Mocktail Minutes

How to Feel your Hunger

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Confused on how to understand your hunger vs fullness cues? Tune in to start understanding what your body is telling you. 

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Baylee:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Minutes. This is Bailey

Brianna:

And this is Brianna.

Baylee:

this week I am drinking a poppy. We have the cola today.

Brianna:

Nice. I hope I ever had that one. I'm doing that. Tigga Tigga, whatever, little fiber powdered fruit thing. I put a little bit extra salt and then did it coconut water. So it has like over a thousand milligrams of coconut.

Baylee:

Oh, nice.

Brianna:

Pretty good. But I have to add salt'cause it is, they don't taste very much like anything,

Baylee:

Mm-hmm.

Brianna:

but it's nice. It's a hint. I'm getting fiber. I need.

Baylee:

Today, we had an episode requested last week, so we moved this episode up on the deck, we are talking about how to feel your fullness. We often talk about like understanding your body's cues, what your body's telling you. So this is one of the those things that we're going to help you understand your body more, get in tune with it more. So first thing, understanding your hunger and stay tidy. Number one, there are different types of hunger, physical hunger, emotional hunger, and we do have an episode we did a while ago on emotional hunger. you are scroll quite a few ways back, but we do have one. But physical hunger is your biological need for fuel. It's gonna come on gradually. You feel it in your body, like your stomach starts growling, you have low energy, maybe you get a little shaky, maybe you can't concentrate like any food sounds appealing. And then it's, it's gonna kind of stop. Once you stop eating, stop. Well, not one. Once you're full, not when you stop eating

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

emotional hunger, then that's gonna be more psychological or even situational. This it like comes on very suddenly and it's often a craving for a specific food. Like I got off a phone call, I'm super anxious. I need a chocolate chip cookie. I had a crazy day at work. I'm gonna come home, eat a bowl of ice cream. That's. More situational. Something led to that. It's very specific. It's usually tied to more boredom, stress, or even habits like watching tv. Josh is notorious for this. Like if we watch tv, he's like, I gotta have chips. annoying thing to eat while you're watching tv. But it can be a very habit based thing of like, I need to do this while I'm doing this other thing because I'm just used to it. This is the one that often leads to more guilt, I would say, afterwards because it's like, oh man, I shouldn't have done that. Like I'm working on weight loss. I feel like crap now usually you're gonna feel worse. I would say eating after emotional hunger than after like physical hunger, because like you weren't truly hungry, you were just trying to satisfy, craving, maybe.

Brianna:

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point because it's one of those things where it's like, oh, I didn't, I don't think I really needed that, but I did it. The important thing is to know, like how to feel your hunger and satiety, and I feel like this is the, the one thing a lot of people struggle with and maybe don't even realize they struggle. So like stopping, pausing, and like tuning into your body. So before eating, take like a 10 to 32nd check-in and like, where do I feel hunger, like stomach, head, mood, and then kind of using like the hunger scale. And I always tell people like, if you are feeling Ravis, like you are overly hungry. And a lot of times people think, oh, you're not hungry until you feel that. But a lot of times there's a lot more things leading up to it. Like Bailey said, you start to feel tired. Maybe you can't concentrate, you're lethargic. Maybe you're feeling like you need caffeine. If you're feeling truly like, I'm hungry, I'm feeling it. Like stomach kings, you're overly. Hungry. So the goal is to eat before then, because if not, you will overeat. And we've talked about that like with our like hunger and fullness hormones, like how they kind of work with meal timing. So it can be helpful if you're kind of tuning in before you get to that point. And then just seeing like, how hungry am I? And then you kind of set yourself up for mindfulness too, because if you are going into it really hungry, you kind of like take a beat and you're like, okay. It might take me a little longer to feel full, so I'm gonna be really mindful when I eat. I'm gonna slow down. So aiming to eat when you're at a three or four. So maybe we'll put like a hunger scale on the notes, but this is where you're like almost neutral, like you're hungry, but you're comfortable, hungry, neutral, and then you're stopping when you are at a six or seven on the hunger scale. So this is slightly above neutral and kind of like satisfied, like. I

Baylee:

I would say,

Brianna:

Like I feel like I can eat more. Maybe you want to eat more'cause it tastes good, but kind of not stopping when you're full.'cause if you stop when you're full, you will be overly full in 15 minutes.

