Hunger and fullness: June 2007 Archives

You're learning normal eating, which means you're learning to find your hunger and fullness signals. You're also learning more about your emotional eating. That's good.

As you venture down this road, you'll discover new sights and sounds. Nuances. Observations. Details.

Here's a detail: Is there a difference between everyday meals and special meals? I say yes.

Let's reason together on this. Food always has been, and likely always will be, a big part of culture and tradition. One of the many unfortunate side effects of diets is they take all the fun out of the culture. Let's put it back! Let's have special meals again.

Special meals include holidays, family events, a trip to a restaurant, and more. How do normal eaters handle special meals?

You know that waiting until you're hungry to eat is about finding the sweet spot, when you're good and hungry, but not starving and cranky. But the truth is that the sweet spot is a range.

If you're still new to finding your hunger signals, you might not be aware of the range yet. And you might not want to toy with getting overly hungry. So it's best to eat when you first become aware of hunger, especially if you're still prone to overeating when too hungry.

But if you're getting used to finding hunger and fullness, you might consider that you're ready to wait a little longer when it comes to a special meal.

Why do this? Special meals often offer foods you normally don't get to eat. You might like to "save up" your hunger, so that you can pack a little more in. After all, it's a celebration, right?

No one ever said you have to eat the same number of calories at every meal, every day, day in and day out. If you believe you must, it's a lie sold to you courtesy of the diet industry.

I know what you're thinking. "Is Linda saying it's okay to pig out at a restaurant?" Well, of course not. Do you think it makes sense to make your stomach hurt?

But as you become accustomed to food tasting better when you're good and hungry, you'll start to like finding hunger, and you'll especially like finding the hungriest end of your range when you're headed for a special meal. The rewards of doing so:

1. You'll be able to eat a little more, which is nice when you're in a venue with unusual foods.

2. You'll enjoy the hunger while anticipating the meal.

3. Getting especially hungry will help assign high value to the upcoming event.

4. The food will taste so good that it will be memorable. Food memories are part of culture too.

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