0:00

This episode of Food Psych is brought to you by

0:02

my intuitive eating Fundamentals online

0:04

course. If you're ready to break free

0:06

from diet culture and reclaim the life it's

0:08

stole from you. Learn more and sign up

0:10

at christy harrison dot com slash course.

0:13

That's christy harrison dot com slash

0:15

course. Welcome to Food

0:17

Psych, a podcast dedicated to critiquing

0:20

diet and wellness culture, and answering

0:22

your questions about intuitive eating and

0:24

the anti diet approach. I'm

0:26

your host, Christie Harrison, and I'm a registered

0:28

dietician, certified intuitive eating

0:30

counselor, journalist and author of the

0:32

book's Anti Diet, which is available now,

0:35

and The Wellness Trap which will be out in

0:37

early twenty twenty three. And by

0:39

the way, on this show, I avoid saying

0:41

diet culture stuff like weight and calorie

0:43

numbers, but we don't censor swear

0:46

words or adult language, so listener

0:48

discretion is advised. Hey

1:15

there. Welcome to Food Psych. I'm

1:17

your host, Christy Harris, and today I'm

1:19

gonna be answering a listener question about

1:22

how to recognize hunger and not

1:24

just plow through your day without eating enough

1:26

and ending up in an unintentional strict

1:29

rebound cycle. I know a lot

1:31

of people struggle with this in the process of

1:33

relearning intuitive eating, so this

1:35

is an important topic for anyone working

1:37

to make peace with food. Before

1:39

I get into it though, just a quick announcement.

1:42

This episode of Food Psych is brought to you by my

1:44

intuitive eating fundamentals online course,

1:47

which is a three month immersion and intuitive

1:49

eating with dozens of hours of content

1:51

helping you learn this anti diet approach,

1:54

troubleshoot common sticking points, and

1:56

get to a place of greater peace with food.

1:59

It also has a huge library of q and

2:01

a's from me and my team to help answer

2:03

all the frequently and not so frequently

2:05

asked questions that come up when you're

2:07

learning or relearning intuitive eating.

2:09

If you're ready to break free from diet culture and

2:11

reclaim your right to a peaceful, easy relationship

2:14

with food, Learn more and sign up at

2:16

christy harrison dot com slash course.

2:19

That's christy harrison dot com slash

2:21

course. This episode is

2:23

also brought to you by my second book The

2:25

Wellness Trap. Break free from diet

2:27

culture, disinformation, and dubious

2:29

diagnoses and find your true well-being,

2:32

which is available for pre order now.

2:35

The book explores the connections between

2:37

diet culture and wellness culture, how

2:39

the wellness space became a hotbed of

2:41

scams, misinformation, and conspiracy

2:44

theories. Why many popular

2:46

alternative and integrative medicine diagnoses

2:49

are misleading and harmful and

2:51

deeply entangled with disordered eating.

2:54

How wellness culture targets vulnerable

2:56

people and ignores social determinants of

2:58

health and what we can do instead to

3:00

promote true well-being at the individual

3:03

and collective levels. Just

3:05

go to christy harrison dot com slash the

3:07

wellness trap to learn more and preorder

3:09

the book for its April twenty fifth release.

3:12

That's christy harrison dot com slash the

3:14

wellness trap. Now without

3:16

further ado, let's get into this week's

3:18

question. It's from a listener named

3:20

Devin who writes, hi, Christy.

3:22

I have a long history of trying to manage

3:24

my eating. Including a brief stint

3:26

of attempting quote unquote intuitive eating,

3:29

but really seeing it as the hunger and fullness

3:31

diet. With the start of the COVID-nineteen

3:34

pandemic, I was forced to let go of

3:36

a lot of my previous disordered food

3:38

habits. I began taking this

3:40

as an opportunity to build healthier practices

3:43

Fairly early into it, I came across your

3:45

podcast and began learning about real

3:47

intuitive eating. I've been

3:49

slowly but surely learning to accept my

3:51

body, surrender my fear of weight

3:53

gain and truly give myself permission

3:55

to eat whatever I want for whatever reason.

3:58

And it started helping I can feel myself

4:01

becoming less obsessive about food.

4:03

But I've recently encountered an issue that I

4:05

don't really know how to address. Being

4:07

less obsessive about food to where I'm no

4:10

longer constantly thinking about it, yay

4:12

has led me to sometimes not end up eating

4:14

much if anything. Until well past

4:17

when I would usually have lunch. Then

4:19

when I become hungry to the point of my body

4:21

grabbing my attention and yelling, hey,

4:23

feed me, I end up eating a lot

4:26

in the evening and at night because my body

4:28

is understandably trying to make up for

4:30

the food I didn't give it earlier. I'm

4:32

having trouble figuring out how to work through this

4:34

in a way that isn't super reminiscent of

4:37

a diet mentality I. E. Choosing

4:39

a behavior with specific goal of stopping

4:41

myself from overeating later. And

4:43

also don't impose rules that aren't based

4:45

on honoring my body and its signals. I

4:48

always eat lunch by this time regardless of

4:50

how you feel. I think the real issue

4:52

is that I have trouble hearing my body signals

4:55

until it's practically yelling at me.

