Today’s post is on the second principle of intuitive eating: Honor Your Hunger.
“Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust in yourself and in food.”
(From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)
Hunger is a new concept for me since starting Trikafta. When I was at my sickest, my appetite was the first thing to go and I often had to gag down food just to nourish myself. My mom often joked that I ate like a bird, always leaving behind food on my plate.
With Trikafta, that all changed, and I was left with an insatiable hunger that I was not used to. As I began to restrict my food intake to try to lose weight, this hunger became even more ravenous.
Often times, my hunger was so insatiable that I abandoned my food rules and ate whatever I could by the afternoon. I couldn’t trust myself around sweets and bags of chips because I was so hungry I would eat the whole thing. And it’s no wonder! I wasn’t eating enough so of course I was hungry.
Intuitive eating has taught me to pay attention to my hunger cues. This means that I eat whenever I’m hungry. Right now that means having a protein shake and a big breakfast after working out. It means having a 4th meal between lunch and dinner to ensure I don’t get too hungry. Sometimes it means going for seconds or dessert if I find I’m still hungry after eating a meal.
It has also taught me what satisfies my hunger and what doesn’t. I know that I need a mix of carbs, protein, and fat with my meals to satiate my hunger, plus some nutrient dense fruits or vegetables to fill me up. That means I make sure to have some rice or potatoes with every meal. It means I don’t just have an English muffin for breakfast, I’ll supplement it with some eggs, Greek yogurt, chicken sausage, or bacon. I’ll be sure to have some blueberries with yogurt and muesli or a vegetable and ham omelette.
For snacks, it means I’ll sometimes eat a piece of chicken and an apple in addition to my favorite potato chips. If I choose to have pasta for dinner, I know I need some meatballs or ground turkey and some chopped carrots and celery in the sauce so that I won’t be hungry later.
It also means paying attention to when I’m not hungry but I maybe have “taste hunger,” and want to eat something for the pure pleasure of it. After dinner, I love having something sweet. So I may not be physically hungry but I know having a brownie will satisfy my sweet tooth. Because I’m not ravenous, I often might have a smaller piece to get the taste without filling me up to discomfort. While actively engulfed in diet culture, that piece would turn into 4 or 5 pieces because I was so ravenous!
Honoring my hunger also means proactively eating so that I won’t get hungry later. Sometimes I won’t be physically hungry for lunch but I know that if I don’t eat during a break between meetings, I’ll get too hungry during my afternoon meetings and will suffer the consequences. It’s important not to turn intuitive eating into diet rules about when you can and cannot eat.
This principle partners nicely with the 6th Principle Feel Your Fullness, which I’ll expand more on when we get to it!
It has been so great to not feel HANGRY all the time since discovering intuitive eating. My body feels fueled especially after running and I’m at so much peace compared to the restriction I was used to before! I’m happy to answer any questions you might have, and I also encourage you to read Intuitive Eating for a how to guide of how to get started
