Hunger and Binging

Good morning! Staying on the topic of cravings, today we will discuss HUNGER and BINGING.

Sometimes cravings come in the form of extreme hunger. You don’t know what you’re hungry for; you just know that you’re starving. Most people avoid hunger at all costs, and many develop habits of overeating and/or constant eating just to avoid ever feeling hungry. When we habitually overeat, a high proportion of our available energy is always directed towards digestion. If we eat when we are not hungry, we compromise our digestion of the food. You may want to consider the idea, that it’s okay to be hungry now and then. I’m not talking about starving, but try it as an experiment to see how it (hunger) feels. It’s not going to kill you, and it may make life more interesting.

On the other hand, many people today try to go hungry all day, ignoring the body’s cravings for food. This habit creates a backlash, which I refer to as “binge eaters”. In an attempt to lose weight, these people skip breakfast, go off to work, maybe grab a mid-morning cup of coffee to keep going, and then settle on a salad for lunch. Somehow they make it through the afternoon, but by the time they get home in the evening they discover that they are ravenous. The hectic activity of the workday may have distracted them from urgent messages coming from their stomachs, but as they slow down they realize how hungry they really are. Then they overeat heavy foods at dinner, until they feel stuffed and uncomfortable. The next morning they start the cycle over again, not eating breakfast because they feel full from last night’s binge, which is still undigested.

I do not believe in trying to override natural instincts. Of course, it helps to have discipline around food, but trying to control the body by using the mind is very challenging in the long term For one thing, the head often makes mistakes. Our bodies don’t really care what our heads think. Our bodies are built to survive and thrive.

Learning to listen to your body is essential. The longer you ignore your body’s messages, the more extreme the backlash. Just as a crying child will use increasingly extreme measures to get attention, the body will heighten your cravings and create disease if you don’t listen to it.

Stay Nourished,

~Coach Stephanie