4:57

And without the routines I used to have,

5:00

like eating lunch with my coworkers and

5:02

no constant obsessive thoughts of food,

5:04

I actually need to hear my body when it tells

5:06

me to eat. After trying to learn

5:08

to ignore my body signals or make them

5:10

go away for so long, how

5:12

do I even start to do that? Thanks

5:15

so much for your podcast and everything you do.

5:17

I can't even express how much it is helping

5:19

me to overcome a struggle I thought I

5:21

would never be free from. So

5:24

thanks Devin for that great question and

5:26

your kind words. Before I answer,

5:28

I'll just give my standard disclaimer that these

5:30

answers and this podcast in general

5:32

are for informational and educational purposes

5:34

only, aren't a substitute for individual

5:37

medical or mental health advice, and

5:39

don't constitute a provider patient relationship.

5:42

Also, this is just my take as one dietitian

5:44

and journalist, and I hope you'll seek out

5:46

other perspectives and listen to your own

5:48

inner wisdom as well. So

5:51

first of all, I'm so glad you've started making

5:53

peace with your body and giving yourself

5:55

full unconditional permission to eat.

5:57

And it's awesome that you're seeing the benefits

5:59

of that in now feeling less food obsessed.

6:03

I also totally get how it can feel tricky

6:05

to navigate this new issue of being

6:08

so free from thoughts of food that

6:10

you don't end up feeling hunger until it's raging.

6:13

I think there are couple of potential ways out of

6:15

this pattern. The first is to

6:17

reframe this, not as an issue

6:19

of diet mentality or rigid rules

6:22

but rather as an issue of self care.

6:24

As I like to say, a truly peaceful

6:27

and health promoting relationship with food,

6:29

is one that's based on self care and

6:31

not self control. And

6:33

so treating this as a matter of self care

6:36

really means thinking about the fact that

6:38

when you're plowing past lunch without

6:40

eating enough food, you're actually

6:42

depriving your body and your brain of the

6:44

energy they need. To feel

6:46

sustained and at peace and

6:48

even keel. So by not

6:51

eating enough throughout the day, it's like

6:53

that you're inadvertently causing yourself to

6:55

feel more agitated, more volatile,

6:57

more tired, you know, have

6:59

all these symptoms that you otherwise wouldn't

7:01

have if you were eating an So

7:04

really it would be good self care to

7:06

eat enough so that you avoid those, you

7:08

know, unpleasant feelings. Right?

7:10

And the eventual quote unquote overeating

7:12

episodes really aren't things you need

7:15

to control. They're just signals

7:17

that you've missed some important moments of self

7:19

care throughout the day. It's

7:21

not about demonizing quote unquote

7:23

overeating and I use that in

7:25

quotes because I really prefer to call it like

7:27

makeup eating since you're making up

7:30

for earlier deprivation. So it's not

7:32

about that. It's about taking care of yourself

7:34

and your needs in the moment. Another

7:37

related thing that I think will really help

7:39

here is learning to recognize

7:41

the subtle signs of hunger. Many

7:44

people think hunger is just a feeling of

7:46

emptiness or growling in the stomach.

7:48

And I used to think that too in my dieting

7:50

days. But in reality, a

7:52

feeling of emptiness or growling in the stomach

7:55

is actually a relatively late stage

7:57

of hunger for most of us. Hunger

7:59

has lots of subtler manifestations that

8:02

have nothing to do with those more Overt

8:05

stomach based cues. And so

8:07

here are a couple of things to consider. A

8:09

few of those subtle non

8:11

stomach signs of hunger. Thinking

8:14

about food or planning your next meal is big

8:16

one. That is something that Devon, it

8:18

sounds like you don't have at this moment. But

8:21

fatigue losing focus,

8:23

increased awareness of food, and

8:25

interest in food related stimuli around

8:27

you. So being attentive to

8:30

smells or sights or sounds of people

8:32

eating. Again, that's probably not something that

8:34

you're experiencing a lot of if you're still working from

8:36

home right now. But could be

8:38

that maybe it's a food related ad that

8:40

pops up on your social media feed

8:42

or news article you're reading. Simply

8:45

having the sense that you want to eat

8:47

is another non stomach

8:49

sign of hunger, difficulty making

8:52

decisions, feeling irritable

8:54

or annoyed, anxiety, or

8:56

restlessness, salivating

8:58

is an interesting one that some people have told me

9:00

about. And many others that people

9:03

find are maybe individual cues for them.

9:05

So would invite you to consider what

9:07

non stomach signs of hunger you notice for

9:09

yourself. And of course, experiences

9:12

like anxiety or feeling irritable

9:15

can have causes unrelated to

9:17

hunger. They're not necessarily just signs of

9:19

hunger. But you might try observing

9:21

and experimenting to figure that out.

9:24

So do you tend to get anxious

9:26

or restless, let's say, a few hours

9:28

after breakfast? And if you eat a meal

9:30

or snack at that point, do you start to feel better?

