What do you think about being hungry? Do you hate it? Are you afraid of it?
Well, if you stay full all the time then you don’t have to feel hungry.
If you get extra full then you won’t have to feel hungry for even longer.
You stuff your body to avoid feeling hungry, but what’s so bad about feeling hungry?
What is it about hunger that causes you to want to eat all the time just so you don’t have to feel it?
Feeling hungry is a natural part of living and if you’re afraid of it, you’re going to find yourself constantly thinking about eating, since eating is the solution to not feeling hungry.
We have these ideas of what hunger does to us – it makes us feel bad physically and think obsessively about food. But here’s two things about those outcomes.
#1 If you’re feeling negatively physically when you experience hunger, it’s either because you’re allowing yourself to feel too hungry or you’re not eating foods that properly fuel your body.
When you eat foods like sugar and flour, the simple carbs, you get a spike of glucose in your blood which then results in a dip. That dip makes you feel more intense hunger, and sooner, than if you were to eat foods with fats, proteins, and complex carbs. Those ones take longer to digest and don’t give you that same spike and dip. It’s that dip that’s giving you a false sense of needing to eat more even though your body isn’t really needing more food.
Also, allowing yourself to feel too hungry is not a huge problem, but #2 here shows you how you make it into one.
#2. Obsessive thinking about food is not a result of hunger but how you’re choosing to perceive your hunger.
Unless you have some kind of medical issue, needing to eat is probably not as urgent as you may believe. Our bodies are designed to use its storage (fat and glycogen) for when it needs energy when you’re not eating. If you don’t eat right away, you’ll be fine, you have energy reserves.
Any fear you have comes from your thinking. You’re afraid of hunger because of how you think about it.
So what do you think about it? What are you afraid of?
Is it how you feel? What is it you’re feeling that you’re afraid of?
Is it how you’re thinking? What are you thinking about that causes fear?
Overcoming your fear of it is important, especially if it causes you to overeat and binge.
Discover for yourself why you’re afraid of it. Then you get to decide if those reasons are worthy of being afraid.
Hunger is just a signal that your body would like some fuel. Learn to experience it without making it a bigger deal than it is.
