As you know, nutritionist Lisa Maffucci has written a five part series on the benefits of engaging your brain in your weight loss efforts. Last week, in part one she suggested you change the way you think about diets. Here's Installment two.
Suggestion 2: Learn to recognize hunger and satiety.
Research shows that people who lose weight by following diets almost always regain the weight. That is because they are eating (or not eating) according to someone else's directions. They are not eating in response to their internal hunger cues and they are not stopping because they have had enough.
Do you remember when you were a child? And you had to be bribed - usually with dessert- to finish what was on your plate? Do you remember saying "But I'm not hungry!" (How long has it been since you said that?)
Today, we eat for every reason other than physical hunger. We eat when we're stressed, tired, sad, angry, lonely, tired, and happy. We eat when we're with friends. We eat to celebrate. We eat when we're bored. We eat because food smells good. We eat for reasons that have nothing to do with physical hunger. And when that happens, we are taking in calories that we don't physically need, and they are stored as fat.
So, commit to re-learning to recognize physical hunger (hint: it's in your stomach). Before you eat, practice rating your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is not hungry, 5 is hungry, and 10 is very hungry. Remember, this is based on how you feel physically, NOT on how much you want to eat. Learn to recognize the difference.
Next, learn to recognize satiety. This is the feeling of being satisfied without being stuffed. This is a comfortable feeling, not a need to unbutton the top button on your pants. To do this, stop eating when half of your food is still on your plate. Pay attention to how your stomach feels. Again, rate your satiety on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is still hungry, 5 is satisfied, 10 is over full. Practice stopping at 5. Remember, you can eat again when your hunger returns.
The object of this exercise is to separate physical hunger from emotional hunger. Eating for any other reason than physical hunger is emotional eating. This doesn't mean you can't eat socially or that you can never attend a dinner party again. It means that you learn to eat in response to your internal physical hunger, and not your emotions.
Look for part three next Monday!