9:33

If so, it's likely that anxiety

9:36

or restlessness are one of your

9:38

body's ways of expressing hunger. Hungry

9:41

also has some more extreme manifestations like

9:43

feeling sick having headache,

9:46

nausea, shakiness, annoying

9:49

emptiness in the stomach or other digestive

9:51

symptoms, And those are

9:54

often signs that you've gone way too long without

9:56

eating, and you probably missed some

9:58

of those important hunger signals, those

10:00

subtler signs of hunger along the way.

10:03

So Devin, you might experience some

10:05

of those kind of feeling sick symptoms

10:07

or that, you know, shakiness, nausea,

10:10

headache kind of stuff if you're going

10:12

really long stretches of time without eating.

10:15

So it's helpful to aim to eat at

10:17

subtler signs of hunger, rather

10:19

than waiting until you get to those extremes. And

10:22

interestingly, that holds true for people

10:24

throughout the lifespan. Like, I've learned

10:26

in my recent infant feeding adventures

10:28

that for babies crying actually

10:31

signifies a very high level of hunger.

10:33

And it's better to feed them when they're exhibiting

10:35

earlier hunkered cues like putting

10:37

their hands to their mouths and smacking their lips

10:40

and stuff like that. So kind of being attentive

10:42

to those subtler signs of hunger is

10:45

really important for avoiding a meltdown in

10:47

a baby as well. One

10:49

thing that might help is setting a

10:51

bunch of reminders on your phone 278 check-in

10:53

with yourself throughout the day and

10:55

just, you know, do that every couple of hours

10:57

in order to start tuning into those

10:59

signals more in the moment. You

11:01

might not be ready for a meal or snack at every

11:04

single one of those points when your reminder goes

11:06

off, but just the act of taking

11:08

a little pause and checking in can

11:10

help you start to be more attuned to how you're

11:12

feeling. And so whenever one

11:14

of those reminders goes off, see

11:16

if you can identify any of those subtle

11:18

signs of hunger that are present for you. Just do

11:20

a little mini body scan and

11:23

see if you can notice any fatigue,

11:25

any listlessness, or restlessness,

11:27

irritability, anxiety, feelings

11:30

of sadness, things like that, or any individual

11:33

cues that you find are relevant

11:35

to you. And of course, learning

11:37

to tune back into those subtle signals of

11:39

hunger can take some trial and error,

11:41

can take some practice, especially when

11:43

you've tried to ignore or trick your body's

11:45

hunger signals for such a long time as you

11:47

did. But with enough

11:49

practice and with self compassion

11:52

and persistence, you can get

11:54

back to eating in a way that sustains you throughout

11:56

the day without having to impose

11:58

rules on yourself or given

12:01

278 diet culture demon is of quote unquote

12:03

overeating. So thanks

12:05

again to Devin for that great question. And

12:08

if you want to submit your own question for chance

12:10

to have it answered either here or

12:12

In my newsletter, Food Psych weekly, you

12:14

can go to christy harrison dot com slash

12:17

questions. That's christy harrison

12:19

dot com slash questions. And

12:21

then if you're hearing this episode when it airs

12:23

and you wanna ask me all your burning questions

12:26

about intuitive eating for the next

12:28

three months or so, plus get support

12:30

from a great community of people. Come

12:32

join my online course intuitive eating

12:34

fundamentals. The course closes

12:37

for enrollment on June twenty fourth So

12:39

now is a great time to sign up if you wanna

12:41

take advantage of the q and a's and

12:43

the forum because all of that stuff is

12:46

not gonna be there the next time I reopen

12:48

the course. The course also has thirteen

12:50

modules of audio and written content, teaching

12:52

you the ins and outs of intuitive eating.

12:55

Plus, there's a library of dozens of

12:57

past q and a's that I've done with hundreds

12:59

of answers to questions that'll be yours

13:02

no matter when you sign up. If

13:04

you're ready to break free from diet culture and

13:06

make peace with food, You can learn more

13:08

and sign up for the course at christy harrison

13:10

dot com slash course. That's

13:12

christy harrison dot com slash course.

13:16

If you found this podcast helpful, I would

13:18

be so grateful if you'd take a moment to

13:20

subscribe, rate, and review it

13:22

on Apple podcasts or wherever you

13:24

listen to podcasts. You can see

13:26

all the places to subscribe at christy harrison

13:29

dot comsubscribe. That's

13:31

christy harrison dot comsubscribe. To

13:35

get full show notes and a transcript of

13:37

this episode, go to christy harrison

13:39

dot com slash two seventy eight.

13:41

That's christy harrison dot com slash 278.

13:44

And to get the transcript, just scroll down to

13:46

the bottom of the page and enter your email address.

13:49

This episode was brought to you by my first book,

13:51

Anti Diet, Reclaim your time,

13:54

money, well-being, and happiness through intuitive

13:56

eating. Which is available wherever books

13:58

are sold. Just go to christy harrison

14:00

dot com slash book to order it now.

14:03

That's christy harrison dot com slash

14:05

book. Big thanks,

14:07

as always, to our editor and sound engineer,

14:10

Mike Leland, community and content

14:12

associate, Vinci Tway, and administrative

14:14

assistant, Julian Wojtaszek, for helping

14:17

me out with all the moving parts that go