/places you eat. If you are hungry after 8pm, you are allowed to listen to your body and eat!

Be non-judgmental and curious. Learn that you can trust your body. I understand the fear of weight gain all too well. However, it is essential to understand that honouring your hunger is important for your health, it ensures you are getting adequate energy intake, regulates mood and focus, reduces binges, food obsession and overeating.

Once again, be kind to yourself throughout this process of embracing intuitive eating.

M x