Baylee:

Yeah, like that satisfied feeling. You're just, you're comfortable, like you're not having to unbutton your pants, you're not feeling heaviness, you're not super bloated. You don't have that regret type of thing. It's like, oh, okay.

Brianna:

Mm-hmm.

Baylee:

I could stop eating and I'm gonna be okay. Where when you should start eating. That's where we often, like you said, we wait till we're starving. And I find this, especially with. People who are like working full time or if you're running around the kids, honestly it's your mind is preoccupied in other areas. So it's like we don't even recognize these hunger signals or we ignore them to the point of, oh my gosh, I got a headache. I'm feeling dizzy. So when you eat at this three, this is when your stomach is kind of feeling. You're starting to think about food. Your body is like ready to eat, and maybe it's like a slight hollowness, or just like food just sounds appealing. That's kind of a good indicator of three or four. It's just like a gentle emptiness, a mild energy dip type of thing. It's not necessarily growling yet, but you're gonna be like happy to eat, so you don't have to.

Brianna:

feel good Yeah,

Baylee:

Yeah.

Brianna:

and it's, again, this is so easy to do if you're pretty good about meal timing, because if you're going way too long between eating or you're someone who's grazing all day, it's really hard to tap into like. Am I a neutral hungry? Am I a neutral fool? Like, so kind of starting there. And then I would say trying to be mindful, like when you're eating, so like not having distractions. So if you are scrolling on your phone or watching TV or whatever, you're not really paying attention to your portions. You're not really paying attention to how you feel like you'll just eat until you're like, you look down and it's not there anymore type thing. So trying to really be mindful of like. Okay. Like, am I getting full? Am I feeling more satisfied? Is that kind of like hunger going away? That can help, but like slowing down, it gives your brain time to register fullness. And again, it usually takes 15 to 20 minutes. So I'm always telling people, stop again. That's satisfied. Like, okay, like. I don't feel a really fool, but I'm also not feeling that hungry anymore. Wait 15 or 20 minutes, because that's when it's really gonna set in. If you're still hungry after that 20 minutes. Okay, cool. Like have a little bit more. But most people will be like, oh wow. Like, oh yeah, I got full. It's like, well, thank goodness you didn't wait. To stop eating until you felt really full, because you would've felt horrible. And then noticing like early signs of hunger, that would be like your stomach is starting to feel a little bit heavier, food becomes a little less interesting or a little less tasty. You catch yourself kind of slowing down and eating slower. And then there's just a sense of, you know, I could stop here and feel good. You have to kind of really tap into like how you've been around food your whole life. Like if you're someone who feels like you need to clear your plate, or someone who's like, I need to get my money's worth. Or someone that's like, I don't like to take home leftovers. This might be harder for you to be like, I could stop here. So sometimes you have to figure that out. But really if you were just like taking all that off the table feeling like I would be fine if I stopped eating right now, that's when you should stop eating.

Baylee:

