What does your body tell you?

[SunsetRunner]

Everyone's unique, the body naturally gives signals when needing more nourishment & tells when having enough.

It does this very cleverly by suddenly starting to think about food more, what should be eating next.. or when listening to, noticing still feeling comfortably satisfied (not stuffed).. if there's a craving, but knowing feeling completely satisfied, it could be out of habit instead (feel free to wait for a while & see if the craving passes & noticing not really needed it yet).. 'specially if just eaten a epic meal 'till had enough..

When eating, don't deny any foods, allow to have anything desired (this prevents binge eating), be aware about.. possible eating less since eating what you'd like to have (or possible what your body whispers it wants..)..

When always eating at scheduled times, starting possible when being a kid, even when not hungry, needing to eat, needing to finish the plate even when having enough with less, or possible could skip the dinner and have at a later time since the body not needing more in the moment..

Re-trusting the bodies natural signals telling needing nourishment & saying 'we're fine now'.. and not forcing to have more if it doesn't ask for more can be tricky, but it's worth it in the longer run.

Changing food habits is the key, as trying to see in the moment when eating how your body feels.. if not so hungry.. could take less.. skip a meal (have a healthy snack at bay if hunger comes), see how it goes..

Eating is a pleasure, to nourish the body when hungry or eat something just to enjoy once in a while even if not really hungry yet. It's possible to log foods & see habits, to change where needed..

This can save eating less calories & see how it goes (if seeing eaten enough, with a few hundreds calories possible left to eat).. but feeling needing to force feed instead.. try honoring your precious body (it know's hopefully the best)..

There are hunger scales on the internet which can be used as guidance (can be printed to check before eating, how you are feeling: am I eating out of habit, have enough but could eat a bit more?..

What is my dear body asking for? Not so hungry and having a piece or few pieces of fruit will do, or does it not look appealing to have in the moment and wanting something else instead (in which quantity?)..

Search: Hunger Scale

Your precious body internal wisdom with noticing how feeling before / after / during eating.. (combined with logging foods if desired).. but not eating more if having no more appetite.. possible to get to the leaner you faster..

Over time, your body can adapt and only ask for more nourishment if really needing (since honoring having more if its asking for more), because ignoring false cravings if still feeling fine & not hungry yet or not feeling up eating yet..

Always eat the foods you

Enjoy

[Ukase]

My body tells me that if I were to adhere to "When eating, don't deny any foods, allow to have anything desired (this prevents binge eating), be aware about.. possible eating less since eating what you'd like to have (or possible what your body whispers it wants..)..", I would likely be about 425 pounds. 

How do I know this? I did the math. To eat what I want when I want to, I asked myself what my metabolism would have to be to allow that and not gain weight. Nutella and Peanut Butter have a lot of fat and sugar in them - I literally would have to pack on about 285 pounds of muscle to raise my metabolism high enough to handle those foods in the amount I want. 

 Most people are so accustomed to eating at certain times - they do so out of habit, not hunger. Look at our children. They wake up, we feed them breakfast. The schools tell them to break for lunch. Think they don't eat if they're not hungry? At least 95% of them will eat, hungry or not. This socialization process our government set up so many years ago has set the stage for filtering out anything our bodies tell us. 

I've read that many of us confuse thirst with hunger. I've had a dry throat before, but I have never, ever recognized any feeling of thirst. I feel hungry, usually an hour after I eat, regardless of what I've just eaten. 

In short - I do agree to a point - our bodies may indeed be telling us something - but until my body says, "Eat X amount of ___________________", there is little I can do other than log the food and make sure I don't exceed what my metabolism can handle, while trying to keep the macro and micro nutrients in high enough quantity. 

I absolutely cannot eat the foods I love. Ice cream, peanut butter, Nutella, pizza, french fries, pancakes with a boat load of syrup and nutella and peanut butter, Reese cups, chips and salsa - these are the foods my body wants to eat pretty much every day, all day. I have never, ever not wanted chocolate in very large quantities. 

I learned though - that I *could* have one Reese's cup or two - but only once every couple of weeks. I could have a beer or two, but probably only every month or so. Restricting myself to one or two of these things - it's just plain torture. I'm better off never having one. Because one or two every so often is not nearly enough.  None of the foods on my "want" list, aside from Peanut Butter have any worthy nutritional value. And there are better sources of protein than Peanut Butter. (almond butter for example - but even better would be a cup of black beans with 3/4 cup of brown rice.) 

In other words - I have no idea how to decipher anything my body tells me, other than:

1. Feed me more
2. I have to use the toilet.
3. I am sleepy
4. This feels bad.
5. This feels good.
6. I would entertain the thought of physical intimacy with that woman 
7. This is mentally dull
8. This is physically taxing
9. I need more air
10. This air smells unpleasant. 

That's about it. Until research catches up - the rest is just supposition by folks with the acronyms after their names. To be honest, scientists, nutritionists and doctors and such - they only definitively know one thing. Energy in must be less than energy out to lose weight. How to measure that energy - they're guessing. A good guess - but it's still a guess.