March is National Nutrition Month and this year the American Dietetic Association (ADA) motto is to “Eat Right.” While this advice is admirable, many of us know how to eat right—that doesn’t mean we do it. So to celebrate NNM I decided to print an excerpt titled “Am I hungry” from my book. I hope you enjoy it and please send me feedback on your eating dilemmas and “ah ha” moments—I love to hear from you!
“Mindful eating has to do with honoring your hunger and fullness. It’s being able to eat the foods you love without binging and feeling guilty. It’s the way you were born eating.
Think about it. When do babies eat? When they’re hungry, right? Have you ever seen a baby that decides not to eat because mom’s too busy at the moment? Does a baby eat out of boredom, sadness, or anger? No! Healthy babies eat when they’re hungry.
What about the other side – when do babies stop eating? They stop when they are satisfied. And despite all attempts to have them “finish their plate” – or jar, or breast – they will have no part of it. When they’re done, they’re done. This is common sense, but you have probably noticed that it is not common practice.
Do you eat when you’re bored, tired, sad, mad, or for any reason other than physical hunger? Do you ignore your hunger because you’re too busy? Do you keep eating because it tastes so good, or because you “deserve it?”
Notice that these motivations to eat have to do with your thoughts and feelings at the moment, not with physical hunger. It’s these thoughts and feelings that can and often do lead to the behavior of eating, regardless of physical hunger. Weight-loss diets work to control our eating behaviors. The problem frequently is that a dieter is eventually bound to fail if she hasn’t addressed the real issues, those emotions. It’s the emotions that lead to the eating behaviors that cause problems, not hunger.
The problem with eating when we’re bored, tired, sad, mad, or for any other non-hunger reason, is that eating doesn’t solve our problem. On top of that, we then have the extreme displeasure of the guilt we call onto ourselves for eating too much. Talk about a double whammy!
The million dollar question for you to learn to ask yourself is: “Am I hungry?” If the answer is yes, then great, it’s time to eat. But what if the answer is no? It’s at this point we need to figure out what’s really going on, what we’re feeling, and what we really need. Once you’ve identified the underlying thought or feeling that exists, you can address the real issue and determine what you need.”
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I can hardly believe that I’m 25% through my graduate program at Fuller Seminary. When I began this six-year, one-class-at-a-time program the end seemed so far in the future.