It's not just traditional hunger and fullness anymore...

[Guest guest]

Previously, I mentioned that I feel like I've begun to experience an

intuitive sense about eating...I just " know " when I'm hungry now.

It's like all of the practice I've done around sensing my hunger

signals and my emotional states has helped me develop a

larger " sense " that includes both hunger signals and emotions. From

what I know about intuition that's what it represents...being able

to get an instant recognition of the " whole picture " so to speak.

Has anyone else noticed anything similar in their IE practice?

I've also discovered how there is so much gray area when working

with hunger and fullness. I am so grateful that I get the " knowing "

now and I can recognize true hunger signals. Yet, there are so many

levels between true hunger and fullness where it's possible too eat

because fullness/satisfaction does not make eating revolting.

Waiting for the knowing, which includes true hunger signals seems to

be the only way to make a gray situation black or white (Am I

hungry? Yes or No).

One essential understanding that I've accomplished around eating has

been dealing with my conditioned notions about what a meal " should "

be (residual thoughts from the 3 meal a day and maybe a snack

paradigm). I'm still working out my new definition...and basically

where I am is that a meal is any eating experience that's

enough...that leaves me " satisfied " or responds to my hunger signals.

I've been experimenting with eating breakfast this week, since my

new schedule has me in training when I get my morning hunger

signals. My morning hunger signals are coming later because I

switched my daily walk to after work and I'm getting less morning

movement. Instead of forcing myself to eat " breakfast " before work,

I decided to wait for true hunger and eat a granola bar, or some

carrot sticks, etc. When I was planning the granola bar as an option

to respond to my hunger at " breakfast " , the conversation on calories

came up in my head...maybe a granola bar isn't enough

(calories)/it's not substantial enough for " breakfast " . Then, I

realized that I can eat again when my hunger returns.

It's interesting how Katcha mentioned how hungry may hurt for alot

of people due to diets...I had never thought about that. It's okay

to get hungry again because I'll make sure to have or get access to

food to respond to my hunger! So, in my new breakfast paradigm , I

don't get " full " in the traditional sense. I RELAX about

food/eating, let go of external dictates like calories

and " shoulds " , and I feel hunger and the granola bar is

enough...then hunger returns and the carrot sticks are enough...then

hunger returns and a bowl of soup is enough...etc. I like the

experience of being full and the IE fullness principle is also about

what is " enough " for me in the moment.

There's also a sense of concern when I respond to my morning hunger

with only a granola bar...my hunger signals go away and I don't know

when they are coming back! What if I'm offered a Krispy Kreme donut

an hour later? In this gray area of no hunger signals and no

fullness signals...I have a choice to make. Optimally, I'd like to

wait for my true hunger knowing and I know that sometimes I'm going

to eat that Krispy Kreme donut and deal with the

consequences...hopefully mindfully.

Latoya:)

Practicing IE Since Jan '08