We eat for a lot of reasons - hunger, sadness, happiness, boredom...some reasons are of course healthier than others. Some days I just feel like I am drawn to the pantry like a moth to a flame. Boredom. For me, it's boredom. I eat when I have nothing else to do. I'm not hungry, it's just mindless eating. A granola bar here. A yogurt cup there. A cookie, a couple crackers, hummus, M&Ms...the list goes on and on.
As a general rule, you should only eat when you are hungry - legitimately hungry. Ask yourself on a scale of 1-10 how hungry you are, with 10 being absolutely ravenous. If you are a 7 or above, you should eat. But only until you reach the "not hungry anymore" feeling.
What happens when you eat when you are not really hungry? Well, your body doesn't know when to signal when you are full, until you are kind of that "sick" full. You know the kind. Like after you just ate a whole bag of cookies. Or ate a whole basket of tortilla chips, drank a margarita and then ate a plate of Mexican full. That kind of full.
So, because you aren't officially hungry, that mechanism doesn't kick in. Nothing tells you to stop, so you keep eating and eating. And then, you realize that you've eaten over 1,000 calories in ten minutes flat.
So, my advice is to apply the "hunger scale" each time you eat. Just because it is mealtime or snacktime, doesn't mean that you have to eat. Eat only when you are truly hungry.
Now, ask yourself, are you really hungry?
1 comment:
The story of my snacking life! (Last Friday, I came home from work and ate an entire, unopened bag of Pirate's Booty. Not hungry, just eating just because.) This is super helpful - thanks!
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