Yeah, you, you just want to keep yourself in this good area of, you know, I like, you know how after I, I always think about Thanksgiving when we talk about these fullness and satiety because it's always the gobble to you wobble type of mentality. If you are having trouble moving and you're feeling like lethargic after a meal, that's a great time. You overate. So you want to be able to just like continue going about your day. A meal should not bog you down for the next hour or so, and. With all this practice is going to help your progress. Reconnecting these cues takes time and consistency. So just start with like, do a mindful check-in per day, like before and after meal. Just kind of sit with yourself. It could honestly help you just kind of slow down with your meals and think about, okay, like how hungry am I right now? How full am I? Like what is my body telling me? You can maybe like a little journal of just like, here's what I ate, here's how I felt. Like, don't make it weird. Just do a check-in, be mindful about what's going on, and then normalize things like, it's okay to overeat. It's also okay to undereat. It's all part of learning and understand you're not gonna perfect it. Even if I would say you're tracking your calories and you have these specific goals, you're reaching, you're like, man, I, I underrate this, or man, I overate this. It's not like you just suck. It's just part of the process of learning. Because if you're undereating breakfast every day and then every night you're like, man, I still have 200 calories I need to eat and 20 grams of protein, and whatever it is. Well now you know, okay, it's tomorrow. I'm gonna add 10 grams of protein to breakfast. I'm gonna start there, see how that feels. So it's all about just collecting data. Learning and adjusting, and it really does matter because ignoring your hunger cues too long. And I would say so many people we work with have been in this boat or like they ignored'em just'cause they got busy. They ignored'em because they've been tracking calories for a long time and that's not what the program told'em to. I looked at one of these new apps the other day. See what it was all about and I put in all my information to get my calorie recommendations. It told me 1500 calories.

Brianna:

I love it.

Baylee:

I don't think so. I've been eating 1900 for, I mean, at least a year now. I would say pretty consistently. I'm always around 1900. I did like 2100 for a little bit. Uh, it was a little bit higher when I was pregnant, obviously. So I've been there and I've been able to lose the pregnancy weight. Get my fat mass down. Get my muscle mass up. I'm like, I feel like 1900 is more my jam.

Brianna:

You're also probably not like thinking about food all day. You're just like, eh,

Baylee:

Yeah.

Brianna:

I like what doing. I'll just stay.

Baylee:

Uh, yeah. But ignoring these cues too long can be the reason you're overeating later can lead to blood sugar crashes, leads to more cravings, leads to more binges, leads to even hormonal imbalance, especially for women. And especially if you're undereating, I'd say fat. Or carbs. I mean, fat hormones. Carbs are gonna affect your meta, well, your metabolism, but really your thyroid. You need to make sure you get enough. So tuning in allows you to create balanced energy, it improves your metabolic health, and it creates more of those long-term eating habits because you're not feeling crappy all day long. You're like, oh, actually feels good.

Brianna:

Yeah, and it is a lot of the people that we work with. Yes, this is them, because I think we're kind of taught like. Appetite is bad. Like curb your appetite, like appetite suppressant. But your body really is the perfect like calorie and portion calculator. If you are giving it balanced meals at appropriate times, you can start to listen to those things'cause your body knows what you need. And I think that is why I do like tracking, like kind of like how did you feel before this meal? How did you feel after? Would like, did you go into it super hungry? Did you feel like you needed a roll out of the restaurant after, right. Because that tells you a lot more than just, did I track correctly today or did I stay under a certain number? So if you have spent years skipping meals or you just, I don't feel hungry.'cause I hear this so often, almost 10 out of 10 times that someone tells me I just don't eat breakfast.'cause they don't feel hungry. They feel like they are ridiculously hungry at night and they just can't get full. So this is where it's like, okay, maybe you're not having those number normal hunger cues, but this is where you kind of go off a different part of the hunger scale, right? Because odds are at some point in the morning or late morning, you felt lethargic or like you couldn't concentrate or you had a headache or you felt really irritable or overwhelmed, or, okay, that's your body saying it's hungry. You just don't feel that physical hunger like. We gotta do some intentional eating and start small, but eventually eating at specific times, your body likes it and you get very used to this is an appropriate amount, this is not, and then you're starting to have portion control based off of how you feel. Because if you stop eating your meal because you're like, I feel good, I just don't wanna feel horrible in an hour, that's a lot more motivating than, oh, I shouldn't be eating this. I can't have this at all. Right? Like it's just this whole mindset thing around it. But I think we were very scared to listen to hunger and fullness. Mostly hunger. I don't think anyone's scared to listen to fullness. I think they just don't know how to listen to fullness.

Baylee:

Yeah, I would agree. I think, yeah, hunger has been demonized. We're taught that having appetite is bad. I mean, that's why you label something as an appetite suppressant again, gonna fly off the shelf like, oh, appetite's bad food is bad. No food is great. Fruit

Brianna:

food is your best appetite suppressant.

