Are you the sort of person to eat when you start to feel hungry, or when the clock says it’s time to eat? Or maybe the day feels long, and you find yourself grabbing snacks mindlessly throughout the day.
Whatever it may be, it’s important to ask yourself some questions before you eat to make sure you finish the meal feeling satisfied and full. Yes, they are different things. You can be full from a meal but if it wasn’t something you enjoyed having, chances are you would grab something to satisfy yourself without thinking. That’s called mindless eating. Another reason you may engage in this sort of action is a way to cope with difficult situations. When you experience stress or feel tired especially after a prolonged period, your body craves dopamine to feel good, and we can often get that feeling from eating something we like and find comfort in.
The trick to ensuring that you eat what you should and when you need it is having mindfulness. So, the first question to ask yourself is probably obvious but not something we often think about. Ask yourself: “Am I hungry?”.
Feeling hunger is a human response to giving your body the energy it needs to function, however in today’s world, we often lose this ability from a young age because of external cues that tell us when to eat to fit our schedule. For any of us working, I think we can all agree that we have our lunch not when we are hungry, but when the clock strikes 12pm. It’s important to notice the signs that you need some food to keep functioning at your best:
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Are you thinking about food?
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Are you starting to feel sluggish, and less focused compared to when you first started your day?
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You notice your tummy starting to growl
Once you recognize the signs of true hunger, you’ll understand how to feed your body when it needs so that you give yourself the energy to function at your best for the whole day. Some people work best with 3 big main meals a day, whilst others like to have a 5-6 smaller meals and snacks across the day. They both work. You just need to figure out what works best for you and your body.
The other question to ask yourself is: “How will eating this make me feel?”
Like I mentioned at the start, the goal of each meal and snack is two things – to make you feel satisfied and comfortably full. This requires you to understand how different foods make you feel. For example, if you notice that eating fried food or refined carbohydrates like white rice, or desserts satisfies your taste buds but makes you feel sleepy and unproductive after the meal, it is probably wise to consider if those are the best choices to have.
Start paying attention to the foods that make you feel good and give you energy and reach for these foods or have them at arm’s length whenever you need something to eat so that you can keep your environment conducive to your nutrition goals.
Another important consideration is finding out if you are eating to fill an emotional need. This sort of links to both questions – are you hungry, or are you restless? Will eating this make the distressing feeling go away, or delay it? Comfort foods are a great way to feel better about our situation, but allowing this to be a prolonged strategy will interfere with reaching your overall health goals. If you find that you are using food as a strategy to “numb” certain emotions, it may be a good idea to be aware of this and seek other strategies to improve your mental health.
So, before your next meal or snack, ask yourself just these 2 questions to be more in touch with your body and its hunger cues, so that you feel consistently energized each day to achieve your health goals.