Yesterday was a hungry day.
One of those days where you’re starving from the second you wake up and then find yourself hungry every couple of hours no matter how many nutrient-dense-supposedly-filling foods you put into your mouth.
This weekend was crazy busy with a friend in town where we walked all over the city, stayed out late all weekend and then I spent Sunday studying [aka cramming] for a med/surg exam, was up till 1am and then woke up at 6am to finish studying before my exam at 9am. On Monday, I had class till 3, a follow up session with a Nutshell client at 4:30 and then made dinner at 6pm and was in my bed at 7pm and asleep by 8. Guys, I’m so sorry for leaving you hanging on Monday. All that to say…life has been super messy, yet a good messy, and I think yesterday’s hunger beast was my body’s attempt to pick up the pieces.
But it reminded me of so many conversations I’ve had with clients about letting go of the ‘eating timeline’ that so often controls our eating habits. If the body is hungry, as in true physical hunger, who are we to decide that, “Oh, I’ll just ignore that since it’s not my normal hunger..”
After going to bed at 8pm on Monday night, I was up at 5:15 yesterday morning so I could finish up assignments that didn’t get done Monday night and also have a long quiet time before a client at 8am. I woke up starving so while I sipped coffee I also drank a green smoothie. Do I usually drink green smoothies at 5:45am? No, but the worst thing I could do for myself was suppress my appetite with more coffee. Coffee is not food and drinking in hopes of putting off breakfast wreaks havoc on your hormones.
WIAW breakfast #2 was right before my 8am client, blueberry + pumpkin buckwheat pancakes with sliced banana and sunbutter. Typically, this holds me over for almost 4 hours, but not yesterday.
Most of the time, lunch comes anywhere between noon and 2pm just depending on the day. Yesterday though, I was hungry at 10:30am so right after our group presentation I ate lunch at like 10:45 because a snack was not going to cut it. Spinach salad with roasted carrots in coconut oil, green beans and bell pepper + nutritional yeast along with black bean chips, an apple and two peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from the freezer.
But if I were to adhere to my ‘normal’ eating timeline, that means I would have ignored my hunger, caused a stress response by not eating and therefore cortisol would have been released due to me not feeding my body. And cortisol is not a good thing. It causes all kinds of metabolic effects.
Just like calories are not a bank account, our appetites do not follow an itinerary. We assume that if we ignore our hunger because it’s “too early to eat” or “it’s only been an hour or two since lunch” or whatever other arbitrary rule we’ve come up with, then we are doing ourselves and our bodies’ a favor. That we are being healthy. But ignoring hunger is the antithesis of healthy.
Of course, choosing more nutritious foods when your appetite is raging is a good thing. They fill us up and keep us satiated. But sometimes, a green smoothie + hearty buckwheat pancakes just isn’t enough to carry you to your normal lunch time. After eating lunch before 11am though, I found I was full until almost 3pm and at that point was only hungry enough for a smaller snack. Almonds + cucumbers and hummus. And a couple hours later after a 3 mile run, I ate a hearty pumpkin oatmeal cookie + a banana with peanut butter.
And after a few pieces of chocolately freezer fudge and the other half of post-run banana with PB, I was ready for bed by 9pm because I promised myself to get a solid 8 hours of sleep every night this week.
Life is messy sometimes and our appetites and hunger don’t follow a consistent rhythm and routine. The beauty of the human body is that it waxes and wanes depending on so many factors, it’s not an exact science in the least. And the best thing we can do for ourselves when it comes to hunger is let go of rules and routines and expectations and keep food simple. If you’re hungry, you should eat. Because life is too short to feel voluntarily hungry.
Hi,
How do you feel about recommending clients to eat breakfast? I have so many who don’t and I really think it’s beneficial, but I also teach that they should eat when they are hungry, not on a schedule. I feel like I contradict myself when I tell them this and they say they aren’t hungry at breakfast time.
Hi Bre! Before you can implement IE principles like honoring hunger – the body has to be receiving regular hunger signals. The first thing I work on clients with is simply getting their nutrition needs met which means getting in enough energy, the macronutrients into all meals (C,P,F) and snacks through out the day so they are eating every 3-4 hours. Shortly there after they will notice their hunger cues regulating. Hope that helps!
I just found your blog today and have been binge reading all morning – love it! I definitely fall victim to “scheduled eating times,” but it’s the opposite I have a problem with: even when I’m not hungry, I feel the need to at least eat something if it’s a standard “meal time.” So if it’s 8pm and I haven’t eaten dinner because I wasn’t hungry, I feel the need to eat a small portion of dinner since I didn’t eat it earlier. Do you have any tips to cope with that?
Hi Maddie! Glad you are enjoying! Intuitive Eating is bridging head knowledge with body knowledge – so if it’s been longer than 4 hours without food, your head knowledge comes in to allow you to nourish yourself. It’s a process and there is much more to it, but there’s a start 🙂
Hi Robyn,
For a long time I’ve thought I’ve had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with food — not because I don’t eat well, but because I do. I meet my sleep needs, I eat whole foods without restricting myself, I exercise to my needs. From what I’ve read on your website, I’ve been playing to an IE lifestyle without ever knowing what it was. Despite that, I also get anxious if I’m going somewhere I can’t guarantee will have food accessible, and tend to organise leaving my house around how hungry I can estimate I’ll be in the amount of time I’ll be gone.
I regularly get ravenously hungry, even though I eat well. I saw a good nutritionist because it sure *felt* like there was something wrong with me, and because I was so anxious about having food available. Reading this blog is the first time I’ve seen someone else acknowledge that that kind of hunger over the course of the day is perfectly ordinary. Even though I key closely to how my body feels and respond to it, it seems my mental state has been lagging behind — somewhere in there, I’ve still been assuming there are certain Rules to how bodies work that make my experiences anomalous.
Thank you for this post. I’ve been looking for ’causes’ behind my intense and frequent hunger for years. Now I’m thinking the antagonism I thought was about food is about old software in my brain’s system, and the solution is working to uninstall it for good.
The mental work is hard! Thank you for sharing so honestly. There is nothing wrong with your body. Rooting for you as you continue this journey!!
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