Baylee:

Yes,

Brianna:

What a concept.

Baylee:

yes. And. If you're like, man, I just don't feel hungry. Like you've, I've seen many people in this boat because honestly, this can be due to chronic stress over caffeinating, undereating, eating too little for too long medications, and a lot of times stress, caffeine, undereating, all three of them are happening. So if this is you. Really work to remove those distractions, like slow down at your meals, be present with your meal add structure to your day, but make it flexible. Like give yourself that schedule. Give yourself a timeframe to eat. Set up your meals. You might have to eat a little bit off the schedule for a little bit, not for the rest of your life because we're trying to train your body to expect food again.

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

And then I would say movement. Movement can help stimulate your appetite and digestion. So a lot of times I have people who are chronically stressed, over caffeinated, under eating are also overworking. So if you're overworking, you're sitting at a desk all day, you're not moving very much either move your body, you have time, you might think you don't. You have time, I promise.

Brianna:

Yeah, and what I find with those people is they're going too long without eating because they are stressed so they don't feel hungry. So then by the time they do go to their meal and they're having a little bit more of that emotional eating and stress eating and then they are overeating and then they go back to work, don't move stress, digestion slows. It feels horrible. They need an afternoon nap and they, this is where they start craving stuff later'cause they didn't utilize those nutrients very well. And then nine o'clock rolls around and they are eating sweets, you know, and then. Almost across the board. Everyone's like, I suck. I'm like, well, do you, or could you set up yourself a little bit better? Because like this is really what's happening behind the scenes.

Baylee:

And if you have been tracking, and maybe that's why you're under eating because it also gave you too low of a intake,

Brianna:

Yes.

Baylee:

Maybe take a break from tracking. Kind of get reconnected to your body again, really enjoy food again, shift from that external control to internal awareness and trust and.

Brianna:

Yep. Yep. If you can learn to eat at appropriate times before you're overly hungry and stop at an appropriate amount before you're overly full, that is gonna help so much with metabolic health and weight maintenance for your entire life. Like. That is it. Like that is such a key, but you have to know how to tune into that. And a lot of times there I have to tell people like, we can't track anymore because it's inhibiting you from being able to tune into that. Like either you're trying to, you're undereating'cause you're tracking your calories or maybe you're overeating.'cause you're trying to hit your macros. And I'm like, we gotta, we gotta take a step back. So if you're one of those people, I would say, like Bailey said, just take it off. Take it off. Your plate right now, no pun intended. And just focus on consistent meal times, trying to be mindful, eat slow, eat balanced. Stop when you feel okay, and then see what happens.

Baylee:

And this is why all this is so individualized and why we have our jobs is because

Brianna:

Wow.

Baylee:

not so black and white. If everyone needs to do this, it's very personalized and to what are your goals? Who are you as a person? What's your lifestyle? What's your mental capacity right now? And that's all things that we kind of take in consideration when you work with us. So I would say gentle reintroduction framework. Think of three meals a day. Snacks are optional if you need them, check in with yourself before and after eating and create awareness. Don't be perfect here. Just create awareness you'll

Brianna:

Yep, that's We sound very simple.

Baylee:

Yes,

Brianna:

That's it. Which it should be eventually, but if you are one of those people who feels like, where do we even start? That's, I would encourage you to work with somebody like us or another dietician.'cause it's very difficult to learn this on your own if you don't know what you're doing.

Baylee:

absolutely.

Brianna:

But yeah.

Baylee:

Well, everyone have a great rest of your week and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. And if you also have a topic that you would like us to cover, feel free just to send us the dm. We're, we're trying to get better about the mocktail minutes account, so we'll do better about checking that. If we don't hear from us within like 24 hours. Just message one of us personally, we're always on our own too.

Brianna:

Yeah, yeah. But we will, we'll get it up there. If there's something you request, we'll put it out.

Baylee:

All right. Bye everyone.

People on this episode

Contributor

Baylee

Host
Contributor

Brianna

Host