Full and then hungry again

As intuitive eaters, we strive to find our hunger and fullness signals. There is no better way to achieve this rhythm for life than intuitively.

But is it so black and white as hungry vs. full? Not really. It's just slightly more shades of gray than that.

Has this happened to you? You just finished a tasty sandwich, and you even felt good about putting down the sandwich unfinished. "Full," you declare, contentedly.

Then, twenty minutes later, you start thinking of the fudge in the fridge that your kids made the other day. Yum. You start feeling hungry again. Is that really hunger?

Sure it is. You weren't hungry for sandwich anymore. Now you're hungry for fudge.

Hunger is something we chase around until it's truly satisfied. That's why the greater powers of the universe invented dessert. It's okay to feel full of sandwich, but to find a little room for a brownie.

In fact, it can be even more shades of gray still. You might be full of sandwich, but not full of potato salad. It's a good idea to try testing each bite as you eat, and decide, bite by bite, which morsel you'd like next. Some folks will take nicely to this. Others like to eat the whole pile of potatoes first, then the whole slice of meatloaf. To each his own.

What's important is that if you focus in on what you really crave, bite by bite, not just meal by meal, you'll achieve satisfaction at the soonest possible point because every bite was "just right."

At first, you might feel hungry, then full, then hungry. You'll learn that it's normal to chase hunger around until it's truly satisfied. You might even top off that cube of fudge with a clementine. No guilt.

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